Book Review: Cassandra by Christa Wolf

2016 review of a book written
by an author whose family name starts with the letter
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Women in a strictly patriarchal system always used to have a hard time making themselves heard, seen and taken seriously, but everywhere in the world and at all times in history there have been some who managed despite the obstacles that society, notably men put into their way. If they were lucky, they were much respected and adored for their achievements – whichever they were. More often, though, strong and defiant women were looked at with suspicion, even fear by men and women alike. They were branded as anything ranging from madwoman over shrew to witch and they were ridiculed, locked away or even killed. In the novel Cassandra by Christa Wolf the Trojan princess and seeress from Greek legend is depicted as an unusually intelligent woman with an innate yearning for independence, but neither her family nor the people of Troy accept her the way she is and so they don’t believe her prophecies when they should.

Book Review: Lake of Heaven by Ishimure Michiko

Modern life in overcrowded cities estranges society ever more from its roots, be they natural, cultural or spiritual. The consequence is that many people are discontent although they have everything they could wish and hope for. They suffer feeling empty, lost and out of place. Looking for a way to salvation, some become easy prey for self-appointed preachers who offer ready-made instructions for everybody leading to quick as well as lasting peace of mind. Others are luckier. Fate pushes them into a situation that allows them to get back in touch with their souls and to restore their natural bond with the world. In Lake of Heaven by Ishimure Michiko the protagonist travels to the place where his late grandfather grew up to scatter his ashes over the old family grave and finds a fading world still in harmony with nature and local culture.

Dreamtime

Being Austrian it may be presumptuous of me to post a text about Dreamtime on my blog. After all I’ll have to write about the mythology and religious belief of the first human beings that set foot on the Australian continent ten thousands of years ago and whose descendants keep living there, some proudly holding on to their traditions or even reviving them, others adjusted to the Anglo-American lifestyle. Moreover I’ve never been to Australia and never got a chance to exchange ideas with someone belonging to her Aboriginal peoples.

So how can I possibly know what I’m writing about? Well, I’ll have to rely on my memory of information that I heard about the Dreamtime somewhere some time (which fits well into the oral tradition) and on the internet that allows us to travel fast and without effort almost everywhere at any time – like in a dream.

There’s much more behind the Dreamtime than the word itself expresses. It really comprises the spiritual, natural and ethical system of the Aboriginal universe that has been handed down from one generation to the next through a number of stories told in the form of song, music, dance and pictures. The Aboriginal Dreamtime myths explain the creation of the world and the origin of life, thus the beginning of time and of knowledge. There is the Sacred World of Dreamtime and there are a physical and a human world, all of them interconnected through dreams. The Dreamtime was, is and will be forever. For a European it's difficult to understand and impossible to summarise in a few words, but for the Aboriginal peoples it's part of their daily lives and not just their heritage. It's a pity that in our part of the world so little is known about the Dreamtime myths, but there are books full of them for those who are open-minded and interested. I picked out one that seems to be quite good.

For first-hand information on Dreamtime be so kind as to visit the website of the
Aboriginal Australia Art & Culture Centre in Alice Springs, Australia:

http://aboriginalart.com.au.