Sometimes you have to love the Library of Congress subject headings...

Occasionally they get it right.

Gothic fiction (Literary genre)

Scope note: Here are entered works on the genre of fiction that combines elements of both horror and romance, featuring psychological and physical terror, the supernatural, castles or monasteries, ghosts, darkness, gloom and doom, etc., usually in a medieval setting. Works on the literary movement that spawned this genre are entered under Gothic revival (Literature).

And I just got to use it - Horray! The first cataloguer at King's to do so! Which is rather silly as we have some first edition Ann Radcliff here. Clearly someone wasn't paying attention!

Stephen Bokencamp - Ancestors and anxiety : Daoism and the birth of rebirth in China

Stephen Bokencamp is one of the top current scholars on early Taoism. During my MA my professor was frequently referring to his books (in particular Early Taoist Scriptures and opinions. This book looks at the Buddhist idea of rebirth and challenges some of the traditional views on how Buddhism influenced Taoism. The book focuses on the period of disunion at the end of the Han from the 3rd to 6th centuries CE. The material covered includes stories of ghosts returning to visit their descendants and request reburial, descriptions of the afterlife and the recorded works of spirit mediums within elite households. It encompasses nearly all my favourite parts of Chinese religion and is therefore not terribly surprising that I found it really informative and enjoyable.

One thing of interest was that the return from the dead narratives - with descriptions of the underworld were often more political in nature than religious. With the changing of dynasties people were rewarded or condemned in the afterlife for who they followed and claims to the throne were granted legitimacy. Requests for reburial, and forbidding of certain burial practices and rituals were not singled out because of their heterodox nature but rather were because they were being practised by a clan or a group that was at odds, or in danger of becoming a threat to those in charge and in the case of some rituals they were wanted to be removed as far from the capital as possible (92). Disasters, such as epidemics and famines, in the mortal world were explained as revolts in the world of the dead that had an impact on the living. Bokencamp describes this as maintaing both a sense of awe toward the dead and a desire to manipulate them (94).

The most interesting chapter to me was chapter 4, Doomed for a certain term. Following on from the chapter looking at the role of mediums in elite families it. It looked a specific case of the medium Yang Xi (and his writing as collected by Tao Hongjing. There was a very specific example of a woman (the deceased wife of the patron) who was causing illness within the family, whose sacrifices had been ignored and who was unable to go to the place of her rebirth without the sacrifice of a child. (Though the child lived to a grand old age). It was a very brief but fascinating look at the spirit medium's role within a family as well as their beliefs and their social structure. It was also interesting, particularly from a Taoist point of view, to see the role of women in these proceedings. Unfortunately neither of the women, the dead wife or the living daughter-in-law was presented in a very favourable light! So much so that Bokencamp admitted that he started to feel uncomfortable with the spirit medium. Stating that he felt Yang's that despite - or rather because of - the alluring descriptions he provided of celestial women, he seems to have maintained a pronounced animus toward their living counterparts (156). This is interesting as frequently in discussions of gender and religion strong goddesses or saints are linked to a greater role for women. Bokencamp also mentions that these mediumistic practices were occurring at all levels of society (129) but that this is the only fully documented case, and unfortunately the outcome is not recorded.

Bokencamp concludes the book by looking at how the idea of rebirth are discussed within the Lingbao scriptures of Taoism, in particular the Precepts of the Three Primordials. He states that the authors of these scriptures Do not simply accept this Buddhist doctrine of rebirth. Instead they critiqued, modified, and adapted the salient points of the doctrines to their own purposes (182).

References to follow up:
Religion and Chinese Society: Ancient and Medieval China Ed John Lagerwey 2004.

David Walliams - The boy in the dress

Having finished my very scholarly book on early Taoism at work I needed something to read on the bus home and found this for half price. When I first heard of this book it was described as a book about a boy who gains super powers when he puts on a dress. Which I thought sounded fantastic! Unfortunately the story wasn't quite like that.

I was picturing a child's picture book but this was more of a "novel". It also highlights the problem with "age-banding" that has become a part of a lot of children's books in the UK and I think is a terrible idea. It was listed as 9 and above, though really the writing style seemed closer to what I remember reading at 6, than anything I read then. It was overtly simplistic and not nearly as funny or clever as Lemony Snicket.

The setting was a mixture of modern suburban English life, complete with talkshows and lots of candy. But then there was the rather unrealistic character of the prettiest girl in school who befriended the main character and was very nice to everyone. The fact that the main character loved dressing up in girl's clothes AND football just seemed like it was trying too hard. Surely if there was ONE book that didn't need the kids to win the match at the end to be a success then the book about the boy trannie was the one! There also seemed to be a lot of emotional issues, such as the boy's mother having left the family, that felt a bit at odds with the otherwise humorous and light hearted nature of the story. (Almost as if trying to explain that the transvestite need grew out of a missing of the mother than simply an enjoyment of women's clothes).

But at the end of the day it is a child's book about a transvestite kid which makes it fantastic!