Status
Available
Call number
Call number
APJA
Publication
HarperPerennial (1997), 336 pages
Physical description
336 p.; 9.26 x 0.89 inches
User reviews
LibraryThing member Laurenbdavis
I arrived at this book long after reading, "The Soul's Code", which is a book I much admire.
Unfortunately, this book didn't hold up. It's a collection of Hillman's essays, and perhaps the format of short essay doesn't permit for the development ideas as did "The Soul's Code." I found the reading
I'm sure there are words of wisdom buried in there, but they sure are buried. Consider, for example, this opening sentence: "The blue transit between black and white is like that sadness which emerges from despair as it proceeds toward reflection." What? Never mind that it's grammatically incorrect. And then, further on the blue theme: "It is the blue which deepens the idea of reflection beyond the single notion of mirroring, to the further notions of pondering, considering, meditating." I swear I feel like I should be high to figure that out, and I can't help wondering if he was high when he wrote it.
There's an awful lot of that. Far too much for me. I tell my students that no amount of 'mouth feel' in prose will rescue it from a lack of clarity. I rest my case.
I will return to Viktor Frankl, to Martin Buber.
Unfortunately, this book didn't hold up. It's a collection of Hillman's essays, and perhaps the format of short essay doesn't permit for the development ideas as did "The Soul's Code." I found the reading
Show More
somewhat pompous, difficult to track and in sections downright self-indulgent and obtuse.I'm sure there are words of wisdom buried in there, but they sure are buried. Consider, for example, this opening sentence: "The blue transit between black and white is like that sadness which emerges from despair as it proceeds toward reflection." What? Never mind that it's grammatically incorrect. And then, further on the blue theme: "It is the blue which deepens the idea of reflection beyond the single notion of mirroring, to the further notions of pondering, considering, meditating." I swear I feel like I should be high to figure that out, and I can't help wondering if he was high when he wrote it.
There's an awful lot of that. Far too much for me. I tell my students that no amount of 'mouth feel' in prose will rescue it from a lack of clarity. I rest my case.
I will return to Viktor Frankl, to Martin Buber.
Show Less
LibraryThing member breathslow
A good introduction to his writing, with selections from various of his works.
LibraryThing member Crypto-Willobie
Disappointed. I encountered a reference to this book which implied that it contained a reprint of Hillman's essay "Pan and the Nightmare", which I wanted to read. However it contains only a few brief snippets from it, totalling no more than 2 pages. The 'excerpts' format of this book makes it more
Show More
a 'Portait of Hillman by Thomas Moore' than an effective anthology of Hillman's writings. Show Less
LibraryThing member Crypto-Willobie
Disappointed. I encountered a reference to this book which implied that it contained a reprint of Hillman's essay "Pan and the Nightmare", which I wanted to read. However it contains only a few brief snippets from it, totalling no more than 2 pages. The 'excerpts' format of this book makes it more
Show More
a 'Portait of Hillman by Thomas Moore' than an effective anthology of Hillman's writings. Show Less
Similar in this library
Mysterium coniunctionis : an inquiry into the separation and synthesis of psychic opposites in alchemy by C. G. Jung
Projection and re-collection in Jungian psychology : reflections of the soul by Marie-Louise von Franz
Essays on a science of mythology : the myth of the divine child and the mysteries of Eleusis by C. G. Jung
The collected works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9, Part II: Aion, Resesearches Into Th Phenomenology of the Self by C. G. Jung
The collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9, Part I: The archetypes and the collective unconscious by C.G. Jung
Archetypal psychology : a brief account : together with a complete checklist of works by James Hillman
The fisher king and the handless maiden : understanding the wounded feeling function in masculine and feminine psychology by Robert A. Johnson
Inter views : conversations with Laura Pozzo on psychotherapy, biography, love, soul, dreams, work, imagination, and the state of the culture by James Hillman