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A Mantis Carol
One of many books by noted South African author who was a contemporary of, and became a friend of, Carl Gustav Jung. Thus this book is connected with psychoanalysis and a meaningful coincidence. A former library book in very good condition - dustcover in plastic sleeve.
- GenresAfricaNonfiction
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1976
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111 people want to read
About the author
Laurens van der Post
78 books166 followersSir Laurens Jan van der Post was a 20th Century South African Afrikaner author of many books, farmer, war hero, political adviser to British heads of government, close friend of Prince Charles, godfather of Prince William, educator, journalist, humanitarian, philosopher, explorer, and conservationist.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
September 6, 2019
I read this book in two ways that are so different from one another that I was never fully certain whether I loved it or wanted to shrink away from it.
First of all, the figure of Hans Taaibosch comes down to we the readers third-hand. A woman who knew him when she was a young girl tells van der Post about him presumably decades after Hans has died. And also presumably, she is from a wealthy white American background and she is sharing her story with a well-to-do, well-travelled white South African anthropologist. The subject of their moving conversation is essentially an example of the Noble Savage. Yes, it's a bit more complicated, but that's what it boiled down to for me, and even when the story seems to transcend its (post-?) colonial/imperial undertones I couldn't quite forget it.
But on the other hand, there is the less jaded, less socially aware part of me that was deeply touched by van der Post's message of love and how Hans embodied it in the way that humans are meant to. He rages against what the world has become, and how shut off humans are now from the force of love and the joy and meaning that it can bring to life. He decries how shut off from nature humans have become. He leans heavily on Christianity and Jesus Christ's embodiment of love, and having been raised a Christian I found myself connecting emotionally with that concept even though intellectually I was never comfortable with how Hans was portrayed as the noble savage.
I'm not sure if I can ever reconcile those two readings. This is a well-written piece, though it's never quite clear when exactly he wrote it or when the events detailed took place and that was a little frustrating at times. But if it were as simple as taking what he is saying about Hans at face value, the world would probably be easier to improve and change. As it is, there is a big old elephant sitting in between the pages of this book and van der Post never really faces it head-on. I don't blame him; the message he so eloquently shares here likely retains its beauty and nobility because of that omission.
First of all, the figure of Hans Taaibosch comes down to we the readers third-hand. A woman who knew him when she was a young girl tells van der Post about him presumably decades after Hans has died. And also presumably, she is from a wealthy white American background and she is sharing her story with a well-to-do, well-travelled white South African anthropologist. The subject of their moving conversation is essentially an example of the Noble Savage. Yes, it's a bit more complicated, but that's what it boiled down to for me, and even when the story seems to transcend its (post-?) colonial/imperial undertones I couldn't quite forget it.
But on the other hand, there is the less jaded, less socially aware part of me that was deeply touched by van der Post's message of love and how Hans embodied it in the way that humans are meant to. He rages against what the world has become, and how shut off humans are now from the force of love and the joy and meaning that it can bring to life. He decries how shut off from nature humans have become. He leans heavily on Christianity and Jesus Christ's embodiment of love, and having been raised a Christian I found myself connecting emotionally with that concept even though intellectually I was never comfortable with how Hans was portrayed as the noble savage.
I'm not sure if I can ever reconcile those two readings. This is a well-written piece, though it's never quite clear when exactly he wrote it or when the events detailed took place and that was a little frustrating at times. But if it were as simple as taking what he is saying about Hans at face value, the world would probably be easier to improve and change. As it is, there is a big old elephant sitting in between the pages of this book and van der Post never really faces it head-on. I don't blame him; the message he so eloquently shares here likely retains its beauty and nobility because of that omission.
October 20, 2021
I had looked forward to reading this; a quotation from the book has long been a favorite:
"The fall in America has always been something very special to me. It is one of the two natural phenomenon in the northern hemisphere that have always stirred me most. The other, of course, is the spring in England. Great as my love is for my own part of Africa and my tendency to set whatever it offers above all else in the world, I had long since to admit to myself that it is not equipped to rehearse the annual progression through time of all living, growing and even inanimate things as well as it is ordered in England and America. We have nothing that can measure up to the stature of an English spring, dressing up a naked world for the festival of summer.
"We have nothing so awesome as the fire of autumn sweeping through the great maple forests of America, stripping their leaves from them in tongues of flame until they stand naked and penitent before the reckoning we call winter. It is a moment always full of a profound and natural sanctity for me, when the earth round about me becomes like an antique temple wherein this conflagration, aflame and aflicker among the trees, accomplishes the final metamorphosis that fire did for the dead in those archaic places of the great forgotten mysteries, removing what was provisional, false and perishable from the spent life, so that only what was permanent, true and imperishable could accompany the spirit that once invested it on the journey to whatever lies beyond the here and now."
The mystical,somewhat purple writing continues. But the simple becomes part of the cosmic, and the odd tale of an aboriginal man in NYC becomes the larger drama of gods and existence.
Oddly, I am not now tempted to read more of van der Post.
"The fall in America has always been something very special to me. It is one of the two natural phenomenon in the northern hemisphere that have always stirred me most. The other, of course, is the spring in England. Great as my love is for my own part of Africa and my tendency to set whatever it offers above all else in the world, I had long since to admit to myself that it is not equipped to rehearse the annual progression through time of all living, growing and even inanimate things as well as it is ordered in England and America. We have nothing that can measure up to the stature of an English spring, dressing up a naked world for the festival of summer.
"We have nothing so awesome as the fire of autumn sweeping through the great maple forests of America, stripping their leaves from them in tongues of flame until they stand naked and penitent before the reckoning we call winter. It is a moment always full of a profound and natural sanctity for me, when the earth round about me becomes like an antique temple wherein this conflagration, aflame and aflicker among the trees, accomplishes the final metamorphosis that fire did for the dead in those archaic places of the great forgotten mysteries, removing what was provisional, false and perishable from the spent life, so that only what was permanent, true and imperishable could accompany the spirit that once invested it on the journey to whatever lies beyond the here and now."
The mystical,somewhat purple writing continues. But the simple becomes part of the cosmic, and the odd tale of an aboriginal man in NYC becomes the larger drama of gods and existence.
Oddly, I am not now tempted to read more of van der Post.
August 5, 2022
Van der Post has been debunked since his death as something of a fantasist, so there's no knowing whether there really was an American woman who dreamed repeatedly of the Bushman god Mantis, and got in touch with Van der Post to explain the dream. The other woman's story, who tells him about her friendship with a now-dead Bushman exiled in America, named Hans Taaibosch, does have something of the ring of truth about it. But if you take the story as it's presented, despite the author's somewhat paternalistic attitude, there is still something magical about it, and its message that we need to reconnect with the Bushman in all of us before it's too late. That rings true for me.
March 10, 2017
Just another romantic story about the eurocentric remorse for the evils of colonialism. An important story I guess. I appreciate the beautiful writing and the the unique perspective and longing to honor what shouldn't be forgotten. But this endangers the authenticity of what real remorse should look like.
June 7, 2011
Hard to compare to anything else. Pure Van Der Post through and through
September 15, 2012
Beautiful, haunting, inspiring. Remember to dance.
Read
April 19, 2011I remember loving this book when I read it, but its been so long, I was an undergraduate in college at the time, will definitely have to re-read at some point!
June 22, 2013
interesting book
April 26, 2019
This is a strange book. The mantis refers to the praying mantis, which according to van der Post is a key God in the culture of the San Bushmen of the Kalahari, and an American woman contacted him regarding dreams she had about a recurring dream she had been having featuring a a praying mantis. The book, however, is not about the praying mantis or though it recurs in the narrative like a leitmotif. Nor is it about the relationship with this woman. It is about finding meaning in the serendipitous experiences we experiences and the connections we make along the way. The contacts with the woman lead to a trip to the States, where in Philadelphia he encounters a woman who attends all his lectures at the Quaker retreat center Pendle Hill, who is desperate to engage with van der Post regarding her own serendipitous connection to the Bushmen, a fellow who went by the name of Hans Taaibosch she had apparently gotten to know many years earlier.
Taaibosch's appearance in this woman's life is something of a mystery. He had ended up in a partnership with a colonial Brit, who had turned him into a sideshow attraction after World War I and gotten him to Jamaica, where an American lawyer took pity on Taaibosch and the less than fair relationship and brought him to the States and connected him to a circus, before sending the colonial Brit packing. It is unclear whether Taaibosch then took up residence with the lawyer's family or if he just was a regular guest there, but form the way van der Post conveys the story this woman told him, she must have been in regular contact with the man in the 1920s. While Taaibosch fascinated her, and he apparently enjoyed her presence --she seems to have been still a child -- sharing some of his customs she never learned the how and why he had come to leave his homeland.
It is her need to make sense of Taaibosch with someone who was familiar with San culture that led her to seek out van der Post, and which leads to what a short intense relationship with van der Post centered around her experiences of Taaibosch and what van der Post can tell her about Taaibosch's worldview. This leads to van der Post's ruminations that Taaibosch, a lone figure from a persecuted almost exterminated culture, is a kind of Christ figure marking the twilight of this new imperial age.
I was initially worried that van der Post might overly romanticize the San, and perhaps he does elsewhere, but the San as a whole are not really the focus beyond their close connection to their world, which westerners have lost. In the end, van der Post's argument is that we love each other and value the time spent with each other in communion, no matter how short and in so doing reengage with the world and recognize the strange interconnections that in this case had brought van der Post together with this woman to hear the sad, story of Taaibosch seasoned with the loving connection between her, perhaps the lawyer, and a few others and Taaibosch.
Compelling as this story is and necessary as van der Post's admonition to love one another is, I was frustrated. I had gotten hold of this book because I wanted to learn more about the praying mantis and San culture. I also wish van der Post had offered some kind of plausible reconstruction of how it might have happened that Taaibosch might have become disconnected from his band. Maybe there was just too little to go on, but even a brief two-page history of colonial interaction with the San in before and during WWI would have been helpful, even if that is not the point of van der Post's book.
Taaibosch's appearance in this woman's life is something of a mystery. He had ended up in a partnership with a colonial Brit, who had turned him into a sideshow attraction after World War I and gotten him to Jamaica, where an American lawyer took pity on Taaibosch and the less than fair relationship and brought him to the States and connected him to a circus, before sending the colonial Brit packing. It is unclear whether Taaibosch then took up residence with the lawyer's family or if he just was a regular guest there, but form the way van der Post conveys the story this woman told him, she must have been in regular contact with the man in the 1920s. While Taaibosch fascinated her, and he apparently enjoyed her presence --she seems to have been still a child -- sharing some of his customs she never learned the how and why he had come to leave his homeland.
It is her need to make sense of Taaibosch with someone who was familiar with San culture that led her to seek out van der Post, and which leads to what a short intense relationship with van der Post centered around her experiences of Taaibosch and what van der Post can tell her about Taaibosch's worldview. This leads to van der Post's ruminations that Taaibosch, a lone figure from a persecuted almost exterminated culture, is a kind of Christ figure marking the twilight of this new imperial age.
I was initially worried that van der Post might overly romanticize the San, and perhaps he does elsewhere, but the San as a whole are not really the focus beyond their close connection to their world, which westerners have lost. In the end, van der Post's argument is that we love each other and value the time spent with each other in communion, no matter how short and in so doing reengage with the world and recognize the strange interconnections that in this case had brought van der Post together with this woman to hear the sad, story of Taaibosch seasoned with the loving connection between her, perhaps the lawyer, and a few others and Taaibosch.
Compelling as this story is and necessary as van der Post's admonition to love one another is, I was frustrated. I had gotten hold of this book because I wanted to learn more about the praying mantis and San culture. I also wish van der Post had offered some kind of plausible reconstruction of how it might have happened that Taaibosch might have become disconnected from his band. Maybe there was just too little to go on, but even a brief two-page history of colonial interaction with the San in before and during WWI would have been helpful, even if that is not the point of van der Post's book.
September 20, 2022
In sometimes poetic, sometimes overwrought prose, Laurens Van Der Post describes his journey in helping a friend uncover a "mystery" around a childhood acquaintance from Africa. There is white, colonialist arrogance in his tone at times. There is scientistic arrogance at others.
But on the whole the author tells this like it's a long dream, which it is. He conveys every nuance, sometimes to his detriment but often very worthwhile.
The prose certainly is florid, but also precise in diction. I can see why people call him a great writer. He ends in a spot-on meditation on the infinity of love. I enjoyed this eccentric little book.
But on the whole the author tells this like it's a long dream, which it is. He conveys every nuance, sometimes to his detriment but often very worthwhile.
The prose certainly is florid, but also precise in diction. I can see why people call him a great writer. He ends in a spot-on meditation on the infinity of love. I enjoyed this eccentric little book.
December 21, 2019
After a very promising beginning, this book went quickly downhill for me in the second half. From an interesting narrative about the Praying Mantis as a spirit god to the Bushmen of South Africa, it became an overblown and unfounded essay about dreams, the power of love, and even Christ on the cross. Not what I was expecting, and neither enlightening nor enjoyable for me. It's not that I do not like books with a spiritual theme, but this struck me as rambling and over-dramatic.
October 16, 2022
The movie Dances With Wolves is way better and goes over the same concepts in a much deeper way than A Mantis Carol does.
This book is overly verbose, and not even in a poetic way.
I'm probably going to burn it, so that nobody ever has to read it again.
Seriously...
just watch Dances With Wolves...
or read a walk to the river in amazonia.
A Mantis Carol is garbage. I regret the time I spent reading it.
This book is overly verbose, and not even in a poetic way.
I'm probably going to burn it, so that nobody ever has to read it again.
Seriously...
just watch Dances With Wolves...
or read a walk to the river in amazonia.
A Mantis Carol is garbage. I regret the time I spent reading it.
September 26, 2023
2,5
Laurens van der Post gebruikt zijn kennis van een van de oudste beschavingen/groep mensen, de bushmen. Door het gesprek aan te gaan met een vrouw na een van zijn seminars in New York hoort hij het verhaal van Hans Taaibosch, een onmiskenbare bushmen volgens van der Post. Ik heb veel geleerd van dit boek over deze groep mensen en hun manier van leven. Echter vond ik de manier hoe van der Post dingen omschreef/vergeleek soms te ver gezocht of te overdreven. Bijvoorbeeld de timing van het gesprek met de vrouw, van 21 tot 22 december, de kortste dag. Dit gaf een nieuw seizoen aan met meer licht, ook rond dezelfde tijd als de geboorte van Jezus, ook een man die niet door iedereen werd gewaardeerd terwijl hij geen kwaad was. Jezus en Hans Taaibosch werden vergeleken wat niet alleen erg vergezocht was, het geeft bepaalde dingen meer waarde, zoals toevallig dichtbij kerst, dan dat ze daadwerkelijk zijn.
quotes:
'a journey to new places in the physical world can encourage a journey within to places where the mind has not been before' (p 24.)
'none of us could ever know our own full selves unless we had some positive act of recognition by something other than ourselves' (p 57) kort gevolgd door de statement dat dit verloren gaat in de grijze wereld van het individualisme van onze tijd. Het is opvallend dat van der Post meer op te merken heeft over onze tijd en hoe we onze 'authentieke/ruwe' zelf verliezen. Zo ook hoe wij nu in een 'denial of love' leven en daardoor niet meer 'naturally' lief kunnen hebben (p 150).
'But it was a denial that could not be blamed on nature. It was enstrangement from their own natural selves and what was left of the natural life around them' (p 151).
'It was proof of how love was the only source of a spirit incapable of corruption either by wordly power or suffering' (p 150)
Laurens van der Post gebruikt zijn kennis van een van de oudste beschavingen/groep mensen, de bushmen. Door het gesprek aan te gaan met een vrouw na een van zijn seminars in New York hoort hij het verhaal van Hans Taaibosch, een onmiskenbare bushmen volgens van der Post. Ik heb veel geleerd van dit boek over deze groep mensen en hun manier van leven. Echter vond ik de manier hoe van der Post dingen omschreef/vergeleek soms te ver gezocht of te overdreven. Bijvoorbeeld de timing van het gesprek met de vrouw, van 21 tot 22 december, de kortste dag. Dit gaf een nieuw seizoen aan met meer licht, ook rond dezelfde tijd als de geboorte van Jezus, ook een man die niet door iedereen werd gewaardeerd terwijl hij geen kwaad was. Jezus en Hans Taaibosch werden vergeleken wat niet alleen erg vergezocht was, het geeft bepaalde dingen meer waarde, zoals toevallig dichtbij kerst, dan dat ze daadwerkelijk zijn.
quotes:
'a journey to new places in the physical world can encourage a journey within to places where the mind has not been before' (p 24.)
'none of us could ever know our own full selves unless we had some positive act of recognition by something other than ourselves' (p 57) kort gevolgd door de statement dat dit verloren gaat in de grijze wereld van het individualisme van onze tijd. Het is opvallend dat van der Post meer op te merken heeft over onze tijd en hoe we onze 'authentieke/ruwe' zelf verliezen. Zo ook hoe wij nu in een 'denial of love' leven en daardoor niet meer 'naturally' lief kunnen hebben (p 150).
'But it was a denial that could not be blamed on nature. It was enstrangement from their own natural selves and what was left of the natural life around them' (p 151).
'It was proof of how love was the only source of a spirit incapable of corruption either by wordly power or suffering' (p 150)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 11, 2010
Beautifully written. Excellent message.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews