Saturday 1 February 2014

Bullwinch's Mythology

It is very rare that a work by Poul Anderson does not appeal to me but there are two in Fantasy (New York, 1981): "Pact" and "Bullwinch's Mythology." Both are humor. It is good that Anderson's many genres include humor and some of his humorous works do appeal to me, e. g., certain passages in Midsummer Tempest.

"Bullwinch's Mythology" is a list of American gods. (Digression: a Neil Gaiman novel is called American Gods.) 

According to Bullwinch, writing later:

"...scholars feel assured that the divine family numbered the usual twelve." (p. 304)

Buro
Atomika
Toolsmith
Keen
Bunni
Jesus
Brothergood
Popop
Farway
Kak
Liberty
Bom

Usually, I would at least summarize information about each and might also comment whereas, this time, I cannot even bring myself to read the descriptions in full! However, every humorous piece does not work for every reader. I always skip the satirical glossary when rereading the excellent There Will Be Time.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Greetings,

Well, tastes differ; I found "Pact" and "Bullwinch's Mythology" delightful. By the way, I believe that the latter was originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction as "Poulfinch's Mythology," which strikes me as a better title, but perhaps Anderson disagreed.

I remember showing "Bullwinch's Mythology" to my mother, not normally a science fiction fan or a Poul Anderson enthusiast. She thought it was great, laughed, and read a choice passage aloud to me.

Best Regards,
Nicholas

Paul Shackley said...

Nicholas,
Well, it proves that tastes differ in humor. But there are very few Anderson works that do not work for me.
Paul.

john_m_burt said...

I was impressed by this piece (which appeared in the October 1967 issue of Galaxy, not F&SF: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?52407). I didn't so much laugh out loud as I did wince appreciatively (either in sympathy or indignation, depending on how well I agreed with Anderson regarding each god). I loved, for instance, the description of the goddess Liberty wearing a crown of thorns in recognition of how often she had been raped, though I disagreed that hippies were conspicuous among the rapists.

Paul Shackley said...

John,
Thank you for a new comment on an old post!
Paul.