Six Myths of Our Time

Title: Six Myths of Our Time: Little Angels, Little Monsters, Beautiful Beasts, and More
Author: Marina Warner
Publisher: Random HOuse
ISBN: 978-0-679-75924-9

From the publisher:Is Jurassic Park a work of covert misogynist propaganda? Does romanticizing childhood lead to abusing children? What secret correspondence links Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to video games and Shakespeare's Caliban to Hannibal Lecter? in what ways do our culture's most hallowed legends inform the current debates over single mothers, the men's movement, and animal rights?

In these six dazzlingly intelligent and provocative essays, the distinguished English novelist and critic Marina Warner weaves classical mythology, pop culture, and today's headlines into a potent work of cultural criticism that is both unsettling and entertaining. Ranging from Medea to Thelma and Louise and from myths of cannibalism to the politics of rape, Six Myths of Our Time is at once a celebration of the enduring power of fable and a welcome antidote to its more virulent manifestations in our public life.

The Gift

Title: The Gift
Author: Marcel Mauss
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 978-0-415-26749-6

From the publisher:In this, his most famous work, Marcel Mauss presented to the world a book which revolutionized our understanding of some of the basic structures of society. By identifying the complex web of exchange and obligation involved in the act of giving, Mauss called into question many of our social conventions and economic systems. In a world rife with runaway consumption, The Gift continues to excite and challenge.

From Wikipedia:In his classic work The Gift, Mauss argued that gifts are never "free". Rather, human history is full of examples that gifts give rise to reciprocal exchange. The famous question that drove his inquiry into the anthropology of the gift was: "What power resides in the object given that causes its recipient to pay it back?" (1990:3). The answer is simple: the gift is a "total prestation", imbued with "spiritual mechanisms", engaging the honour of both giver and receiver (the term "total prestation" or "total social fact" (fait social total) was coined by his student Maurice Leenhardt after Durkheim's social fact). Such transactions transcend the divisions between the spiritual and the material in a way that according to Mauss is almost "magical". The giver does not merely give an object but also part of himself, for the object is indissolubly tied to the giver: "the objects are never completely separated from the men who exchange them" (1990:31). Because of this bond between giver and gift, the act of giving creates a social bond with an obligation to reciprocate on part of the recipient. To not reciprocate means to lose honour and status, but the spiritual implications can be even worse: in Polynesia, failure to reciprocate means to lose mana, one's spiritual source of authority and wealth. Mauss distinguished between three obligations: giving - the necessary initial step for the creation and maintenance of social relationships; receiving, for to refuse to receive is to reject the social bond; and reciprocating in order to demonstrate one's own liberality, honour and wealth.

An important notion in Mauss' conceptualisation of gift exchange is what Gregory (1982, 1997) refers to as "inalienability". In a commodity economy there is a strong distinction between objects and persons through the notion of private property. Objects are sold, meaning that the ownership rights are fully transferred to the new owner. The object has thereby become "alienated" from its original owner. In a gift economy, however, the objects that are given are inalienated from the givers; they are "loaned rather than sold and ceded". It is the fact that the identity of the giver is invariably bound up with the object given that causes the gift to have a power which compels the recipient to reciprocate. Because gifts are inalienable they must be returned; the act of giving creates a gift-debt that has to be repaid. Gift exchange therefore leads to a mutual interdependence between giver and receiver. According to Mauss, the "free" gift that is not returned is a contradiction because it cannot create social ties. Following the Durkheimian quest for understanding social cohesion through the concept of solidarity, Mauss's argument is that solidarity is achieved through the social bonds created by gift exchange.

The True Believer

Title: The True Believer
Author: Eric Hoffer
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 9780060505912

Social psychologist Eric Hoffer was born in New York City in 1902 to German-Jewish immigrants. The first of his ten books, The True Believer (1951), received critical acclaim from both scholars and laymen, becoming widely recognized as a classic. It discussed mass movements - religious, social and political - stating that such movements are interchangeable: fanatical Nazis later became fanatical Communists; fanatical Communists later became fanatical anti-Communists; Saul, fanatical persecutor of Christians, became Paul, fanatical Christian. He argued that the motivations and behaviors of mass movements were interchangeable even when their stated goals or values were diametrically opposed.

Hoffer suggested that it was possible to quell the rise of an undesirable mass movement by introducing a benign mass movement, giving those prone to joining movements an outlet for their insecurities. He recognized the fundamental importance of self-esteem to psychological well-being, and postulated that fanaticism and self-righteousness were rooted in self-hatred and self-doubt. He believed that a passionate obsession with the outside world or the lives of others was merely a craven attempt to compensate for a lack of meaning in one's own life. Hoffer didn't take an exclusively negative view of true believers and gave positive examples such as Abraham Lincoln and Gandhi.

A Human Eye

Title: A Human Eye
Author: Adrienne Rich
Publisher: W.W. Norton
ISBN: 978-0-393-33830-0

From the publisher: Across more than three decades Adrienne Rich’s essays have been praised for their lucidity, courage, and range of concerns. In A Human Eye, Rich examines a diverse selection of writings and their place in past and present social disorders and transformations. Beyond literary theories, she explores from many angles how the arts of language have acted on and been shaped by their creators’ worlds.

“Rich continues to refuse to separate the artistic from the political, and she articulates in powerful ways how a truly radical political agenda can draw upon an aesthetic vision . . . a vision both unsparing and full of hope.” — San Francisco Chronicle

“Only Rich can write essays that blend politics and poetry so effortlessly.” — Library Journal

“For all Rich’s shepherding us toward compassion and solidarity with those who suffer violence and injustice, she never ceases to praise the mystery intrinsic to poetry and art.” — Booklist

War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning

Title: War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning
Author: Chris Hedges
Publisher: Anchor Books
ISBN: 978-1-4000-3463-5

From the publisher: As a veteran war correspondent, Chris Hedges has survived ambushes in Central America, imprisonment in Sudan, and a beating by Saudi military police. He has seen children murdered for sport in Gaza and petty thugs elevated into war heroes in the Balkans. Hedges, who is also a former divinity student, has seen war at its worst and knows too well that to those who pass through it, war can be exhilarating and even addictive: “It gives us purpose, meaning, a reason for living.”

Drawing on his own experience and on the literature of combat from Homer to Michael Herr, Hedges shows how war seduces not just those on the front lines but entire societies, corrupting politics, destroying culture, and perverting the most basic human desires. Mixing hard-nosed realism with profound moral and philosophical insight, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning is a work of terrible power and redemptive clarity whose truths have never been more necessary.

Louisa says: A challenging book that gave me a whole new perspective and greater understanding of the psychology of war for individuals, societies and nations. A fascinating study on the human need for meaning in life, and what we will do to create it.