Jung

Clearly a guy I need to learn more about - seems to me a lot of the stuff in positive psychology was already there in the early psychoanalysts, but now they've dressed it up with a lot of statistics and scientific dribble to make it seem acceptable. It seems to me that his work might be extremely boring so it's a question of approaching it differently, like with many a thinker and philosopher. The idea of the archetypes, of the urge to religion, the rejection of everything being about sex and the inclusion of mythology art and literature are extremely valuable. I'm also confident that this approach could be important in understanding the appeal of fantasy literature and can give us tools to approach works by crazy guys like Clive Barker (whom for some reason I haven't blogged on yet, but I truly admire, and am freaked out by) and Michael Moorcock. 

Elric the Eternal Champion

I have just finished the almost seven hundred pages chronicling the adventures of Elric, the creation of Michael Moorcock. Two things attracted me to Moorcock; well more actually; primarily the fact that China Mieville is a fan and has described Moorcock as 'such a generous writer' (not quite sure what he means by that...  secondly that Moorcock is a self-proclaimed anarchist - like Ursula le Guin... and these two things having multiplied by themselves his extremely negative commentary on Tolkien (having a very ambivalent relationship with that guy myself!).... And the tale of Elric is indeed nothing like Tolkien in any way. However, I also find it very different from Miévilles work and also le Guin's... In a way I found this to be shallower, it hmead more a feel of a Role Playing Game - Elric, always melancholy and brooding (this becomes almost comical in places), gets into a spot of trouble, calls on Arioch from the realm of chaos and, what do you know, he's home free. There is one tale, the one where Elric enters the dream realm of a sleeping girl which is really powerful.... The whole idea of the struggle of law and chaos and the idea of the the Multiverse is wonderful.... Also maybe my yearning for consistency and plot reveals as more of a Tolkienite than I might care to recognize; probably the rather messy multitude of books and confusing lines hither and thither make him more medieval and postmodern at the same time than many other writers.... yeah, and one more thing I absoloutely love is his involvement with various rock bands. Fittingly his home on the Web is very messy and confusing.... (and what a cool URL too... )