The trickster at about as strange as it can get

books:

	• The Trickster: A Study in American Indian Mythology Paul Radin Schocken, 1988 - 211 pages average customer review:based on 5 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Try to cut the essays a little slack

The introduction and other essays in this book suffer greatly from 'primitive peoples' syndrome (it was written a few decades ago). Ignore this: the best part of the book is the middle, where a Winnebago trickster story plus a few others are included, supposedly in full. If you believe Radin's description of collecting the myths (got them from an informant, translated by two more informants and 'tidied up' by him), then they seem to be pretty much OK.. certainly nothing obvious has been left out, as self-mutilation, genitals, and jolly exploits with faeces are still in there. Draw your own conclusions.

for more information click here

Coyote on the couch

Although occasionally dry, the connection between myth and psych is touched on here - distinguishing this material from more conventional anthologies of Coyote/Trickster legends. I might suggest the more readable Joseph Campbell, and indeed there's a bit of a connection between the two writers, and Carl Jung.

There's new material here, even if a little too intellectual for some. Some of the legends were new to me, and the valuable tidbits made it worth wading through. Jung's contribution is unique. In summary: It's a slower read, but worth the effort.

for more information click here

for more information click here

Good myth but bad commentaries

The Trickster myth is hilarious and it shows how myths can shape people's psyches. The commentaries are somewhat disappointing, though. You must have a big interest in the subject to enjoy this book.

Used but new(ish)

Bought used for a very good price. Book in excellent condition. Came in mail in a matter of a few days.

The trickster at about as strange as it can get

Broken Film: Poems

Raul Radin's The Trickster presents one of the more refreshingling un-filtered American Indian story cycles. Given its age the language does tend to be a bit creaky and the pacing can be a bit slow for modern tastes. But very few readers will fail to have at least one or two well worn scales ripped from their eyes by shocks to either narrative expectation or standard decorum as they work their way through this amazingly fertile and amusing myth.

It is best to treat the tellings in this volume as transcripts, and then to replay them in your imagination to amplify the humor and humanity that are sketched out in the linear renderings.

There is great stuff here when you replay it in the windmills of your mind.

for more information click here

Anthropological and psychological analysis by Radin Kereny and Jung of the voraciously uninhibited episodes of the Winnebego Trickster cycle.

hot