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Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art Paperback – February 16, 1999
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- Print length432 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherNorth Point Press
- Publication dateFebruary 16, 1999
- Dimensions5.5 x 1.14 x 8.28 inches
- ISBN-100865475369
- ISBN-13978-0865475366
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Product details
- Publisher : North Point Press (February 16, 1999)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 432 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0865475369
- ISBN-13 : 978-0865475366
- Item Weight : 13.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 1.14 x 8.28 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #3,865,486 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #8,790 in Folklore & Mythology Studies
- #51,438 in Sociology (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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By exploring the appearance of the archetype across cultures and geographically isolated regions, the author illustrates the universality of the role in the human experience
However, how is trickster embodied in our heroes? This is the question that causes Mr. Hyde to go on a quest to find important historic personalities that portrayed the trait of the trickster. Through case studies of the lives of Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, John Cage, Allen Ginsberg, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Frederick Douglas; Mr. Hyde demonstrates the traits of trickster at work historically. Offering us readers biographies of each of these figures lives he shows how they were boundary crossers as well as cultural transformers. For anyone who has studied biographies on these celebrities, Mr. Hyde doesn’t offer much new revelatory information. What he does do is re-weave what is known about these heroes to demonstrate how they contested and transformed the times that they were in.
For me, the case studies of John Cage, and Frederick Douglas were the most memorable, especially Frederick Douglas. I learned new information about Frederick Douglas that I had not been privy to previously. For instance, besides being part African American, and part Scotch, Frederick Douglas also had some Native American ancestry through his grandmother. This is important information because the life of Frederick Douglas was about crossing the color line in a society that forced people to be identified as merely ‘black’ or ‘white’. This color line was in place to justify the institution of slavery, and it’s ‘racialization’. Through contesting racial categories, Frederick Douglas was forcing people to rethink their ideas about race.
So was Frederick Douglas Scotch-European? Native American? African American? Society defined him merely based on the color of his skin, and it was this definition that Frederick Douglas contested throughout his life. The stakes were high, as a whole group of people were relegated to slavery merely because of their skin color, their diverse ancestries disregarded by society’s need for free labor. Ahead of his times, Frederick Douglas assisted in drawing the lines of debates about race that continue to this day, demonstrating trickster’s transformative powers.
As a child I enjoyed reading the trickster stories of Brer Rabbit, Raven, Coyote, and Spider. Yet, I never thought about their application to real life. The value of Mr. Hyde’s study on the trickster is that it demonstrates this archetype in real life and his cultural necessity; for Trickster, in whatever form he manifests, compels us to question the values and beliefs that we take for granted. Culture is organic. If it does not grow then it slowly perishes. The questioning that trickster figures force us to undertake helps to maintain our cultural vitality. If a reader takes anything away from this book, I hope that they take away this point.
I am taking my time with the book because it is dense, and he is only skimming the surface of what he knows and thinks. There are places where I wanted a bit of backfill. The point of the book is quite abstract, about what is trickster and what is not. I think what he is saying is important, and I'll have to go back and re-read parts of it.
Top reviews from other countries
So glad they dropped this book on my path.
Here is to finding!
Viva the Trickster, in all his funky ways.
Aber das Buch lädt mittels seines literarischen Duktus durchaus dazu ein, weiter zu denken. Wer jüngere Film- und/oder Serienfiguren wie Jack Sparrow, Charlie Harper, den Joker, Han Solo, den Mann ohne Namen (Für eine handvoll Dollar), Loki etc. wirklich verstehen will sollte hier einmal reinlesen.
Hyde versäumt es auch nicht den Unterschied zwischen instituionalisierten Hochstaplern und echten Trickstern zu verdetulichen und erklärt implizit, warum z.B. Guttenberg nur ein Hochstapler ist. Noch weiter gedacht, lässt sich nach der Lektüre dieses Buches auch die Griechenland-Krise ganz neu interpretieren.
Zum Verständnis der Verfasstheit unserer gegenwärtigen Kultur ist dieses Buch ein wahrer Augenöffner.
The author is incredibly intelligent and leads you down paths of logic and exploration that will leave anyone interested in myth/tricksters with their jaw hanging open and a smile on thier face. I love this book. The wisdom and depth of the text is incredible.
I adore tricksters. And I have spent a long time researching them. This is something that has completely changed how I view some of the elements of what it is to be a Trickster.
I can't rave enough.
Fantastic!! Buy it!!






