/lit/ - Literature

Yes.

I haven't, but I'm given to understand it's based somewhat off The Golden Bough, which was an interesting read. It's been on my book list for some time, so let us know how you get on with it.

Would someone who's read it share their opinion of it?

Ted Hughes' Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being draws very heavily from Graves' book. It's one of the most original works of Shakespearean scholarship in ages.

No, but i read I, claudius...best historical novel i've ever read.

Graves proposes the idea that there is a sort of ur-myth underlying all native European traditions, myths, and religions. Real poetry is an attempt to bring that story back to life and re-kindle it in the minds of readers.

>>1469890
Does he have evidence or did he just make it up?

>>1470816


He doesn't so much make it up as he takes evidence and makes tenuous connections and blows it all waaaaay out of proportion--a la The Golden Bough.

>>1470836

Pretty much. He tries to do what Indo-Europeanists do with a combination of linguistics, literature (myth), and archaeology except without any strict standards or scholarship to back it up. If you don't have enough experience in the field its more damaging than otherwise since you'll come out with all sorts of misshapen impressions. That said, its an entertaining enough read, especially within its normally dry subject field.

>>1469673
>mfw when I read Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being

I didn't know Shakespeare that well but this essay did things to me I still don't understand a year later. Hughes' way of writing drew me in and kept me going even though none of it made sense to me, then all off a sudden he knocked my socks off with his message. I'll never forget that feeling.

Robert Graves invented his evidence. True story.

>>1471570
In anthropology there isn't "inventing evidence" as much as there is "reinterpreting evidence from a more interesting viewpoint."