Re: OT: White Goddess

> Date:         Sun, 8 Apr 2001 20:08:58 -0400
> From: Yoon Ha Lee <yl112@...>
>
> I'm reading Robert Graves' _The White Goddess_ right now and I have to
> ask, before I go crazy, as far as historical/anthropological/linguistic
> "fact" is he on crack, or am I a dull uneducated unpoetic soul (always
> possible :-p), or are there big gaping holes of logic?  I think I've
> never seen the words "obviously" or "evidently" or "of course," etc. so
> badly abused in all my life.  OTOH maybe I've been a math major too long,
> and the *poetry* of the work is quite beautiful and fascinating.  But
> what passes for logic in the book is just eluding me (especially the
> word-connections, reconstructions, etc.).  Anyone?  Anyone meep?
>
> YHL, unpoetic soul :-p
Nonsense, an unpoetic soul would have dropped the book once the flaws
in reasoning became apparent.

Graves should always be read as historical fiction. Suggestive
fiction, sometimes, but his are not scholarly works.

Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)

Replies