![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hawkwing_lbI have learned a scary thing going through my notes just now. Despite the depths of my ignorance, which give me night terrors and cold sweats when I consider my exams (one half of my entire degree, peoples, and no do-overs this time)...
...I'm monumentally less ignorant now than I was at the beginning of the year. Which is clearly a good thing, but it giveth me the wibbles. Because, wow. The world is seriously full of things to learn.
Books 2009: 30-34
30. Mike Carey, Thicker Than Water.
The fourth Felix Castor novel, and possibly the best to date. A lot of what has been subtly set up in the previous books in terms of worldbuilding, and consequences, seems to be coming together here. Aside from that, the very tense, and rather stunning, main story, worked extremely well for me. Carey has a knack for fully realised characters in remarkably screwed-up circumstances and dealing with the fallout thereof.
31. Tamora Pierce, Bloodhound.
I love Pierce's books with an unrealistic love. Bloodhound, the second of the Beka Cooper books, in which Beka travels to Port Caynn to help bring down a counterfeiting ring, is classic Pierce. The diary/journal format in which the story is told works very well, and Beka's voice is very clear.
I like it.
32. David Weber, Storm from the Shadows.
Like many of Weber's recent offerings, not worth the price of the hardback. Blah blah exposition technobabble blah. The cast of characters is far too large for a coherent emotional arc, and while there are a very small handful of genuine character moments... well. I went back to reread Weber's earlier stuff, and wow, has he got worse.
non-fiction
33. Libby Peter, Rock Climbing: Essential Skills and Techniques.
The sub-heading says this is the official handbook of the Mountaineering Instructor and Single Pitch Award Schemes. It's a bit advanced for me, but there is a lot of good stuff on knots, anchors, and how best to place pro, as well as some tips on better climbing technique and a lot of stuff about different climbing environments.
34. B. Ankarloo and S. Clark (eds), Witchcraft and Magic in Europe Vol. 2: Ancient Greece and Rome, University of Philadelphia Press, Pennsylvania, 1999.
This book collects four essays. "Binding Spells: Curse Tablets and Voodoo Dolls in the Greek and Roman Worlds," by Daniel Ogden; "Witches and Sorcerers in Classical Literature," by Georg Luck; "Imagining Greek and Roman Magic," by Richard Gordon; and "The Demonisation of Magic and Sorcery in Late Antiquity: Christian Redefinitions of Pagan Religions," by Valerie Flint.
Ogden's work is solid, in terms of the physical evidence, and thought-provoking, in terms of the arguments he advances and the conclusions he draws. This is a very thorough overview of the available material, if nothing else, and a very good introduction to the topic.
Gordon is also solid, and offers a very clear overview of the types of literary topoi that crop up in terms of magic and the figure of the magic-user. He has an interesting discussion of the different ideas of different types of magic-user current in antiquity, and how they may have changed and evolved.
Late Antiquity is hardly a period I've looked at at all, so I've very little ground for assessing where Flint's even coming from. She advances very interesting and certainly plausible arguments, however, and does so in a very clear, readable fashion, so all in all, I think I'm in favour.
You will notice I've left Luck until last. Luck is infuriating, and nearly unreadable. His approach seems to me to be methodologically... questionable, since he lumps biblical literature in with the classical writings - and I have to tell you, the cultural context of the biblical writings is odd, uneven, and confusing, but I generally think until you get down to the late third and second centuries BCE, you really need to consider it as more closely connected to the Egyptian and the Near Eastern context than the Greek or Latin one, and even during the Hellenistic period, portions are at least as connected with the Near Eastern as the Greek context. And even when you get to the New Testament the concerns of the literature are really quite different to the majority of literature from elsewhere, so I kind of think you really need to be quite careful about how you go about making your comparisons.
But Luck annoys me. He makes assumptions and fails to question them. He makes assertions and does not back them up. All this aside from his style, which is... annoying. I do not give him high marks.
On the whole, however, and leaving Luck aside, Witchcraft and Magic Vol. 2 is quite the useful introduction to a broad topic, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend three of the four constituent essays.
...I'm monumentally less ignorant now than I was at the beginning of the year. Which is clearly a good thing, but it giveth me the wibbles. Because, wow. The world is seriously full of things to learn.
Books 2009: 30-34
30. Mike Carey, Thicker Than Water.
The fourth Felix Castor novel, and possibly the best to date. A lot of what has been subtly set up in the previous books in terms of worldbuilding, and consequences, seems to be coming together here. Aside from that, the very tense, and rather stunning, main story, worked extremely well for me. Carey has a knack for fully realised characters in remarkably screwed-up circumstances and dealing with the fallout thereof.
31. Tamora Pierce, Bloodhound.
I love Pierce's books with an unrealistic love. Bloodhound, the second of the Beka Cooper books, in which Beka travels to Port Caynn to help bring down a counterfeiting ring, is classic Pierce. The diary/journal format in which the story is told works very well, and Beka's voice is very clear.
I like it.
32. David Weber, Storm from the Shadows.
Like many of Weber's recent offerings, not worth the price of the hardback. Blah blah exposition technobabble blah. The cast of characters is far too large for a coherent emotional arc, and while there are a very small handful of genuine character moments... well. I went back to reread Weber's earlier stuff, and wow, has he got worse.
non-fiction
33. Libby Peter, Rock Climbing: Essential Skills and Techniques.
The sub-heading says this is the official handbook of the Mountaineering Instructor and Single Pitch Award Schemes. It's a bit advanced for me, but there is a lot of good stuff on knots, anchors, and how best to place pro, as well as some tips on better climbing technique and a lot of stuff about different climbing environments.
34. B. Ankarloo and S. Clark (eds), Witchcraft and Magic in Europe Vol. 2: Ancient Greece and Rome, University of Philadelphia Press, Pennsylvania, 1999.
This book collects four essays. "Binding Spells: Curse Tablets and Voodoo Dolls in the Greek and Roman Worlds," by Daniel Ogden; "Witches and Sorcerers in Classical Literature," by Georg Luck; "Imagining Greek and Roman Magic," by Richard Gordon; and "The Demonisation of Magic and Sorcery in Late Antiquity: Christian Redefinitions of Pagan Religions," by Valerie Flint.
Ogden's work is solid, in terms of the physical evidence, and thought-provoking, in terms of the arguments he advances and the conclusions he draws. This is a very thorough overview of the available material, if nothing else, and a very good introduction to the topic.
Gordon is also solid, and offers a very clear overview of the types of literary topoi that crop up in terms of magic and the figure of the magic-user. He has an interesting discussion of the different ideas of different types of magic-user current in antiquity, and how they may have changed and evolved.
Late Antiquity is hardly a period I've looked at at all, so I've very little ground for assessing where Flint's even coming from. She advances very interesting and certainly plausible arguments, however, and does so in a very clear, readable fashion, so all in all, I think I'm in favour.
You will notice I've left Luck until last. Luck is infuriating, and nearly unreadable. His approach seems to me to be methodologically... questionable, since he lumps biblical literature in with the classical writings - and I have to tell you, the cultural context of the biblical writings is odd, uneven, and confusing, but I generally think until you get down to the late third and second centuries BCE, you really need to consider it as more closely connected to the Egyptian and the Near Eastern context than the Greek or Latin one, and even during the Hellenistic period, portions are at least as connected with the Near Eastern as the Greek context. And even when you get to the New Testament the concerns of the literature are really quite different to the majority of literature from elsewhere, so I kind of think you really need to be quite careful about how you go about making your comparisons.
But Luck annoys me. He makes assumptions and fails to question them. He makes assertions and does not back them up. All this aside from his style, which is... annoying. I do not give him high marks.
On the whole, however, and leaving Luck aside, Witchcraft and Magic Vol. 2 is quite the useful introduction to a broad topic, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend three of the four constituent essays.
