Reviews for PhasePlane, version 3. 0

The average rating for PhasePlane, version 3. 0 based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-05-11 00:00:00 Lionso Sandoval The description of this is plenty straightforward, but I still bought it with the hopes of more actual mythology. Instead, the heavy emphasis is on the ethnologists (mostly white men) who ventured into British Columbia and the larger Pacific Northwest to collect tales from native tribes. I won't say this book was useless for my purposes, though, because it was very thought-provoking and includes a huge bibliography of texts, and perhaps more importantly, which ones are most authentic. This is judged by a series of questions (page 191). "What is the process of transmission? How did the story get on the printed page? Are there field notes that might reveal how scrupulous the ethnologist was in his procedures? How well did he know the language?" Etc. I know that in my reading, I have encountered many tales that seem... dry or child-like in simplicity. Now I understand why, and it makes me sad that these poorer renditions are the ones that are often re-published. I had no idea what the conditions were like for these original researchers. They traveled the wilderness on very tight deadlines. They might visit a village and talk to whoever was there, whether or not they were a storyteller. Some tales were recorded as if they represented an entire tribe while there might be significant differences between families. Others ignore the provenance of the story, such as "this tribe's story is just like this tribe's, which shows common roots and socialization" while the truth might be that the grandfather was briefly enslaved by the other tribe as a child and the story has been passed through the family ever since. Context means a great deal. I'll be keeping this book on my shelf as a reference as I seek out more mythologies, and the enlightened perspective will stay with me as I read across cultures.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-03-29 00:00:00 Steve Johnson The name of the story that I read is "How Serval Got His Spots" and since this is a fable, there isn't a author. This fable was told by the Ndebele people which is a community of people in Africa. The genre of this book is Folklore and the sub genre of this story is Fables. I chose to read this story for my English Presentation, since our unit is about fables. This particular story is retold by Nick Greaves. This story explains how Servals got their spots. The setting of this book is In Africa, a long time ago. The central characters are a Serval and a snake. In this fable, Servals had no spots, and therefore were called 'Lion's Little Cousins'. Servals wished nothing but to have a beautiful coat like a Zebra. Then, one day when a snake got sick and no one else would help him, Serval was so nice to help him get better. To thank this act of kindness, the snake bit the Serval, and gave him spots. This story teaches me a lesson about being kind and helpful. The Serval helped the snake when he was sick and no one else would help him. Also I think this story teaches that you should be kind to others, or else not many people will offer to help you when you need help. I liked this story because I think it teaches you important lessons. Since this is a fable, the characters didn't seem real. (Animals can talk) All in all, I liked this story. 10 - 13