“I throw the bleeding nopal / into a pan, pull out another.” – Gloria Anzaldúa, “Nopalitos”
Who doesn’t love a good cosmology? An incestuous pantheon? A truly out there creation myth that ends up making you feel kinda warm inside, actually?
Barring that, maybe you’d be interested in a pyramid of human skulls?
What I’ve Been Reading This Week:
Listen: you kinda can judge a book by its cover. If you read enough books and are familiar with the trends of your time, you can sometimes know what you’re in for. This book had a cover that, in-store, made me think, “this might be trash.” Another thought kept entering my brain, though: “you’re in Mexico City, if this book is good, it’ll be a great trip memento!” The contents of the book were hidden by shrink wrap. No, I did not pull out my phone and Google the title. Google is untrustworthy. Anyway, sorry to spoil the next paragraph, but this is the worst, most disappointing book I’ve read in the history of this blog. There’s maybe one, maybe two other books in the history of this blog that I have hated, but I always try to be nice if the author is living and it seemed like they tried. This author editor is living, but I think even he might agree that he didn’t try. I’m talking, of course, about Aztec Myths, “Generally Edited” by Jake Johnson.
It wasn’t the first mention of “half-breed” that roused my suspicion. No, it was before that, when the text was ordering of civilizations, the discussion of Nahua people as “barbarous” and that some “civilizing force,” like the Tolecs, was what kept them from remaining cavemen or whatever. No mention of calipers, but some mentions of skull shapes.
Goodreads seems to suggest this book is a cut-and-paste mashup of 19th century texts. A lot of the syntax and diction support this premise. Are the stories and myths themselves cool enough to plow through the messy text? Sort of. I mean, yes—Mesoamerican and pre-Columbian American stories, myths, and histories are endlessly fascinating. I just kept getting the feeling like I couldn’t totally trust what I was reading. Obviously, I’m not up on the subject matter enough to cross-reference previous knowledge, or else I wouldn’t have bought this book. Idk, history is really tough sometimes, because you never know when a white supremacist is gonna pop out of the bushes of the paragraphs. This time, I got got. No amount of pyramids of human skulls will get me hooked on bad history. That was actually the first red flag—some people absolutely relish bringing up Mesoamerican human sacrifice, and those people should be avoided. Should’ve listened to instinct.
What I don’t regret: giving Ghandi Books in Mexico City however many pesos this was. I’ll spend all kinds of money in Mexico City, that place rules.
LINKS!
No musical intro this week because there are a lot of YouTube videos. I want to do some fun myth stuff, and I want to give some Indigenous Americans some voices in this column, since I really don’t feel like Aztec Myths Generally Edited by Jake Jackson, No Not The Guy Who Did That Kinda Self-Indulgent Movie That Was On All The Podcast Ads For A Month, No Not The Singer-Songwriter, No Not The Boxer, Jake Jackson.
Am I gonna talk about Crash Course again? You bet I am! Love Crash Course. Here’s a link to the entire World Mythology playlist. Here’s a video on ancient floods. Love an ancient flood:
Not to spoil an upcoming one of these columns, but I’ve begun reading Never Whistle At Night, edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. It’s an anthology of horror fiction by Indigenous authors, and the first story, “Kushtuka” by Mathilda Zeller, is a real banger. Here’s a great interview with Mathilda Zeller in Horror Writers Association, where she says “it’s fun to be scared.” Don’t I know it. Y’all watched In A Violent Nature? It’s real good.
PBS Origins is another great channel. Now, I love the National Parks. Except Mount Rushmore, which An Indigenous People’s History Of The United States so soured me on that I don’t even play the party game of “Mount Rushmore of Rappers” or “Mount Rushmore of NBA players” or whatever anymore. Anyway, national parks rip, but you definitely want to watch Tai Leclaire on our national parks:
Let’s go back to Horror Writers Association. Here’s an interview with Shane Hawk, one of the editors of Never Whistle At Night. Shane cuts to the core of what frustrated me so much with Aztec Myths, and gets at why I think the 21st century is a pretty good time to be a reader: “Allow Indigenous Horror writers to delve into these stories with these creatures because historically speaking, we’ve had non-Natives tell our stories for centuries. Take a step back and give us a go. As for including Indigenous characters in their stories, that is fantastic, and I will always support it. Just give time and care to them; don’t make them cardboard; be cognizant of stereotypes and contemporary optics.”
The Ancient Americas YouTube channel is really good. I don’t know about host Pete’s qualifications, but I appreciate his thoroughness.
What’re you still doing here? Brendan and I were really trying to create a mythos of suburban evangelicals when we wrote Vine. Why don’t you go read Vine?
If you work in the service industry, may you clean up in tips this weekend. Don’t let some jerk with calipers call your work “unskilled.” That’s a bogus term. All this “higher” and “lower” and “civilized” and “uncivilized” is reductive and bunk, if you ask me.
Sorry you got an email,
Chris