Normally, I do interviews of authors, both self-published or traditionally published. Today, I have something different. An interview with that most dreaded of literary creature: a reviewer.
Mr. Albert Robbins runs Free Book Reviews, a site that specializes in reviewing self-published books. I sat down (virtually) to have a quick exchange about his site.
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1) What inspired you to start your review site?
My name is Albert and my wife RJ Palmer is an indie author of the book Birthright. In saying this I became sort of her publicist, marketing and champion. Through my trials of trying to find the perfect way to promote her book, I discovered that many outlets were at best discouraging. So I thought maybe I can put together a blog, promote it, have the posts automatically appear on other sites, link in social networking and help all indie authors. This is where my journey has brought me so far, and I expect more will be coming in the future. I do not charge for anything I do. All I ask is that you promote this blog, follow me on Twitter and Facebook and promote each other. Even that is not a requirement.
2) What sort of genres does your site take?
Everything except Erotica
3) What is your general review philosophy?
1. We do not give stars except for other review sites that require star ratings.
2. We do not summarize the book (novel) in our review as we believe that adding the provided or available book synopsis to the post is clear enough. Besides a review is supposed to relate the feelings the book draws out not have the plot regurgitated.
4) Has your overall reading experience been altered by doing reviews? Do you find you are more critical now?
Yes, I see that I have started to become more critical in all writing. Even little Yahoo and MSN articles.
5) What sort of material would you like to see more of at your site?
Science Fiction
6) What sort of material would you like to see less of?
Dime Store Romance
7) What sort of things can authors do to increase the chances of being reviewed on your site?
If you submit, you get reviewed.
Because of our respect for the written word and our belief that writing takes up time and effort, we accept every book (except Erotica) submitted and place it in our TBR (to be reviewed) list. Keep in mind that it may take one or more months to get a review accomplished, but we believe the wait is worth it. Also keep in mind that because of this our review may not be favorable to each submitted book.
Thanks so much for letting me bother your readers.
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Free Book Reviews
The Nation's News (Free Book Reviews newsletter)
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
Mr. Beard's Regency Tour Day 7: Bad Boy, Super Poet, and Greek Patriot, Lord Byron: Part I: A Scandalous Life
Welcome to my seventh post on late Georgian/Regency England. If you haven't a clue what I'm talking about, please check out this post.
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'Tis strange -- but true; for truth is always strange;
Stranger than fiction.
-- Lord Byron, Don Juan
For the first time, I'm going to do a direct back-to-back multi-part series. Lord Byron is a bit too larger-than-life to summarize in just one entry, so this week I'll do an overview of his personal life. If you have absolutely no clue at all who Lord Byron was at all, it's a bit insufficient for me to describe him merely as a highly influential poet whose influence is felt to this day (particularly in the form of the brooding hero, the so-called Byronic hero). In addition, he's fascinating in that he was an artist who crafted a public persona that made his every action resonate throughout society. In the modern, over-saturated media age where the most insipid of individuals is granted celebrity through reality programming such a reputation may seem quaint, but back in the late Georgian and Regency era, someone like Lord Byron was an unusual force of nature. Next week, I'll focus on his contributions to literature and the following week his political contributions and world adventures. There are not many English poets, after all, who are also considered national heroes in Greece.
Despite what many assume, the late Georgian era and the Regency were often times of aristocratic excess. The strict morality of the Victorian era was partly a response to some of the behavior of the high classes in the Georgian era (it was also partially an attempt by upwardly mobile middle class elements to set up their status hierarchy via contrast of their own self-perceived superior moral values, but this is a late Georgian-era series, so we'll let that drop for now). The Prince Regent set the tone. He loved a good party and spending money. While there were plenty of fine people who were proper in their behavior, more than a few gentlemen liked to drink and gamble. If one could basically keep one's behavior relatively in check, though, no one was going to blackball you from high society merely for a bit too much fun at a men's club or something.
The Regency folk, though not the Victorians, still had their limits. Blowing off a little steam was one thing, flaunting your behavior quite another. There were some individuals who shocked the sensibilities of these people but who could not be so easily be dismissed. Some individuals sent shock waves throughout English society for both their blatant disregard for proper behavior and their sheer genius--individuals like Lord Byron, George Gordon Byron, the 6th Baron Bryon of Rochdale.
So, Byron was not just any random rabble-rouser, but a peer. Although his father is somewhat colorful character in of himself (a social climbing army captain), we're going to skip his early life other to note a few major facts that people would later attribute some of his later behavior. I'm dubious of that kind of retroactive psychoanalysis, particularly in regard to his sexual behavior, but many others think they can sum him up far more easily.
He had a foot deformity that gave him a life-long limp that shamed him, and he believed that an early painful treatment may exacerbated his problem. While specially design shows minimize some o his gait problems, it would never be totally managed.
His early life, even as a young child, included a noted propensity for developing intense emotional attentions toward girls and woman, perhaps a foreshadowing of his intense sexual activity as an adult. As a child, he was allegedly the recipient of sexual attention from a governess and a lord who was renting Byron's mansion prior to his inheritance (this lord would also be a suitor of his mother). He would go onto a fine education capped with a stint at Trinity College. Various letters penned during his time in school strongly hinted at least some homosexual leanings (very dangerous given the laws of the time period), though given his love of women, it might be more accurate to just declare them bisexual leanings. Lord Byron definitely liked the ladies.
Throughout his life he scandalized English society with his numerous rather well-known affairs with a variety of women, married and otherwise. Various rumors also circulated about affairs with men as well. Though it's hard to distinguish how much truth there are in many of these rumors given that some of them were associated with a scorned ex-lovers, as noted above he himself wrote statements in poems and letters about that seemed to indicate bisexual interests, particularly in his later life. Though he liked his alcohol and laudanum (alcohol solution with morphine), that sort of thing was well in-line with the "acceptable" bounds of behavior. It was his sexual misadventures that really started the finger wagging of proper society.
He was have alleged to have slept with hundreds of women. Now even if that's not true, he did sleep with enough women that a reputation as a "rake" was still well deserved. So, both in his potential choice of partners and sheer breadth, let alone his blatant public affairs with "respectable" women he completely blew past whatever "boys will be boys"-style acceptable sexual liaisons aristocratic society at the time might have otherwise tolerated. Indeed, on top of the accusations over his homosexual behavior there were also allegations of incest. The evidence seems much stronger to suggest the former versus the latter, which is likely people just misinterpreting his close relationship with half-sister and further jealously related rumor mongering. Some have gone so far as to claim he fathered a child with his sister. I personally find the evidence incredibly thin in that regard.
Now, one may ask why people were paying such close attention to one random aristocrat. He was far from the richest man in England or the most influential. He did, though, seek out attention and fame. In that sense, he's somewhat equivalent to a modern movie star: an artist thriving on the adoration and attention of the public. Of course this would end up eventually backfiring given that his every misstep alleged misstep was amplified in the public consciousness--again just like a modern movie star (though there's no record of Lord Byron jumping on a couch to declare his adoration for his love of the day).
He'd go on to father two confirmed children (one legitimate during his unhappy single year marriage and one illegitimate), though it's of course difficult to ignore the possibility he fathered a few more given his propensity toward sleeping around. Ironically, before I started studying the Regency in earnest, I already knew one of Lord Byron' children, Ada, who would later become the Countess Ada Lovelace, the so-called "Enchantress of Numbers". She worked with Charles Baggage, the grand master of mechanical computers, and developed what amounted to the first recorded computer algorithm.
Stepping back to Lord Byron, the various accusations and rumors floating about him basically forced his exit from England in 1816. There also was the small matter of his not insignificant debt. Live like a rock star, pay like a rock star, I suppose.
His departure year would be the infamous "Year Without A Summer" and a Byron-led vacation in Switzerland that lead to both Frankenstein and the The Vampyre. Lord Byron would never make it back to England. I'll discuss the circumstances around his early death (he died at the age of 36, 1788-1824) in week 3 of this mini-series.
-----
'Tis strange -- but true; for truth is always strange;
Stranger than fiction.
-- Lord Byron, Don Juan
For the first time, I'm going to do a direct back-to-back multi-part series. Lord Byron is a bit too larger-than-life to summarize in just one entry, so this week I'll do an overview of his personal life. If you have absolutely no clue at all who Lord Byron was at all, it's a bit insufficient for me to describe him merely as a highly influential poet whose influence is felt to this day (particularly in the form of the brooding hero, the so-called Byronic hero). In addition, he's fascinating in that he was an artist who crafted a public persona that made his every action resonate throughout society. In the modern, over-saturated media age where the most insipid of individuals is granted celebrity through reality programming such a reputation may seem quaint, but back in the late Georgian and Regency era, someone like Lord Byron was an unusual force of nature. Next week, I'll focus on his contributions to literature and the following week his political contributions and world adventures. There are not many English poets, after all, who are also considered national heroes in Greece.
Despite what many assume, the late Georgian era and the Regency were often times of aristocratic excess. The strict morality of the Victorian era was partly a response to some of the behavior of the high classes in the Georgian era (it was also partially an attempt by upwardly mobile middle class elements to set up their status hierarchy via contrast of their own self-perceived superior moral values, but this is a late Georgian-era series, so we'll let that drop for now). The Prince Regent set the tone. He loved a good party and spending money. While there were plenty of fine people who were proper in their behavior, more than a few gentlemen liked to drink and gamble. If one could basically keep one's behavior relatively in check, though, no one was going to blackball you from high society merely for a bit too much fun at a men's club or something.
The Regency folk, though not the Victorians, still had their limits. Blowing off a little steam was one thing, flaunting your behavior quite another. There were some individuals who shocked the sensibilities of these people but who could not be so easily be dismissed. Some individuals sent shock waves throughout English society for both their blatant disregard for proper behavior and their sheer genius--individuals like Lord Byron, George Gordon Byron, the 6th Baron Bryon of Rochdale.
So, Byron was not just any random rabble-rouser, but a peer. Although his father is somewhat colorful character in of himself (a social climbing army captain), we're going to skip his early life other to note a few major facts that people would later attribute some of his later behavior. I'm dubious of that kind of retroactive psychoanalysis, particularly in regard to his sexual behavior, but many others think they can sum him up far more easily.
He had a foot deformity that gave him a life-long limp that shamed him, and he believed that an early painful treatment may exacerbated his problem. While specially design shows minimize some o his gait problems, it would never be totally managed.
His early life, even as a young child, included a noted propensity for developing intense emotional attentions toward girls and woman, perhaps a foreshadowing of his intense sexual activity as an adult. As a child, he was allegedly the recipient of sexual attention from a governess and a lord who was renting Byron's mansion prior to his inheritance (this lord would also be a suitor of his mother). He would go onto a fine education capped with a stint at Trinity College. Various letters penned during his time in school strongly hinted at least some homosexual leanings (very dangerous given the laws of the time period), though given his love of women, it might be more accurate to just declare them bisexual leanings. Lord Byron definitely liked the ladies.
 |
He was have alleged to have slept with hundreds of women. Now even if that's not true, he did sleep with enough women that a reputation as a "rake" was still well deserved. So, both in his potential choice of partners and sheer breadth, let alone his blatant public affairs with "respectable" women he completely blew past whatever "boys will be boys"-style acceptable sexual liaisons aristocratic society at the time might have otherwise tolerated. Indeed, on top of the accusations over his homosexual behavior there were also allegations of incest. The evidence seems much stronger to suggest the former versus the latter, which is likely people just misinterpreting his close relationship with half-sister and further jealously related rumor mongering. Some have gone so far as to claim he fathered a child with his sister. I personally find the evidence incredibly thin in that regard.
Now, one may ask why people were paying such close attention to one random aristocrat. He was far from the richest man in England or the most influential. He did, though, seek out attention and fame. In that sense, he's somewhat equivalent to a modern movie star: an artist thriving on the adoration and attention of the public. Of course this would end up eventually backfiring given that his every misstep alleged misstep was amplified in the public consciousness--again just like a modern movie star (though there's no record of Lord Byron jumping on a couch to declare his adoration for his love of the day).
He'd go on to father two confirmed children (one legitimate during his unhappy single year marriage and one illegitimate), though it's of course difficult to ignore the possibility he fathered a few more given his propensity toward sleeping around. Ironically, before I started studying the Regency in earnest, I already knew one of Lord Byron' children, Ada, who would later become the Countess Ada Lovelace, the so-called "Enchantress of Numbers". She worked with Charles Baggage, the grand master of mechanical computers, and developed what amounted to the first recorded computer algorithm.
Stepping back to Lord Byron, the various accusations and rumors floating about him basically forced his exit from England in 1816. There also was the small matter of his not insignificant debt. Live like a rock star, pay like a rock star, I suppose.
His departure year would be the infamous "Year Without A Summer" and a Byron-led vacation in Switzerland that lead to both Frankenstein and the The Vampyre. Lord Byron would never make it back to England. I'll discuss the circumstances around his early death (he died at the age of 36, 1788-1824) in week 3 of this mini-series.
St. George got it all wrong about dragons: An interview with fantasy author B.J. Whittington
Today, I'm interviewing fantasy author B.J. Whittington.
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1) Please tell us about your book.
Thanks so much for the opportunity! Well, to be fair, there are three books in progress, the first, Dragon Soul, is available on Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com . The second book will be released in early 2012. Dragon Soul begins in a small village of the Palmir people. They are a quiet, productive and peaceful clan with an almost forgotten violent history. The Plague from the North—an attack of powerful, evil creatures—virtually annihilated them generations ago. They defeated the Plague, with the help of mystics and dragons - but at great cost. Dragons no longer survive as separate entities; their souls must reside in the flesh of human hosts.
To be a Dragon Host is at once a tremendous honor and a life sentence. A sentence of many lifetimes, as the Dragon Host’s life span becomes longer than normal humans; they usually outlive their human families by many years. Dragon Hosts have magnified senses and abilities. To host a dragon is to the see the world in entirely different ways - forever.
Hosting of Dragon Souls is not the only special calling of the Palmir people. Some are called to be Healers, a blending of practical and mystical powers. A rare few are Prophets. One Prophet has a vision that takes shape in a physical form and warns the Palmir people of an ominous event. Was it a just a reminder of the hellish past, or a harbinger of things to come?
What if the Plague returns? There are so few Dragon Souls. Could they defeat the monsters again?
And what of real dragons? Will they ever again exist in their own form?
2. What was your inspiration for this book?
3. Who is your favorite character in the book?
It changes from page to page. These characters have tricks up their sleeves that even I don't know about yet! Right now, it's Rasdor. Because of the opportunity to see the growth in this young dragon as he changed and matured... but you never know, later it could be Mona, or heck, even Vera. No telling what she could come up with. And who couldn’t emphasize with poor, poor Trella...
4. Dragons have been a staple of fantasy fiction for quite some time and even longer in myth. It can be hard to provide a fresh take on them. How does your book take on this venerable creature?
The book Dragon Soul can be read on two levels, on one we take it deeper into human experience and the human/dragon bond. They are in this fight for survival together and each must make sacrifices. The dragon isn't just a big, flying lizard -- it's a metaphor for the larger-than-life desires we all have, and the larger-than-life fears that go with them. In Dragon Soul, we see how these can meld to work together for the benefit of not only humans and dragons, but others in their environment.
The other level is an epic about Thol, a goat herder at Vedicville, who never imagined he would start his day as a human and end up as a dragon. Who would? Granted, he lived in a village of the Palmir People that mentored Dragon Hosts, but there are usually indications that a person is Host to a Dragon Soul. The first indication for Thol, was when his hands began to elongate and turn into talons.
At Thol's Scholla they taught that Dragon Souls are intelligent and giving. Not so, with hisDragon Soul—Rasdor—he is almost simple in his thoughts. Food, play and sleep are all that cross his mind, avaricious to please only himself... Unless he is dwelling on his wrath at his perceived ill treatment when he first Transformed, then he is full of a destructive rage verging on madness.
Rasdor is prone to what Thol's dama called a temper tantrum. However, the temper tantrum thrown by a child is laughable in comparison to those thrown by a dragon. Thol finds Rasdor completely unpredictable. He can see Rasdor's access to skills of his kind coming forth much faster than his maturity level. Soon an all-powerful dragon would be loose on the countryside with the behavior of a spoiled child...
Vedicville serves as a place to mentor Dragon Souls and Hosts, humans who transform into dragons. When Rasdor emerges unexpectedly and fly's off in a panic, the villagers commence a journey to find him.
The search uncovers more than the lost dragon, the key to saving their entire civilization. If they realize it in time.
5. Dragons used to be, at minimum, a symbol of danger and destruction in the West. Over the decades, particularly in the last fifty, they've had a bit of a reputation rehabilitation. In the West, they even had a long-standing association with the Devil. Although many fantasy books and movies such as Reign of Fire show that old-school dangerous dragons are still around, there are increasingly many works where dragons are either depicted as neutral/good (How to Train Your Dragon) or outright good. What do you think is responsible for dragons going from symbols of ultimate evil to their more mixed and often good modern reputation?
6. What is the worse presentation of a dragon you've ever seen (book, television show, or movie)?
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B.J.'s book is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and B.J.'s Author's site
You can also visit B.J. at http://bjwhittington.com/blog/
-----
1) Please tell us about your book.
Thanks so much for the opportunity! Well, to be fair, there are three books in progress, the first, Dragon Soul, is available on Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com . The second book will be released in early 2012. Dragon Soul begins in a small village of the Palmir people. They are a quiet, productive and peaceful clan with an almost forgotten violent history. The Plague from the North—an attack of powerful, evil creatures—virtually annihilated them generations ago. They defeated the Plague, with the help of mystics and dragons - but at great cost. Dragons no longer survive as separate entities; their souls must reside in the flesh of human hosts.
To be a Dragon Host is at once a tremendous honor and a life sentence. A sentence of many lifetimes, as the Dragon Host’s life span becomes longer than normal humans; they usually outlive their human families by many years. Dragon Hosts have magnified senses and abilities. To host a dragon is to the see the world in entirely different ways - forever.
Hosting of Dragon Souls is not the only special calling of the Palmir people. Some are called to be Healers, a blending of practical and mystical powers. A rare few are Prophets. One Prophet has a vision that takes shape in a physical form and warns the Palmir people of an ominous event. Was it a just a reminder of the hellish past, or a harbinger of things to come?
What if the Plague returns? There are so few Dragon Souls. Could they defeat the monsters again?
And what of real dragons? Will they ever again exist in their own form?
From a peaceful and uncomplicated world, with only the little frustrations that human characters inflict on one another, events thrust the reader into epic battles between dragons and the creatures seeking to destroy human and dragon alike. Proceedings propel humans into the middle of dragon-sized events. The world of the people is so rich, yet simple and comfortable, it's heart-breaking to leave it for the battlefront. Nevertheless, the Palmir people, like the dragons, go willingly in defense of their families. And in these stories, the families of humans and dragons, are one.
2. What was your inspiration for this book?
Honestly, the dragon/human bond is something that comes from my real life. No, I don't have aDragon Soul (that I know of yet!) and I've never seen a real dragon, but I have ridden horses all my life. You can form a bond with a horse that defies conventional description. Horse and rider begin to read one another's mind, almost as if we were in each other’s consciousness. To expand that into a rich fantasy world of other beings and, of course, people from other villages that didn't experience that bond, seemed like a great launching pad, so to speak.
3. Who is your favorite character in the book?
It changes from page to page. These characters have tricks up their sleeves that even I don't know about yet! Right now, it's Rasdor. Because of the opportunity to see the growth in this young dragon as he changed and matured... but you never know, later it could be Mona, or heck, even Vera. No telling what she could come up with. And who couldn’t emphasize with poor, poor Trella...
4. Dragons have been a staple of fantasy fiction for quite some time and even longer in myth. It can be hard to provide a fresh take on them. How does your book take on this venerable creature?
The book Dragon Soul can be read on two levels, on one we take it deeper into human experience and the human/dragon bond. They are in this fight for survival together and each must make sacrifices. The dragon isn't just a big, flying lizard -- it's a metaphor for the larger-than-life desires we all have, and the larger-than-life fears that go with them. In Dragon Soul, we see how these can meld to work together for the benefit of not only humans and dragons, but others in their environment.
The other level is an epic about Thol, a goat herder at Vedicville, who never imagined he would start his day as a human and end up as a dragon. Who would? Granted, he lived in a village of the Palmir People that mentored Dragon Hosts, but there are usually indications that a person is Host to a Dragon Soul. The first indication for Thol, was when his hands began to elongate and turn into talons.
At Thol's Scholla they taught that Dragon Souls are intelligent and giving. Not so, with hisDragon Soul—Rasdor—he is almost simple in his thoughts. Food, play and sleep are all that cross his mind, avaricious to please only himself... Unless he is dwelling on his wrath at his perceived ill treatment when he first Transformed, then he is full of a destructive rage verging on madness.
Rasdor is prone to what Thol's dama called a temper tantrum. However, the temper tantrum thrown by a child is laughable in comparison to those thrown by a dragon. Thol finds Rasdor completely unpredictable. He can see Rasdor's access to skills of his kind coming forth much faster than his maturity level. Soon an all-powerful dragon would be loose on the countryside with the behavior of a spoiled child...
Vedicville serves as a place to mentor Dragon Souls and Hosts, humans who transform into dragons. When Rasdor emerges unexpectedly and fly's off in a panic, the villagers commence a journey to find him.
The search uncovers more than the lost dragon, the key to saving their entire civilization. If they realize it in time.
5. Dragons used to be, at minimum, a symbol of danger and destruction in the West. Over the decades, particularly in the last fifty, they've had a bit of a reputation rehabilitation. In the West, they even had a long-standing association with the Devil. Although many fantasy books and movies such as Reign of Fire show that old-school dangerous dragons are still around, there are increasingly many works where dragons are either depicted as neutral/good (How to Train Your Dragon) or outright good. What do you think is responsible for dragons going from symbols of ultimate evil to their more mixed and often good modern reputation?
The problem, honestly, is inherent in the question. When you say "dragons used to be," it seems you're referring to contemporary stories, or maybe as far back as Medieval mythology, but that is far from the origin of the dragon in human experience. Stories about dragons begin in the early (pre-Mesopotamian) Sumerian culture, and continue into Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek and of course, Chinese traditions. The earliest stories don't portray dragons as a universal enemy of mankind, or as flatly evil, but often as a guardian of treasure, or,prophetic for these times, of water. Dragons were also guardians of secrets. Yes, they battled the gods now and then, and even heroes, but it was not a universal theme, at first. Therefore, my hope is that the evolution of the dragon in contemporary story-telling is due to an expanded understanding of the place dragons have always had in our collective imagination. A second reason for the change in portrayal reminds me of the ideas people used to have about wildness and wilderness in general. When humans first settled the wild places, the first order of business was to subdue and conquer. I think a fear-based part of the human psyche says, "if it is bigger than us, or more powerful, we must conquer it or destroy it". What better way to conquer a fear than to turn it around so that it serves us! So, we bend them to our whims in new ways, and that frankly, brings me to the last part of my answer. Dragons doing the same old (nasty, evil) things are boring. Every character arc, in every form of storytelling, demands change. Dragons are changing because we want them to.
6. What is the worse presentation of a dragon you've ever seen (book, television show, or movie)?
You know what, not going there. There are of course, some authors, and/or illustrators who fail to capture my own personal image of what a dragon should be or stand for, but in their mind, they may have nailed it. So, as an author with a vision myself, it would be pretty old-style draconian of me to slam someone else's vision.
7. What is the best presentation of a dragon you've ever seen (book, television show, or movie)?
7. What is the best presentation of a dragon you've ever seen (book, television show, or movie)?
Ha! Dragon Soul, of course! If the Dragon Souls of the world had been completely satisfied with the other dragon portrayals out there, would they have induced me to create new ones? Other dragons are the visions of their creators; mine were directly explained to me from the dragons themselves, via Mindspeak. You buy that, right?
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B.J.'s book is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and B.J.'s Author's site
You can also visit B.J. at http://bjwhittington.com/blog/
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
The Age of Tranquility and Peace, Heian Japan #6: Shinto, the Way of the Gods
I present the sixth in my series on Heian-era Japan. If you have no clue what I'm talking about, just click here for an overview of the Heian era.
One can't begin to understand a culture without understanding their religious and spiritual systems. I've been somewhat remiss as I have referenced Heian religion several times but have yet to take the time to talk about it much. Of course, religion, spirituality, and metaphysics is a complex topic, so like all these blog entries, I shall only be briefly skimming the surface.
The important thing to keep in mind about Heian-era Japan, and for that matter Japan for most of its history, is that its religious culture has been defined by an incredible amount of syncretism. Though they had the occasional bout of resistance to outside ideas and religious conflict, overall the people of the islands of Japan have had little lasting issue with integrating elements of different imported and native belief systems into something they did not find internally inconsistent.
During the Heian era, the culture was defined by a mix of the homegrown Shinto belief system and Buddhism imported from China. As the imperial family claimed descent from Amaterasu, the Shinto sun goddess, and many important families were involved in Shinto rites and/or temples, there was never a strong effort to push aside the beliefs, particularly as Shinto and the imported forms of Buddhism didn't demand much in the way of religious exclusivity from the common adherent.
Today I want to focus on Shinto (lit. The Way of the Gods or Spirits). It's important to note that Shinto, in contrast to Buddhism, can't be traced back to a single prophet or teacher. Instead, it is the accumulation of supernatural and spiritual beliefs that mostly originated, based on archaeological evidence, as least as far back as the late Jomon period (roughly 2000 BC to about 300-400 BC). It's unclear how much of Shinto beliefs developed independently versus being the result of influence by people emigrating to Japan from other parts of East Asia. In the centuries of the following Yayoi period, many elements of Shinto belief became somewhat more formalized. The imperial family, incidentally, claims descent to this period.
There were various iterations in Shinto belief between the Jomon and Heian eras. As this is a blog series about the Heian era, and not earlier Japanese history, we'll skip those and talk about the form Shinto had comfortably settled into during our period of interest.
Actually, we'll cheat and take a slight step back to the Nara period (710-794 AD). During this period, two vary important works were written: the Kojiki (712) and the Nihon Shoki (720). The Kojiki was mostly a book of myths and legends. The Nihon Shoki, although it includes some mythological material, was written more as a more dedicated history work. These works are relevant because they described (and more importantly recorded on paper) various extant myths, legends, and spiritual practices. At the time, Shinto was not thought of some sort of unified method of religious practice, but instead just the sum total of the collected beliefs of the people in those classical and pre-classical Japanese. The word Shinto itself was used in the Nihon Shoki to contrast it with the imported Buddhism. It wasn't until about the 12th-century that it came to be associated with somewhat more formalized, yet still accepting of syncretism, religious doctrines. So, in that sense, for a good chunk of Japanese history, Shinto was just whatever they believed in and certainly wasn't perceived as some sort of formalized religion. Shinto was just the way of the world, not special revelation.
Given that Shinto was just a way of understanding the world around them, the classical Japanese had little trouble, in general, taking up Buddhism at the same time. This is not to say, however, that no one ever had metaphysical struggles nor rejected, on some level, syncretism. Such issues are attested to in period fiction, period diaries, and other primary source historical material. That being said there was no wide-scale displacement of Shinto by Buddhism like there was with many other religions of the world as they spread into areas with extant folk religions. The two forms of belief both infused themselves into the spiritual DNA of Japan and to this today there are huge numbers of who follow both Shinto and Buddhist practices in Japan.
A key aspect of Shinto thought is a lack of separation in the spirit world and the human world. The fundamental root of Shinto is reverence and worship of kami. This is a very nebulous term. Sometimes it's translated into English as spirits and sometimes as gods. In a sense, it's both. Kami can be the inherent quality of certain things in nature. Kami also can be what Westerners would typically describe as some sort of animistic spirits. Some kami are also closer to what would typically be referred to as gods. Even these beings, however, are not quite the omnipotent and semi-omnipotent gods that defines say, the various Abrahamic faiths.
You could have a kami that dwells within a tree or a kami that literally was the tree. You could have a kami that is the a human who after death becomes the embodiment of the godlike embodiment of a concept (i.e., Tenjin-sama, kami of scholarship) or you could have a kami like Ame-no-Uzume-no-mikoto. This goddess was married to another kami and roughly speaking was the embodiment of merriment and revelry. A famous myth relates how when the sun goddess Amaterasu retreated to a cave after her storm god brother attacked her temples and servitors darkness fell over the world. Ame-no-Uzume-no-mikoto performed a comical dance that caused other kami to laugh. A curious Amaterasu ended up emerging from the cave to see the source of the entertainment, and others nearby blocked the cave, thus keeping the sun goddess outside and returning light to the world.
The basis of the worship of various kami were (and are) shrines throughout Japan both larger complexes and smaller more personal shrines in places like homes or in places like roads or the forest. Some of these shines are rather grand and scope (such as those associated with Tenjin-sama) and therefore would attract attention from many people, and some may be focused on some extremely local kami and might only be of interest to a particular village. Again, the important thing, metaphysically, is that these kami are not separate from the rest of the world even if, on occasion, they are insubstantial or physically intangible. They do not dwell in a separate spiritual plane or Heaven whether they are a goddess of merriment of the spirit of a river.
Another bedrock concept in Shinto is purity. In Shinto belief humans are born pure and become impure through physical, spiritual, and moral corruption. Many forms of Shinto rituals are based on purification. As I'm running long, I'll just keep in simple and note wicked behavior is an easy form of corruption under Shinto belief. Disease is one thing associated with physical corruption. There are a variety of forms of spiritual corruption, but one major constant is death and dying. The presence of death or the handling of the dead was often considered a major form of corruption. Certain jobs, such as being an undertaker or tanner, were considering incredibly spiritually corrupting and assigned to low-caste outcasts. Arguably, this contributed to the formation of the burakumin social caste that in many way lingers even in modern Japan.
Like many topics I've covered, Shinto could be an entire blog series by itself, so I'll stop here and just reinforce the twin themes of kami and purity. I shall be revisiting certain aspects of Shinto in the future in more detail as well.
Next week, I'll briefly survey Japanese Buddhism. All the same caveats will apply.
-----
One can't begin to understand a culture without understanding their religious and spiritual systems. I've been somewhat remiss as I have referenced Heian religion several times but have yet to take the time to talk about it much. Of course, religion, spirituality, and metaphysics is a complex topic, so like all these blog entries, I shall only be briefly skimming the surface.
The important thing to keep in mind about Heian-era Japan, and for that matter Japan for most of its history, is that its religious culture has been defined by an incredible amount of syncretism. Though they had the occasional bout of resistance to outside ideas and religious conflict, overall the people of the islands of Japan have had little lasting issue with integrating elements of different imported and native belief systems into something they did not find internally inconsistent.
During the Heian era, the culture was defined by a mix of the homegrown Shinto belief system and Buddhism imported from China. As the imperial family claimed descent from Amaterasu, the Shinto sun goddess, and many important families were involved in Shinto rites and/or temples, there was never a strong effort to push aside the beliefs, particularly as Shinto and the imported forms of Buddhism didn't demand much in the way of religious exclusivity from the common adherent.
Today I want to focus on Shinto (lit. The Way of the Gods or Spirits). It's important to note that Shinto, in contrast to Buddhism, can't be traced back to a single prophet or teacher. Instead, it is the accumulation of supernatural and spiritual beliefs that mostly originated, based on archaeological evidence, as least as far back as the late Jomon period (roughly 2000 BC to about 300-400 BC). It's unclear how much of Shinto beliefs developed independently versus being the result of influence by people emigrating to Japan from other parts of East Asia. In the centuries of the following Yayoi period, many elements of Shinto belief became somewhat more formalized. The imperial family, incidentally, claims descent to this period.
There were various iterations in Shinto belief between the Jomon and Heian eras. As this is a blog series about the Heian era, and not earlier Japanese history, we'll skip those and talk about the form Shinto had comfortably settled into during our period of interest.
Actually, we'll cheat and take a slight step back to the Nara period (710-794 AD). During this period, two vary important works were written: the Kojiki (712) and the Nihon Shoki (720). The Kojiki was mostly a book of myths and legends. The Nihon Shoki, although it includes some mythological material, was written more as a more dedicated history work. These works are relevant because they described (and more importantly recorded on paper) various extant myths, legends, and spiritual practices. At the time, Shinto was not thought of some sort of unified method of religious practice, but instead just the sum total of the collected beliefs of the people in those classical and pre-classical Japanese. The word Shinto itself was used in the Nihon Shoki to contrast it with the imported Buddhism. It wasn't until about the 12th-century that it came to be associated with somewhat more formalized, yet still accepting of syncretism, religious doctrines. So, in that sense, for a good chunk of Japanese history, Shinto was just whatever they believed in and certainly wasn't perceived as some sort of formalized religion. Shinto was just the way of the world, not special revelation.
Given that Shinto was just a way of understanding the world around them, the classical Japanese had little trouble, in general, taking up Buddhism at the same time. This is not to say, however, that no one ever had metaphysical struggles nor rejected, on some level, syncretism. Such issues are attested to in period fiction, period diaries, and other primary source historical material. That being said there was no wide-scale displacement of Shinto by Buddhism like there was with many other religions of the world as they spread into areas with extant folk religions. The two forms of belief both infused themselves into the spiritual DNA of Japan and to this today there are huge numbers of who follow both Shinto and Buddhist practices in Japan.
A key aspect of Shinto thought is a lack of separation in the spirit world and the human world. The fundamental root of Shinto is reverence and worship of kami. This is a very nebulous term. Sometimes it's translated into English as spirits and sometimes as gods. In a sense, it's both. Kami can be the inherent quality of certain things in nature. Kami also can be what Westerners would typically describe as some sort of animistic spirits. Some kami are also closer to what would typically be referred to as gods. Even these beings, however, are not quite the omnipotent and semi-omnipotent gods that defines say, the various Abrahamic faiths.
You could have a kami that dwells within a tree or a kami that literally was the tree. You could have a kami that is the a human who after death becomes the embodiment of the godlike embodiment of a concept (i.e., Tenjin-sama, kami of scholarship) or you could have a kami like Ame-no-Uzume-no-mikoto. This goddess was married to another kami and roughly speaking was the embodiment of merriment and revelry. A famous myth relates how when the sun goddess Amaterasu retreated to a cave after her storm god brother attacked her temples and servitors darkness fell over the world. Ame-no-Uzume-no-mikoto performed a comical dance that caused other kami to laugh. A curious Amaterasu ended up emerging from the cave to see the source of the entertainment, and others nearby blocked the cave, thus keeping the sun goddess outside and returning light to the world.
The basis of the worship of various kami were (and are) shrines throughout Japan both larger complexes and smaller more personal shrines in places like homes or in places like roads or the forest. Some of these shines are rather grand and scope (such as those associated with Tenjin-sama) and therefore would attract attention from many people, and some may be focused on some extremely local kami and might only be of interest to a particular village. Again, the important thing, metaphysically, is that these kami are not separate from the rest of the world even if, on occasion, they are insubstantial or physically intangible. They do not dwell in a separate spiritual plane or Heaven whether they are a goddess of merriment of the spirit of a river.
Another bedrock concept in Shinto is purity. In Shinto belief humans are born pure and become impure through physical, spiritual, and moral corruption. Many forms of Shinto rituals are based on purification. As I'm running long, I'll just keep in simple and note wicked behavior is an easy form of corruption under Shinto belief. Disease is one thing associated with physical corruption. There are a variety of forms of spiritual corruption, but one major constant is death and dying. The presence of death or the handling of the dead was often considered a major form of corruption. Certain jobs, such as being an undertaker or tanner, were considering incredibly spiritually corrupting and assigned to low-caste outcasts. Arguably, this contributed to the formation of the burakumin social caste that in many way lingers even in modern Japan.
Like many topics I've covered, Shinto could be an entire blog series by itself, so I'll stop here and just reinforce the twin themes of kami and purity. I shall be revisiting certain aspects of Shinto in the future in more detail as well.
Next week, I'll briefly survey Japanese Buddhism. All the same caveats will apply.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Tuesday Review Twofer: Not so alone in a land of darkness and two Native American cultures clash
A pair of reviews:
Ambition, honor, and culture clash in ancient America: The Cahokian by Zoe Saadia: http://bit.ly/vTrOyy (Historical fiction)
The good thing about darkness is that it conceals what's out to get you: Diary of the Displaced by Glynn James (Horror) http://bit.ly/vtcKh0
Ambition, honor, and culture clash in ancient America: The Cahokian by Zoe Saadia: http://bit.ly/vTrOyy (Historical fiction)
The good thing about darkness is that it conceals what's out to get you: Diary of the Displaced by Glynn James (Horror) http://bit.ly/vtcKh0
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