Reading Update #3 2007
Reading update number #3!
Fiction:
The Gospel of Judas by Jeffrey Archer and Francis J. Moloney.
No, I haven't reviewed the same book twice! The book I reviewed last time, The Gospel of Judas, was a translation of the historical document that recently came to light. A collaboration between famous fiction author Jeffrey Archer and renowned biblical scholar Francis J. Moloney, this particular work is unrelated; it is an entirely fictional story that recounts the story of Jesus entirely from Judas's perspective. Rather than being theological it is written as if the man existed and wished to refute all the claims that the canonical gospels make against him - that he was a betrayer of Jesus, that he killed himself and that he took 30 pieces of silver for his evil deed. The one who pens the tale is Judas's son, Benjamin (entirely fictional. We have no knowledge of Judas having a son).
Yes, Maz, it's bible fanfiction.
Despite the fact I know it is fiction, my biblical studies training is hard to overcome. Francis J. Moloney (an Australian scholar! Yay!) was involved partially as an attempt to make the book seem credible to a first century reader (that is, to make it as historically accurate as possible). But the book was also designed to be understood by a twenty first century reader and those two elements sometimes conflict and it is the historicity which gives way (naturally so, in a work of fiction). Some elements are (to me) over described and the language doesn't quite read right - again, not really surprising as Archer is not a first century writer. Still, it is a fascinating enterprise to see it attempted and see how they rework the gospel material to retell the story of Judas in a more positive light - to see him as a human rather than as demonised (the canonical gospels) or the true saviour (real Gospel of Judas). The reclamation of Judas continues! As a general text for twenty first century readers, I think it should do well - it gets the message across without too much detail and jargon and doesn't focus on the religion too much (although of course, an element of religion must remain because that is the entire purpose of the Gospels). It's well written, accessible and straightforward.
The book has beautiful presentation - it comes with a place marker, has gold leaf on the pages, and the cover is designed to look as if it were a codex - rough papers loosely bound, with a fish carved on the cover. It comes with all biblical quotations in red text (amplified) and has a glossary at the back to explain some historical details to readers (although some of the broad statements made in that would be heavily disputed by other scholars). It's also autographed by Francis J. Moloney. I was a bit annoyed that the Qumran community was brought into it - despite what the general public may think due to misinformation, the Dead Sea Scrolls were really not THAT important to biblical studies. They predated Christianity and therefore have nothing to do with the Gospels or Christian development. Their greatest role to me is that gave increased understanding of Greek influence on Judaism, which in turn influenced Christian thought. Overall, a pleasant read, although I suspect I would have enjoyed it a lot more ten years ago.
3 stars.
Everything Can Be Beaten by Scrambly and Scolex
This book was given to my by dulthar for my birthday and is absolutely the most perfect motivational text you will ever read. It follows the story of 'it' - a small person with a red mask-obscured face whose job is to beat the kittens that fall from a chute with its hammer. But one day, it says to itself - is this all there is? Endless beatings of kittens? What if there is more to life? And so it sets out on a grand adventure where it realises that far more than just kittens can be beaten in this life. In fact, everything can be beaten!
The pictures are hilarious and the text hysterical, although its probably not a good book for anyone who adores kittens and cute things and dislikes blood and guts. It is a play on all that is fluffy in society, giving us an insider view of one social misfit and his attempts to feel at home in a world not his own. Spanning millions of years, this book is an epic!
'Scolex' is more famously known and Johnen Vasquez, creator of Invader Zim and Johnny the Homicidal maniac. If you know either of these, you can probably guess what sort of book this is.
5 stars.
Non Fiction:
A Greek Anthology produced by the Joint Association of Classical Greek Teachers' Course
This one is an Ancient Greek reader, to help students practice their Greek. It is what they call an 'unassisted text' - that is, untranslated. You get chunks of Greek text to read, complete with a limited glossary, but the aim here is to read and understand the text for yourself (it obviously assumes a fair knowledge of Greek already). It has some interesting passages, but they went for the usual tales, whereas I would have liked something a little different.
3 stars.
How To Suppress Women's Writing by Joanna Russ
I dug this one up because it was recommended to me by cupidsbow. She pointed out that it made her very angry as she read it, because she realised how true it was, but she also qualified this by stating she does not have an extensive background in feminist theory. This is definitely a feminist theory book. I wasn't angry when reading it (perhaps because I've read a fair bit of feminist literature and studied its theory a bit while at uni as well as having a militant feminist for a mother) but it is depressing to see all the evidence in one place.
An interesting book if overloaded with jargon at times, this followed through the history of women's writing and how male-oriented societies (i.e.: all of them) have worked both consciously and unconsciously to downplay and suppress women's writing.
An example given was Wuthering Heights. When it was first published, it was considered to be a novel about the struggle within one's soul. Once it go out that it was penned by a woman, it was dismissed as a romance. Wuthering Heights is many things, but a romance is NOT one of them. Almost the opposite, in fact.
Russ' book is good for informing people of the extent to which women's writing has been downplayed and the various methods through which it has been done - from things as simple as misogynism, to society values on female intelligence to the fact that over much of history, women as homekeepers simply have not had the time to write as their male counterparts have. However, my complaint here is one I have with many feminist texts - things are taken out of context. I am a firm advocate of the school that there should be no need for men's history and women's history - history should by its nature encompass both - while recognising that in reality it isn't that simple. Due to a degree of ignorance about how the other half lives (and I mean any 'other' here - whether we are discussing religion, gender, culture or social status), such histories have yet to eventuate.
Still, a good eye opening read that, due to its topical material, will probably only ever be read by a small group of people. It is kind of disheartening to see the widespread cultural bias against women even in a society as 'enlightened' as ours.
3 stars.
Nefertiti: unlocking the mystery behind Egypt's most famous and beautiful queen by Joyce Tyldesley
Tydesley deserves major kudos for writing in an understandable, free flowing style about a topic that interests just about anyone - Egypt. There are numerous pictures, maps, and index and footnotes and a bibliography for those who are interested in pursuing things further - although she admits that she has severely limited these on the assumption that most readers would be uninterested. Nefertiti's odd and unusual tale is explained for the most part clearly and in a logical progression, covering her sudden appearance from nowhere to become the most powerful woman in Egypt down to her just as sudden disappearance. A little detail is also given on the rulers who followed Nefertiti and her husband, including the most famous pharoah of them all, Tutankhamun.
The downsides are relatively few: while she has for the most part avoided scholarly jargon and engagement, it makes it all the more striking when she takes the occasional detour to attack scholars whose work she disapproves of. Nor is she consistent in her attacks - at one point she criticises Flinders Petrie quite harshly, while at others she quotes his work as if it is above reproach. This dualism can be a little jarring. She also tends to take certain ideas for granted with little explanation - things which are probably her pet theories and could do with more exposition rather than being portrayed as if they were the scholarly status quo.
Although the book is nominally about Nefertiti, she is overshadowed by her notorious husband, the Pharoah Akhenaten. Tydesley makes no excuse for this - after all, we only know Nefertiti through her husband and we do actually have far more information on him than we do on her. I could understand, however, if a reader felt somewhat cheated and that the book did not focus heavily enough on its purported topic.
4 stars
The Cambridge Guide to English Usage by Pam Peters.
This is another reference work and one that I utterly, utterly love. This guide is designed for those who move in circles with multiple dialects of English - American English, English English, Canadian English and Australian English (although apparently NZ doesn't count). It gives the spelling and variations of words in each of these dialects and the reasons why these differences occur - helping you to not only write correctly in your own dialect, but to also understand why we write the way we do.
This is particularly important because English is not uniform - words and even grammatical rules vary from country to country and with the inundation of American and British works into Australia, it's no wonder that people get confused. This book covers when to use (and not to use) commas and other punctuation marks, the variations of plurals in different countries, the differences in terms (i.e., British 'normality' v. American 'normalcy' and also the difference between similar sounding terms (i.e., 'pique,' 'peak' and 'peek.') It covers a LOT of the errors I see amongst students and people online, and I think it should be a reference guide for people everywhere to help them write better English - whichever form of English they choose to use.
5 stars.
Books so far:
Fiction: 8
Non-fiction: 4 (not counting the dictionaries).
Fiction:
The Gospel of Judas by Jeffrey Archer and Francis J. Moloney.
No, I haven't reviewed the same book twice! The book I reviewed last time, The Gospel of Judas, was a translation of the historical document that recently came to light. A collaboration between famous fiction author Jeffrey Archer and renowned biblical scholar Francis J. Moloney, this particular work is unrelated; it is an entirely fictional story that recounts the story of Jesus entirely from Judas's perspective. Rather than being theological it is written as if the man existed and wished to refute all the claims that the canonical gospels make against him - that he was a betrayer of Jesus, that he killed himself and that he took 30 pieces of silver for his evil deed. The one who pens the tale is Judas's son, Benjamin (entirely fictional. We have no knowledge of Judas having a son).
Yes, Maz, it's bible fanfiction.
Despite the fact I know it is fiction, my biblical studies training is hard to overcome. Francis J. Moloney (an Australian scholar! Yay!) was involved partially as an attempt to make the book seem credible to a first century reader (that is, to make it as historically accurate as possible). But the book was also designed to be understood by a twenty first century reader and those two elements sometimes conflict and it is the historicity which gives way (naturally so, in a work of fiction). Some elements are (to me) over described and the language doesn't quite read right - again, not really surprising as Archer is not a first century writer. Still, it is a fascinating enterprise to see it attempted and see how they rework the gospel material to retell the story of Judas in a more positive light - to see him as a human rather than as demonised (the canonical gospels) or the true saviour (real Gospel of Judas). The reclamation of Judas continues! As a general text for twenty first century readers, I think it should do well - it gets the message across without too much detail and jargon and doesn't focus on the religion too much (although of course, an element of religion must remain because that is the entire purpose of the Gospels). It's well written, accessible and straightforward.
The book has beautiful presentation - it comes with a place marker, has gold leaf on the pages, and the cover is designed to look as if it were a codex - rough papers loosely bound, with a fish carved on the cover. It comes with all biblical quotations in red text (amplified) and has a glossary at the back to explain some historical details to readers (although some of the broad statements made in that would be heavily disputed by other scholars). It's also autographed by Francis J. Moloney. I was a bit annoyed that the Qumran community was brought into it - despite what the general public may think due to misinformation, the Dead Sea Scrolls were really not THAT important to biblical studies. They predated Christianity and therefore have nothing to do with the Gospels or Christian development. Their greatest role to me is that gave increased understanding of Greek influence on Judaism, which in turn influenced Christian thought. Overall, a pleasant read, although I suspect I would have enjoyed it a lot more ten years ago.
3 stars.
Everything Can Be Beaten by Scrambly and Scolex
This book was given to my by dulthar for my birthday and is absolutely the most perfect motivational text you will ever read. It follows the story of 'it' - a small person with a red mask-obscured face whose job is to beat the kittens that fall from a chute with its hammer. But one day, it says to itself - is this all there is? Endless beatings of kittens? What if there is more to life? And so it sets out on a grand adventure where it realises that far more than just kittens can be beaten in this life. In fact, everything can be beaten!
The pictures are hilarious and the text hysterical, although its probably not a good book for anyone who adores kittens and cute things and dislikes blood and guts. It is a play on all that is fluffy in society, giving us an insider view of one social misfit and his attempts to feel at home in a world not his own. Spanning millions of years, this book is an epic!
'Scolex' is more famously known and Johnen Vasquez, creator of Invader Zim and Johnny the Homicidal maniac. If you know either of these, you can probably guess what sort of book this is.
5 stars.
Non Fiction:
A Greek Anthology produced by the Joint Association of Classical Greek Teachers' Course
This one is an Ancient Greek reader, to help students practice their Greek. It is what they call an 'unassisted text' - that is, untranslated. You get chunks of Greek text to read, complete with a limited glossary, but the aim here is to read and understand the text for yourself (it obviously assumes a fair knowledge of Greek already). It has some interesting passages, but they went for the usual tales, whereas I would have liked something a little different.
3 stars.
How To Suppress Women's Writing by Joanna Russ
I dug this one up because it was recommended to me by cupidsbow. She pointed out that it made her very angry as she read it, because she realised how true it was, but she also qualified this by stating she does not have an extensive background in feminist theory. This is definitely a feminist theory book. I wasn't angry when reading it (perhaps because I've read a fair bit of feminist literature and studied its theory a bit while at uni as well as having a militant feminist for a mother) but it is depressing to see all the evidence in one place.
An interesting book if overloaded with jargon at times, this followed through the history of women's writing and how male-oriented societies (i.e.: all of them) have worked both consciously and unconsciously to downplay and suppress women's writing.
An example given was Wuthering Heights. When it was first published, it was considered to be a novel about the struggle within one's soul. Once it go out that it was penned by a woman, it was dismissed as a romance. Wuthering Heights is many things, but a romance is NOT one of them. Almost the opposite, in fact.
Russ' book is good for informing people of the extent to which women's writing has been downplayed and the various methods through which it has been done - from things as simple as misogynism, to society values on female intelligence to the fact that over much of history, women as homekeepers simply have not had the time to write as their male counterparts have. However, my complaint here is one I have with many feminist texts - things are taken out of context. I am a firm advocate of the school that there should be no need for men's history and women's history - history should by its nature encompass both - while recognising that in reality it isn't that simple. Due to a degree of ignorance about how the other half lives (and I mean any 'other' here - whether we are discussing religion, gender, culture or social status), such histories have yet to eventuate.
Still, a good eye opening read that, due to its topical material, will probably only ever be read by a small group of people. It is kind of disheartening to see the widespread cultural bias against women even in a society as 'enlightened' as ours.
3 stars.
Nefertiti: unlocking the mystery behind Egypt's most famous and beautiful queen by Joyce Tyldesley
Tydesley deserves major kudos for writing in an understandable, free flowing style about a topic that interests just about anyone - Egypt. There are numerous pictures, maps, and index and footnotes and a bibliography for those who are interested in pursuing things further - although she admits that she has severely limited these on the assumption that most readers would be uninterested. Nefertiti's odd and unusual tale is explained for the most part clearly and in a logical progression, covering her sudden appearance from nowhere to become the most powerful woman in Egypt down to her just as sudden disappearance. A little detail is also given on the rulers who followed Nefertiti and her husband, including the most famous pharoah of them all, Tutankhamun.
The downsides are relatively few: while she has for the most part avoided scholarly jargon and engagement, it makes it all the more striking when she takes the occasional detour to attack scholars whose work she disapproves of. Nor is she consistent in her attacks - at one point she criticises Flinders Petrie quite harshly, while at others she quotes his work as if it is above reproach. This dualism can be a little jarring. She also tends to take certain ideas for granted with little explanation - things which are probably her pet theories and could do with more exposition rather than being portrayed as if they were the scholarly status quo.
Although the book is nominally about Nefertiti, she is overshadowed by her notorious husband, the Pharoah Akhenaten. Tydesley makes no excuse for this - after all, we only know Nefertiti through her husband and we do actually have far more information on him than we do on her. I could understand, however, if a reader felt somewhat cheated and that the book did not focus heavily enough on its purported topic.
4 stars
The Cambridge Guide to English Usage by Pam Peters.
This is another reference work and one that I utterly, utterly love. This guide is designed for those who move in circles with multiple dialects of English - American English, English English, Canadian English and Australian English (although apparently NZ doesn't count). It gives the spelling and variations of words in each of these dialects and the reasons why these differences occur - helping you to not only write correctly in your own dialect, but to also understand why we write the way we do.
This is particularly important because English is not uniform - words and even grammatical rules vary from country to country and with the inundation of American and British works into Australia, it's no wonder that people get confused. This book covers when to use (and not to use) commas and other punctuation marks, the variations of plurals in different countries, the differences in terms (i.e., British 'normality' v. American 'normalcy' and also the difference between similar sounding terms (i.e., 'pique,' 'peak' and 'peek.') It covers a LOT of the errors I see amongst students and people online, and I think it should be a reference guide for people everywhere to help them write better English - whichever form of English they choose to use.
5 stars.
Books so far:
Fiction: 8
Non-fiction: 4 (not counting the dictionaries).