THE IMPLIED SPIDER: POLITICS AND THEOLOGY IN MYTH- WENDY DONIGER

Normally, one thinks of mythology, or mythological studies or comparative mythology as a primarily right-wing or conservative area. From Eliade to Evola to Campbell to Peterson, there does seem to be something about the study that attracts the right-wing and crypto-right-wing. Perhaps since myths, in theory, tell us why things are the way they are. As someone who loves mythology, of all sorts, I’ve always found this a bit depressing. Doniger fixes this problem though. If you’re not familiar, she’s a Indologist, Sanskritist and all around genius who’s written a number of very good books, including, The Woman Who Pretended To Be Who She Was, which is one of my favorites. She has an incredible command of mythology, with an emphasis on Indian/Hindu but with a tremendous depth in basically all areas, including movies (which she considers a sort of contemporary mythology). Her other books focus in on particular types of myths (like The Bedtrick, which focuses on people playing with their identities in sexual situations) but this one is more of a grand overview. She talks about micromyths, which is her term for the smallest unit of a myth, which allows us to compare different versions of the same myths, both within and between cultures. She ranges from the bible to Hindu epics to various versions of the Cinderella story (apparently, in most Asian version it involves shoes made of hair instead of glass) to Shakespeare. She touches on how it is possible to compare myths across cultures, and why this should be seen as useful, she discusses women’s voices in male-authored texts and male-voices in female-authored texts, she takes down the idea of Archetypes and Campbell’s stupid monomyth idea. She discusses the importance of seeing myths from a wide angle and in microscopic granularity. Overall, a good introduction to her style, her work and comparative mythology in general. She’s got a witty, wry writing style and a simply incredible level of erudition and knowledge to draw on. She’s hated by the Hindutva folks in India, which is a great endorsement. I think I still prefer TWWPTBWSW but if you’re interested in mythology in general, or if you’ve read Campbell/Peterson and would like to read something by a smart person instead, I’d recommend this. 1,001 myths.