Mythology of the Aztecs and Maya

subtitle: Myths and Legends of Ancient Mexico and Northern Central America. Jones, David M.
Southwater: Arness Publishing Ltd, London. 2003.

The size of a very thin coffee table book, and listed in encyclopaedic style, this is an excellent reference - a simple overview of the Mayan and Aztec gods. The references are well-detailed and descriptive and cross-referenced and well laid out.

Also has great pics.

personal note: Saiyam Uinicob, from the "First Sun" (primero sol) - world builders who worked in darkness and were turned to stone when the sun arose. This is interesting because it so closely correlates with Western "dwarf" legends (metallurgy, living in mountains and mines, etc.) and it also seems that it would be a great explanation of a people venturing upon the stone monoliths and figures made by a previous people, and them asking the question that we ask of these peoples today - the question being, "How did they make such huge and intricately wrought stone figures?"

VG

Rex

by Van Dyke Jones, Northland Publishing, 1990.

Interesting little work - the most interesting part of the book is the introduction, in which the author/illustrator lays out in detail the origins of his airbrushed cartoon dog named "Rex" with the unblinking eyes and the thick body and stiff legs - Jones goes through all the origins, from his childhood on up, and even about the familial inspiration for all the primary and secondary characters and some of the exigencies of the situations which present themselves to our "everyman" hero, Rex.

In fact, Parks in his introduction even likens his creation (and even skews it to wonder if his "creation" had, in fact, created the creator) to the characters of James Thurber, or Pogo.

With this, I was completely salivating with anticipation of the rest of this book - delights comparable to Thurber or Pogo! Shoot! Let me at it.

Unfortunately, the cartoon, while GOOD, was nowhere near what the intro purported it to be. These are one panel cartoons with a caption that illustrates a very basic drawing, which is usually simply Rex in a funny hat with an adobe building behind him. However, not to be fooled, the humour is in the subtlety, because usually the situation is that Rex is in trouble with the wife, and is simply waiting for the "storm" to blow over. So what we see in Rex's unblinking stare is a reflection of ourselves as husbands, and as men in general.

So, while the creation is simple, and good, and somewhat charming . . . it's nowhere near as good as the fantasy created by the introduction.

I mean, that was one dam'fine intro, I'm tellin' ya!

VG

Justice League of America: Liberty and Justice

Alex Ross and Paul Dini

Don't like separating Graphic Novels from real books, but note to self that this one had excellent artwork and intriguing story, that of a disease that threatens to kill all humanity, and humanity reacts adversely to our heroes trying to save it.

First time I think I'd ever seen the JLA in a public relations nightmare. REminiscent of the whole X-Men Mutants vs. Humans saga.

Good artwork, though, and nich choice on Jon Jonzz as narrator.

VG

The Curious Sofa (an Edward Gorey)

subtitled "A Pornographic Work by Ogdred Weary." Harcourt Brace and Company, New York. 1997 (this edition). Orig (c) 1961 and renewed 1989.

Another classic - this time he spoofs Victorian erotic novels AND himself, it's as though he's mimicking his own style in his "not-so-subtle" double entendres.

Simply brilliant. These things, you've just got to read them to enjoy them. E Gorey books, I believe, defy any sort of description. They just ARE. They're funny simply because they ARE.

Just go out and get the whole lot and scatter them over your coffee table and let whatever guests come over pick them up and read them and give you quizzical looks. You won't find finer entertainment anywhere!

VG

The Uncyclopedia

by Gideon Haigh.

Had to return this one too soon to the library, so I didn't get a chance to enjoy it fully, but this is definitely a book for the personal library, or for anybody's office desk. Subtitled something like "All the things you never knew you wanted to know," and contained things such as a list of "ism's" and a breakdown of all types of governments - all the "arcy's" etc.

Just a fantastic reference quide, full of useless information

. . . which is the only kind of info worth knowing, IMHO!

VG

Mayan and Aztec Mythology

Michael Schuman. Enslow Publishers, 2001.

Fairly good introduction to the Popul Vuh: this book seems geared toward a teenage audience and probably would be a good textbook for Junior High Schoolers: it has introductory notes to each chaper plus review Q&A afterwards. Literarily, offers nothing new to the stories - simply seems like an overview/outline of the tales with some causal commentary on the culture that produced them.

VG

Stories from Latin America/Historias de Latinoamérica

Genevieve Barlow. Passport Books, 1995.

Library had two versions - one in which the English versions were printed in one half and the Spanish versions on the other half, and another version which contained the English on the left-hand page and the Spanish on the right.

Either way, this book is a good overview of some stories - has a Juan Bobo adventure in it, which I'm starting to like - someone should probably cllect a compendium of Juan Bobo stories someday. Maybe a future project.

Another story "Margarita's Slip" - have read this (or a version of this) somewhere before - can't remember and need to find out - basically girl in love with boy and father finally consents to the marriage but the father of the boy she marries basically tells her father that one of the conditions is that he can't give her any present at all after the wedding, no money no nothin' - so the father gets around this by giving her a wedding dress that's made of pure diamonds for the studs and pure gold for the lace. Interesting double play on the English word "slip," mind you!

Again, need to find other story - compare and contrast, y' know

but for now . . .

VG

Star Wars Clone Wars Adventures Vol. 3

Fillbach Brothers (majority of art and one storyline), et. al. Darkhorse Books, Feb. 2005.

Won't make it a habit to review comic books here but I had to just say that I picked this up expecting something better from the Star Wars canon, but the art is frankly horrible and the storytelling limited. The last story is the old joke One Riot, One Texas Ranger : One Battle, One Jedi. The Yoda story is goofy-cool, with hillbilly aliens, but definitely not what I would consider very Yoda-esque: the use of a gigantic gun to destroy literally thousands of enemies. However, after seeing the "first three" chapters/movies (and a disappointing waste they are as well!), I have come to the conclusiont hat apparently a person needs to have seen this past year of the Star Wars cartoon (with the same art as this comic book) in order to fully understand the story as presented in Revenge of the Sith.

More commentary later: Star Wars deserves a very involved look/dissertation on good storytelling and where it went so wrong.

VG

The Bird Who Cleans the World and Other Mayan Fables

Victor Montejo. Curbstone Press, 1991.

"Mayan Fables" might be a little bit misleading, but that's what's interesting about this book - it's not just a standard "watered-down" fables that are generic to the Mayans, but rather, the author's retelling of the rememberances of his mother's telling him of stories in her own particular dialect, the Jakaltak-Maya language.

That adds a more personal dimension to the tales included in this book; they seem like you're hearing them while sitting around the dinner table with the family. You can, of course, see the relation to other Mayan fables, and for US audiences, you'll get the feel as to how these tales relate to certain North American Indian tales that you've probably heard. These are morality tales, definitely, and also historical iconograms, but they're also rich in tongue-in-cheek "watch out, child?" lessons. In fact, (and I don't know if I was simply reading too much into the introduction, but . . .!) you can almost see how mom tailored these tales as a warning to her own child (the author, that is!)

Memorable passages: The Bird Who Cleans the World is the Buzzard, who was sent out after the great flood to find life - got greedy and ate the carcasses of the dead animals, finally came back (late) and the other animals were so disgusted by the smell that they condemned him to be the world's garbage collector.

Also, the Rabbit used to have horns until he was tricked out of them by the deer. The Creator thus gave him long ears, as a memory of what he gave away so willingly out of vanity, and to teach him to wise and cautious.

Also, another of the Rabbit (in which he becomes the "Trickster" archetype) is the one in which everyone comes to collect the debts that he owes, and he has each one hide under the bed, and sends the predator of the one under the bed when he sees the predator of the next coming, thereby getting rid of all his debts.

Also, the First Monkeys: actually children who climbed trees and started playing around and wouldn't come when their grandmother called. So she turned them into monkeys. (Again, we've got the "obey your parents" lesson here, but what's really interesting is how even in Mayan mythts there are similarities drawn between Man and Apes)
So - if you'd like to read it with an eye as to how it fits in with the larger canon of New World mythology, be my guest, but I think you'd miss the enjoyment of simply reading it with an eye as to how you might be able to retell it to your own children.