Review by ab2020 -- Mythic Worlds and the One You Can Be...

[ab2020]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Mythic Worlds and the One You Can Believe In" by Harold Toliver.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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To put it bluntly, academia is an extremely difficult place to spend one’s time—especially if one is not an academic. A good deal of academic literature could prove this fact within the first few pages. Few other books that I have come across prove it as well as Mythic Worlds and the One You Can Believe In by Harold Toliver. When I read the synopsis, I was fascinated by the book’s air of interdisciplinary erudition, but even I, an academic, ended up more than a little bit lost amid Toliver’s winding paths of analysis and argument. Though this is surely an innovative and unusual book, it is also a terrifically difficult read.

To be quite honest, I couldn’t tell you what Mythic Worlds and the One You Can Believe In is really about—at least not in one simple sentence. Toliver, a professor of English and comparative literature, takes on numerous fields of study in this book. Ultimately, his argument is one against myth and legend (otherwise known as religion) and in favor of natural history and natural philosophy (otherwise known as science). In order to make this argument, he incorporates a range of disciplines, from evolutionary biology to political philosophy to modernist literature. He analyzes a diverse range of writings, including those of Homer, Thucydides, Darwin, Swift, Pope, and Milton.

Toliver does all this in fewer than 250 pages of prose, so his writing is inevitably dense. The book is neatly divided into four parts, which comprise a total of twelve chapters. Each chapter is further subdivided into discussions of a range of topics. While one paragraph might concern the Book of Deuteronomy, the next might concern the Melian Dialogue. This is not to say that Toliver’s writing is fast-paced. Rather, Toliver’s capacity for drawing an extraordinarily wide web of intellectual connections may be difficult to follow for some readers.

Toliver’s writing style, while not poor, definitely does not make his book any easier to understand. Like any good academic, he is adept at incorporating quotes and other evidence into his prose. However, his long sentences and long paragraphs occasionally seem to ramble, and his basic argument sometimes gets lost amid the fluff of his prose. To make matters worse, he has a penchant for leaving out commas, and the book is certainly not perfect in terms of editing. Nonetheless, the dedicated reader should be able to overlook these errors and find pleasure in Toliver’s analysis.

Mythic Worlds and the One You Can Believe In is, above all, an incredibly unique work of academic literature. Yet, no matter how interesting its premise may be, it is still a work of academic literature. This means that lay readers may need a substantial amount of courage in order to attempt this book. True understanding of Toliver’s argument may require several readings and detailed annotation of the text. However, Mythic Worlds and the One You Can Believe In is undeniably an enlightening read. It is not perfect, but I would definitely recommend it to those brave enough to try. Thus, I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars.

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Mythic Worlds and the One You Can Believe In
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[Mildred Echesa]

I don't like the aspect of religion discussed in the book because religion is tarnished mostly christianity