"Art is a lie that tells the truth." - Pablo Picasso. Picasso disrupted the world around him, and in doing so he reshaped it. That is the Trickster spirit. Playful, mischievous, subversive, and amoral. Tricksters are a great bother to have around, but paradoxically they are also indispensable heroes of culture, because our world - with its complexity and ambiguity, its beauty and its dirt - was trickster's creation, and the work is not yet finished. Authoritative in its scholarship, supple and dynamic in its style, "Trickster Makes This World" encourages you to think and see afresh.
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"'Lewis Hyde's second masterpiece.' Margaret Atwood "Art is a lie that tells the truth." - Pablo Picasso 'Artists of whatever sort need Trickster's help from time to time: when you're blocked or stuck, take an aimless walk and let your mind off its leash, and call on Trickster. He's the opener of dreams, of roads, and of possibilities.' - Margaret Atwood * 'Hyde is one of our true superstars of non-fiction - this book not only covers its subject in more depth and comprehension than anything before (anything I've read, anyway) but it also ends up being about...well, everything. The guy's both brilliant (intellectually, literarily) and wise (psychologically, spiritually, you-name-itally).' - David Foster Wallace * 'Dazzling... rewards repeated reading.' - Michael Chabon * 'A masterpiece... The thrilling thing about reading non-fiction such as Hyde's is not just that it gives you new thoughts: it also changes the way you think.' - Scotland on Sunday * '[Hyde] is one of those quirky, eccentric Wise Children the United States sometimes throws up-a sort of Thoreau-cum-anthropologist-cum-seer...[Trickster] should be read by anyone interested in the grand and squalid matter of all things human...A glorious grabbag stuffed with necessary loot, a joyful plum pudding rich in treasures.' - Margaret Atwood, Los Angeles Times"
About the Author
Lewis Hyde was born in Boston and studied at the Universities of Minnesota and Iowa. In addition to Trickster Makes This World, he is the author of The Gift, a defence of the importance of creativity in our increasingly money-orientated society. Editor of On the Poetry of Allen Ginsberg and The Essays of Henry D. Thoreau, Hyde is now writing a defence of the 'cultural commons', that vast store of ideas and art we have inherited from the past. A MacArthur Fellow and former Director of Creative Writing at Harvard, Hyde is currently the Professor of Creative Writing at Kenyon College in Ohio.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hyde's genius,
By
This review is from: Trickster Makes This World (Paperback)
While this may be the same book with a different cover--and the confusion is unfortunate--it's also a great book inside any cover. Lewis Hyde brings a unique sensibility to the study of stories, tricksters, and what makes creative imagination possible. This book is rare within the literature on "narrative" because Hyde actually tells stories. His version of the trickster is rich in multiple possibilities: tricksters are destructive, but destruction is part of creativity--that's as close to Hyde's thesis as I can get. The book takes many detours, but I'm grateful that it's not a page shorter.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good Introduction BUT...,
By Catherine S (Crescent City, CA) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Trickster Makes This World (Paperback)
While this book does a great job comparing simlarities between trickster myths worldwide it is a bit problematic to someone who is actually familar with trickster Gods because the writer makes a few errors. I say this as someone who is only halfway through the book:
1. Hyde goes on and on about Native American myths but never mentions Kokopelli. 2. He has a section on trickster goddess and talks a great deal about the Greeks, but Eris never comes up. 3. In the goddess section he explains there are few, and that's because tricksters crossdress then he lists Aunt Nancy as a goddess, HIS name is Mr. Nancy and he is a crossdresser. So while I am enjoying seeing these myths compared I am a bit irretated that someone like myself can find these errors in passing when he supposedly studied these myths for years. So as long as you are just reading this as a comparitive study it's not a bad read, just don't quote it as fact until you double check.
3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
What?,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Trickster Makes This World (Paperback)
It's the same book with different cover page.
I wish I had been notified in advance!!!!
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