![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
changelingI enjoyed myself at the library yesterday, when I finally got there. On the way to the State Library, I stopped in at my local library, and my almost-local other branch of same. I picked up ten new books, which seems outrageous until you realise eight of those are comic books (three Planetarys, two Stormwatch, Orbiter, Warren Ellis & ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jacen's Deep Blue, From Hell). One of the remaining novels is a YA book, so that won't take me long to read either. So I really only have three solid books in there: two William Gibsons, and From Hell. It's nice to have some fiction to read, and since my council/local library doesn't seem to stock any of the non-fiction books I want to track down at the moment, I might as well catch up on some of the fiction books I've always wanted to read, but haven't been able to due to lack of funds to buys them, or motivation to track them down through the library system.
I'm reading my way through Planetary, and so far I've spotted analogues to the Fantastic Four, Death and Dream in their episode 8 Sandman "feeding the pigeons" schtick, Swamp Thing, someone who is simultaneously John Constantine and Spider Jerusalem, Dr Doom, Godzilla, Morpheus (from Those Movies), a silhouette I'm assuming is meant to be Superman, and a guy with a blue and gold uniform and gold goggles that I know I should recognise. A couple of the references are more subtle, but some of them have been so outrageous that I can hardly believe Ellis hasn't been sued yet.
Holy crap. I've just read on another few pages: definitely Superman (different character instance, though), the Green Lantern, Wonder Woman ... Ellis has no shame. He's a genius.
Anyway, I went to the State Library, and dipped into Burkert's Greek Religion, and also picked up Women's Religion in the Greco-Roman World, ed. Ross Shepard Kraemer, which I'd seen in my trip on Sunday. I skimmed through WRGRW for bits that interested me – there was much less than I expected. I thought it would be based in, well, Græco-Roman pagan religion, but about half the quotes are about Christianity. Perhaps it's not all that surprising, in retrospect. The editor has used what is extant. There was one text I was interested in: "Chloe and Daphnis worship the nymphs", from a romance called "Daphnis and Chloe", by Longus. Next time I'm going to the library, I'm going to go with money, so I can buy a photocopy card, I'm telling you. No more of this "writing out long quotes by hand" nonsense.
I struggled through the first bit of Burkert, on "Pre-Greek" religion (Minoans and someone else beginning with M. Mycenaeans?) before giving up and attempting a bit further in, and finding it a pretty easy read, actually. This reassured me. It meant that the problem was not with Burkert, or even a me–Burkert interface, but rather with the fact that what little I learnt about Pre-Greek (pre-Hellenic?) and Greek civilisation at uni has been forgotten, meaning I have no framework for the new information. I really do need to track down a good history of Greece, so I know which adjective/noun to use where (what's the geographical and historical definition of a Hellene? When is a person an Argive? An Achaean?) I read most of what Burkert noted about the Orphics, and even went to the Greek Literature section (800 something. 880, I think) to track down a copy of Euripides' Hippolytus to read the reference B made. I think I'm going to try to read more about the Orphics. I know the library has a copy of Burkert's Ancient Mystery Cults, so I'm going to properly look that over next time. There were also a few books on religious vegetarianism I want to look at again: Food for the Gods: Vegetarianism and the World's Religions (which only focuses on modern religions, alas, but still looks interesting), and Religious Vegetarianism: From Hesiod to the Dalai Lama, which the library also has, and which I've read the first few pages of. The latter also talks about a book "misleadingly called" The Philosophy of Vegetarianism, by Daniel Dombrowski, which is apparently a study of ancient vegetarianism. I've just looked it up on the State Library's online catalogue, and they have a copy. Woohoo! I love my SLV.
Anyway, as I was leaving, I saw a big perspex box on a pedestal, one like the museum used to have, where one could donate to the upkeep of the library. I sacrificed (you wouldn't say libated, would you? It's a non-liquid sacrifice) my last three coins to Thoth, Hermes and Orpheus (the Orphics were known by their love of scrolls=books). It made me happy.
I also checked out Reader's Feast, my favourite bookshop in the city. They have one of Burkert's books, but it's not one I'm currently interested in, and from memory they have one of Kerenyi's, who I haven't read, but have seen referenced. I may be able to get some interesting things there, and if I can't find everything I want, they're generally happy to order it in. Perhaps I might spend my $16 voucher that expires at the end of this month there ...
jacen's Deep Blue, From Hell). One of the remaining novels is a YA book, so that won't take me long to read either. So I really only have three solid books in there: two William Gibsons, and From Hell. It's nice to have some fiction to read, and since my council/local library doesn't seem to stock any of the non-fiction books I want to track down at the moment, I might as well catch up on some of the fiction books I've always wanted to read, but haven't been able to due to lack of funds to buys them, or motivation to track them down through the library system.I'm reading my way through Planetary, and so far I've spotted analogues to the Fantastic Four, Death and Dream in their episode 8 Sandman "feeding the pigeons" schtick, Swamp Thing, someone who is simultaneously John Constantine and Spider Jerusalem, Dr Doom, Godzilla, Morpheus (from Those Movies), a silhouette I'm assuming is meant to be Superman, and a guy with a blue and gold uniform and gold goggles that I know I should recognise. A couple of the references are more subtle, but some of them have been so outrageous that I can hardly believe Ellis hasn't been sued yet.
Holy crap. I've just read on another few pages: definitely Superman (different character instance, though), the Green Lantern, Wonder Woman ... Ellis has no shame. He's a genius.
Anyway, I went to the State Library, and dipped into Burkert's Greek Religion, and also picked up Women's Religion in the Greco-Roman World, ed. Ross Shepard Kraemer, which I'd seen in my trip on Sunday. I skimmed through WRGRW for bits that interested me – there was much less than I expected. I thought it would be based in, well, Græco-Roman pagan religion, but about half the quotes are about Christianity. Perhaps it's not all that surprising, in retrospect. The editor has used what is extant. There was one text I was interested in: "Chloe and Daphnis worship the nymphs", from a romance called "Daphnis and Chloe", by Longus. Next time I'm going to the library, I'm going to go with money, so I can buy a photocopy card, I'm telling you. No more of this "writing out long quotes by hand" nonsense.
I struggled through the first bit of Burkert, on "Pre-Greek" religion (Minoans and someone else beginning with M. Mycenaeans?) before giving up and attempting a bit further in, and finding it a pretty easy read, actually. This reassured me. It meant that the problem was not with Burkert, or even a me–Burkert interface, but rather with the fact that what little I learnt about Pre-Greek (pre-Hellenic?) and Greek civilisation at uni has been forgotten, meaning I have no framework for the new information. I really do need to track down a good history of Greece, so I know which adjective/noun to use where (what's the geographical and historical definition of a Hellene? When is a person an Argive? An Achaean?) I read most of what Burkert noted about the Orphics, and even went to the Greek Literature section (800 something. 880, I think) to track down a copy of Euripides' Hippolytus to read the reference B made. I think I'm going to try to read more about the Orphics. I know the library has a copy of Burkert's Ancient Mystery Cults, so I'm going to properly look that over next time. There were also a few books on religious vegetarianism I want to look at again: Food for the Gods: Vegetarianism and the World's Religions (which only focuses on modern religions, alas, but still looks interesting), and Religious Vegetarianism: From Hesiod to the Dalai Lama, which the library also has, and which I've read the first few pages of. The latter also talks about a book "misleadingly called" The Philosophy of Vegetarianism, by Daniel Dombrowski, which is apparently a study of ancient vegetarianism. I've just looked it up on the State Library's online catalogue, and they have a copy. Woohoo! I love my SLV.
Anyway, as I was leaving, I saw a big perspex box on a pedestal, one like the museum used to have, where one could donate to the upkeep of the library. I sacrificed (you wouldn't say libated, would you? It's a non-liquid sacrifice) my last three coins to Thoth, Hermes and Orpheus (the Orphics were known by their love of scrolls=books). It made me happy.
I also checked out Reader's Feast, my favourite bookshop in the city. They have one of Burkert's books, but it's not one I'm currently interested in, and from memory they have one of Kerenyi's, who I haven't read, but have seen referenced. I may be able to get some interesting things there, and if I can't find everything I want, they're generally happy to order it in. Perhaps I might spend my $16 voucher that expires at the end of this month there ...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-06-20 11:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-21 01:07 am (UTC)