Robert Andre LaFleur

The best thing about this lecture series was how diverse the mythology covered in it was. It touches on myths from all over the world, though it does feature Greek and Roman myth more heavily than any other, and some cultures are notoriously absent (for example, I don't think Slavic myth was mentioned at all). The thing I liked least was how non-diverse the lecturers were. I was less than thrilled with hearing about, for instance, Incan myths from a white man, Indian myths from a white woman, or Chinese myths from a different white man. I appreciated that they all seemed to try to see the myth through the lens of the culture that it belonged to, but it still felt wrong. It was worth it for the overview, but I'll get my deeper look at these mythologies elsewhere.… (mais)

The book does not do justice to the sheer scope of the subject at hand ; the authors go over a plethora of ancient geographically disparate mythologies which spawned across the globe ;
Myths from ancient civilizations like Greek , Sumerian , Nordic , African etc which are are now form the archetype belief systems of current Abrahamic religions like Christianity , Islam etc due to geo-political consolidation and conquest ; which present day theists mindlessly spout as the “truth“ .

One can easily find certain prophetic “end of the world” patterns in all civilizations such as floods , fire or virgin births etc – which gives one a glimpse into the mind of humans who tried to make sense of their environment .… (mais)

LaFleur provides a very useful overview of Confucius's teachings that makes reading the Analects a much more productive process. Combined with the introductions and commentary of whatever version you're using, you'll be able to at least appreciate some of what Confucius was saying, how it applied to his times, and how it has been applied since. Still, there is much in the Analects that is difficult to assign a meaning to without deeper study. It is interesting to see how someone like LaFleur, can spend decades studying Confucius, something the average listener to this course is unlikely to do. LaFleur also discusses Mencius, the Book of Songs, and other Chinese classics in relationship to Confucius. This makes me want to read some of those other works. The course book written by Dr. LaFleur is very good--more than just a summary of each episode. There is a good deal of advice on how to read Confucius and what versions to try. (In his classes, he makes his students read SIX different versions!) I have started with two, the old standard D.C. Lau version and a newer Simon Leys version. Perhaps between the two, I will be able to appreciate more. Even with less than 100% understanding, it is easy to see, however, how the teachings of Confucius can be applied to today's authoritarian China. Or maybe not: like any book that is subject to interpretation, it is easy to bend Confucius' words to suit whatever purpose you want. After all, for years the Communist Chinese government was anti-Confucius; now they are using Confucius as a means to spread the Chinese language around the world while using "Confucius institutes" to subtly and not so subtly teach the party line to the rest of the world.… (mais)