The Golden Bough

Like the Divine Comedy (last week’s episode) and (much earlier) O Alquimista and Mein Kampf, this was one of these books which took a long time to read and which I did so mainly out of pure determination to “finish what I started”.  It was extremely dull and repetitive.

 Background.  We read lots of H.P. Lovecraft and played Call of Cthulhu, a roleplaying game based on Lovecraft’s stories.  A large volume of fictional books, most notoriously the Necronomicon, are mentioned, but of those, one truly existed, Frazer’s The Golden Bough.  So naturally I felt compelled to delve into it.  Maybe not such a good idea. 

 In “The Call of Cthulhu”, probably the best-known Lovecraft story (if not necessarily the favorite of his readers) several remote tribes are discovered who ALL worship the same octopoid deity, better known as Cthulhu.  Since these tribes are all very primitive and all hidden away in deep, dark areas with no possibility of communication with each other, the logical inference is that this Cthulhu being must actually exist.  Well, that’s the idea.

 Enter The Golden Bough.  Frazer relates, at length and in nauseously repetitive detail, literally every primitive custom and superstition on the entire planet, whether from Roman times, deep, dark Africa, Gaulish France, the Druids, Indians (from India), medieval Europe, etc.  You name it, it’s in here.  And these customs and superstitions are remarkably consistent even between ethnic groups separated by vast continents and bodies of water – long before the Internet or flash mobs.  If he’s got a theme, he can’t just give you three examples.  He has to give you 30.  The same superstition or custom, repeated 30 times.  Multiply that by the number of customs and superstitions he’s out to demonstrate, and that fills up a 827 page book.  These are 827 single spaced pages in 9 point type, and no pictures.

 There are a few “naughty customs”, like sacred prostitutes.  But these are few and far between.  Mostly it’s stuff like Yule logs and Maypole dancing, fertility rites, rain dances, Winter Soltice festivals, Summer Solstice festivals, May Day festivals, Hallow’s Eve festivals, Lamma’s Eve (April 28?  Walpurgis Night, you know), even some Saturnalia in there for good measure, all of which was simply to ensure a good hunt, plentiful crops, avoid witchcraft, etc.  Nothing even close to H.P. Lovecraft.  If you didn’t know Lovecraft, you wouldn’t learn anything from this.  And the basic premise from one particular section of “The Call of Cthulhu” is the practically only parallel between the two. 

 Again, Frazer doesn’t argue that because all these different primitive peoples worshipped the grain spirits, that the grain spirits actually existed.  He simply states that this was a logical inference for primitive man who didn’t know any better.  And for his part, Lovecraft doesn’t explicitly argue that Cthulhu existed, although his intent was to take Frazer’s ideas and thrust them a few light years further.  Lovecraft loved to hint and imply and suggest, and considered himself too deft a storyteller to bludgeon the reader with anything direct – except at the very end for the “punch line”.  

 Anyhow.  As an anthropology study, it’s fantastic.  If you’re into anthropology, this is like Atlas Shrugged.  But that’s not my cup of tea.  If you’re a Lovecraft fan like me with zero interest in anthropology, be warned.  You will be bored.  Very bored.