|
Books > Health, Home & Family > Mind, body & spirit > Unexplained phenomena / the paranormal > Ghosts & poltergeists
|
Buy Now
Blithe Spirits - An Imaginative History of the Poltergeist (Paperback)
Loot Price: R451
Discovery Miles 4 510
You Save: R43
(9%)
|
|
|
Blithe Spirits - An Imaginative History of the Poltergeist (Paperback)
 (sign in to rate)
List price R494
Loot Price R451
Discovery Miles 4 510
You Save R43 (9%)
Expected to ship within 9 - 17 working days
|
The Trickster-god is a strange and rather wonderful mythological
figure who is found in folklore and legend right across the world,
from the Norse Loki to the Greek Hermes to the Raven and Coyote of
the Native American peoples. The ultimate 'cunning fool', he and
the many subversive tales told about him have been studied down the
years by anthropologists, historians, literary theorists and
psychologists from Ted Hughes to C. G. Jung. But in the
twenty-first century, should the Trickster also be studied by
parapsychologists and ghost hunters? Nobody believes in gods like
Hermes or Loki anymore, but that does not mean that people do not
still tell one another tales about such Tricksters and their
mischievous ways. They do, but in disguised form - the disguised
form of the poltergeist. Belief in Trickster-gods, this book
argues, has today been transformed into popular belief in
Trickster-ghosts, with those noisy, disruptive, roguish spirits
known as poltergeists fulfilling largely the same imaginative
function as more traditional Trickster-figures like Robin
Goodfellow once did. By playing childish tricks upon us,
poltergeists appear to reveal our current world-view to be in some
way incomplete, breaking the accepted circles of 'official'
materialistic, scientific logic and provoking laughter at their
irreverent audacity in doing so. Rather than being intended to
frighten, perhaps the true purpose of certain ghost stories is in
fact to amuse, perplex and provoke? Whether true or not, such ghost
stories still function as genuine Trickster-myths, providing those
who read them with access to a hidden realm lurking somewhere just
beyond the rational, in which the usual rules of science, logic and
reality simply do not apply. Perhaps in doing so they act as a kind
of 'emotional safety-valve', intended to allow mankind temporary
respite from the sometimes oppressive social forces surrounding us.
Covering a wide global selection of reported poltergeist phenomena
from ancient times right up to the present day, and then subjecting
them to a process of literary, historical and sociological
analysis, Blithe Spirits is one of the most unusual, original and
wide-ranging books about the subject ever to be written.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
|
You might also like..
|
Email address subscribed successfully.
A activation email has been sent to you.
Please click the link in that email to activate your subscription.
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
