Another excellent installment in the series—thank you!
There's also a cultural history of the dragon!? I must get me to the library, having just finished the book about bears which you mentioned in your introductory article.
I'd recommend it, albeit with the caveat that it devotes only one chapter to the Asian dragon, which probably should be its own book. But it's a good book, the story of the various cultural meanings dragons have had from the ancient world to Game of Thrones.
How did you like The Bear: History of a Fallen King? That was definitely one of the books that put me on the road to this project.
I thought it was quite good. The discussion of the Christian church's three-pronged assault on the concept of the bear as an animal worthy of reverential awe was, I thought, the most interesting of the many historical strands in the book. His Europe-centric perspective was, of course, understandable, but I'm curious about the meaning of the bear in the American frontier mythos (Faulkner's novel "Go Down, Moses" has a long section about a bear hunt which confirms that the bear in America is a repository of intense symbolic meaning).
One somewhat similar book you might enjoy is Dan Flores' Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History, which is about the coyote as both a real animal and a cultural archetype.
I opened my first booster pack when I was eleven ('97). I got 14 cards I don't remember (probably a Charmander), and one holographic Charizard. I've since misplaced him...
Beautifully written, as usual! And fascinating. I had no idea that
>All real-life salamander species are poisonous; some secrete the same dangerous and potentially fatal neurotoxin as pufferfish and blue-ringed octopi
I'm glad I didn't know that when I was circa age 10 or so... a friend had a scavenger hunt at her birthday party, and one of the items on the list was "a salamander". Which I duly found, under a log in the neighbors' yard, and I brought it inside in my hands. I can still feel its soft, gently clammy red-and-black skin. Poisonous, you say?!? Nobody knew!
Another excellent installment in the series—thank you!
There's also a cultural history of the dragon!? I must get me to the library, having just finished the book about bears which you mentioned in your introductory article.
Thank you for reading.
I'd recommend it, albeit with the caveat that it devotes only one chapter to the Asian dragon, which probably should be its own book. But it's a good book, the story of the various cultural meanings dragons have had from the ancient world to Game of Thrones.
How did you like The Bear: History of a Fallen King? That was definitely one of the books that put me on the road to this project.
I thought it was quite good. The discussion of the Christian church's three-pronged assault on the concept of the bear as an animal worthy of reverential awe was, I thought, the most interesting of the many historical strands in the book. His Europe-centric perspective was, of course, understandable, but I'm curious about the meaning of the bear in the American frontier mythos (Faulkner's novel "Go Down, Moses" has a long section about a bear hunt which confirms that the bear in America is a repository of intense symbolic meaning).
One somewhat similar book you might enjoy is Dan Flores' Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History, which is about the coyote as both a real animal and a cultural archetype.
I opened my first booster pack when I was eleven ('97). I got 14 cards I don't remember (probably a Charmander), and one holographic Charizard. I've since misplaced him...
Charizard is coming soon and I'll of course talk about that card.
Beautifully written, as usual! And fascinating. I had no idea that
>All real-life salamander species are poisonous; some secrete the same dangerous and potentially fatal neurotoxin as pufferfish and blue-ringed octopi
I'm glad I didn't know that when I was circa age 10 or so... a friend had a scavenger hunt at her birthday party, and one of the items on the list was "a salamander". Which I duly found, under a log in the neighbors' yard, and I brought it inside in my hands. I can still feel its soft, gently clammy red-and-black skin. Poisonous, you say?!? Nobody knew!