FIREFLY IN THE NIGHT - IRENE NICHOLSON & THE AZTEC PANTHEON AND THE ART OF EMPIRE - JOHN POHL AND CLAIRE LYONS

A rare two book review. I’ve been on a bit of a mesoamerican mythology kick for the last 2 weeks or so, ever since stumbling across that section of the central library and helping myself to a couple of titles. Actually, there is a third book in this personal series of mine, IN THE LANGUAGE OF KINGS, an anthology which collects the the actual translated writings of the peoples covered in these books. I’ve been reading a lot of Aztec poetry as well as the Popol Vuh and some transcriptions of Maria Sabina’s chants. All very trill.  That book, IN THE LANGUAGE OF KINGS, is amazing, but it’s also 900 pages long and I doubt I’ll read the whole thing to review it. Such is life. Irregardless, I copped these 2 (FITN & APAE) at the same time and I have read both of them and I feel qualified to review. APAE is amazing. It’s the companion book to an exhibit that ran at the Getty Villa in 2010. The Getty Villa is a former mansion that is now a “museum” that is basically a rich guy’s house in Malibu/Pacific Palisades. It’s full of all sorts of Greek and Roman statuary, in typical rich guy fashion. By placing Aztec/Mesoamerican art in this context the exhibit makes clear something I’d never thought about before, namely, what were the Europeans use as a framework to understand what they were seeing. As an aside, the resulting genocide and 500 years of oppression makes it significantly harder to answer this question in the other direction, thought there is all that stuff (quasi-debunked or at least complicated a another book I read recently about this) about the Aztec considering the possibility that Cortes was a god (specifically Quetzalcoatl). Of course the thing that these Europeans would reach for, when seeing widespread polytheism (also disputed, could be an all-gods-are-permutations-of-a-single-god situation), empire and militarism, enormous public works, etc. would be ancient Rome. And though they do share some interesting similarities, both for instance, decided the Eagle was a symbol of empire and martial power, this lens distorts the Mesoamerican world. For instance, I’ve read dozens of books about Aztec Mythology in my life and seen artifacts in museums all over (and I used to live in Mexico City and could visit the Templo Mayor/ Museo Anthropology whenever the mood struck) and the cosmology and how the gods interacted never made much sense to me. Well, turns out that’s because the Europeans were using a Roman model of Paganism and basically attempting to figure out which Aztec gods were Jupiter or Mercury. This doesn't really work because the Aztec associated their gods with concepts that are much broader and, frankly, hard for a Westerner to totally grok. For example, Tezcatlipoca is associated with war, beauty, the night, jaguars, hurricanes, the north, night winds, sorcery, discord, and much more. What is his equivalent in ancient Rome? The book also describes him as representing “change through conflict” as well as possessing a dual nature which many Aztec gods do and which doesn’t really have a European equivalent. The book also features tons of really fantastic drawings made by europeans that make the Aztecs look like ancient romans, togas and all. FITN is not as good. It’s interesting because the woman who wrote it also does the translations which means we get lots of etymology talk as well as lots of esoteric nahuatl words. Though she continues to translate one of the words (I’m going to assume jaguar) as “tiger” which makes no sense to me and bothered me every time I read it. This book contained excellent recaps of the major Aztec myths, something that it’s surprisingly hard to find, as well as some great sad poetry about the cruelties of life. And I am always here for sad poems. However, the book is from the 50/60s and you can tell. It has this annoying habit of trying to convince you that the Aztec can be important and civilized despite the human sacrifice thing, which is not something I need convincing of (and seems a little rich coming from the culture that did the genociding). Likewise, it’s always seeking to compare Aztec religious/cultural concepts to Christian ones in an effort to make the reader take the Aztecs more seriously. Again, this was not necessary. However, both books were good, I’d recommend APAE highly, it was one of the most fun things to think about in a while. 5 Bloody Hearts removed for the sungod.