DigitalDjigit
Honky Tonk Woman
Anyone have any recommendation on books on the subject? Fiction or non-fiction as long as it is interesting. I am thinking along the lines of those bits in "Snowcrash" by Bruce Sterling that talk about Sumerian mythology. So I am not looking for a dry account of the beliefs of Sumerians for example but a description of a possible reality behind them.
Another book from the non-fiction realm is "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond which deals in some scientific speculation backed up by archaelogical and biological research on the reasons why some people reached civilization and conquered the world.
A book that is somewhere between fiction and non-fiction that deals with the topic is the whole "Ishmael" series by Daniel Quinn. While a bit cheesy it has some good parts. I especially enjoed the part where he speculates on the events that inspired the biblical story of Kain and Abel (Kain symbolises the pastoral semitic people while Abel is their agricultural civilized neighbours, the whole story is propaganda against the pastoral way of life. pardon me if I butchered it).
Another book is "Generation P" by Viktor Pelevin. I think it is called "Homo Zapienz" in the English translation. I haven't read it in English so I don't know how the world play and the observations it makes carry over but it also has a bit near the end about Babylon and how advertisers worship Ishtar or some such thing. I cannot remember so I am reading it again.
So please talk about any books that talk about this.
Another book from the non-fiction realm is "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond which deals in some scientific speculation backed up by archaelogical and biological research on the reasons why some people reached civilization and conquered the world.
A book that is somewhere between fiction and non-fiction that deals with the topic is the whole "Ishmael" series by Daniel Quinn. While a bit cheesy it has some good parts. I especially enjoed the part where he speculates on the events that inspired the biblical story of Kain and Abel (Kain symbolises the pastoral semitic people while Abel is their agricultural civilized neighbours, the whole story is propaganda against the pastoral way of life. pardon me if I butchered it).
Another book is "Generation P" by Viktor Pelevin. I think it is called "Homo Zapienz" in the English translation. I haven't read it in English so I don't know how the world play and the observations it makes carry over but it also has a bit near the end about Babylon and how advertisers worship Ishtar or some such thing. I cannot remember so I am reading it again.
So please talk about any books that talk about this.