The Metaphysical Cat : Tales of Cats and Their Humans

by Gerald Hausman, Loretta Hausman

Presents a collection of anecdotes, folklore, and myths surrounding cats and their metaphysical side.

Genres: Nonfiction, Cats, Animals, Mythology

192 pages, Hardcover

First published August 15, 1998

About the author

Gerald Andrews Hausman is a storyteller and award-winning author of books about Native America, animals, mythology, and West Indian culture. Hausman comes from a long line of storytellers and educators, and has published over seventy books for both children and adults.

Reviews

[B. Barron · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh boy, I get to be snarky.

The authors apparently tried to be somewhere between a scholarly work and a collection of stories about cats – and in doing so failed at both miserably! They interrupt the stories with insertions of their observations and insight, killing the flow of the stories with some really pointless commentary.

They divide the book into chapters, each based around an archetype story-type (Cat as deity, trickster, guardian, lucky) which is a pretty good concept. My problem with it is summed up in their introduction where they state:
"All cultures have such mundane, yet mystical cats, and they are role models of a very positive kind, unlike the more popular archetypes of disaster, demonology, darkness and depravity. For though these are also founded in mythology, we believe they are demeaning and do not bear further publication."

So the dark tales are ignored, which totally undermines the concept of a book on mythology! The dark tales are every bit as important, every bit as telling and the tales of good! Mythology tells us about the people telling the stories, and in ignoring them you invalidate any claim to a study on the mythology!

Each chapter concludes by highlighting a particular breed of cat that the authors associate with the archetype – and in some cases that’s pretty fair (the Mau in the Goddess chapter and the Manx in the Bobtail chapter); but the Abyssinian is highlighted in two separate chapters (Immortal and 9-lives) while the household chapter highlights All Breeds (???)

Anyway I checked the bad reviews on Amazon and found a few good phrases to sum up this pathetic tome:
Poorly Crafted
Rubbish
Would not pass English 101
Waste of your time, to say nothing of being poorly laid out with no rhyme nor reason to the collection of anecdotes that fill it.


Thank you Amazon reviewers!

So if you are looking for stories about and/or the mythology of cats – look elsewhere. This book is a waste of your time.

[JLJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

For here is a creature that encompasses a world order long gone, a mythical voyage into the vastness of space and time.

This book aspires to be a compendium about feline myths around the world and to tie these myths to known cat breeds.

The myths that are mentioned are interesting, but they are mostly glossed over in passing. The book also contains anecdotes, sometimes coming from sources such as strangers that sent the authors letters or their friends, and are held up as fact. The connection between the myths and the breeds is oftentimes tenuous and pointless, as it adds nothing to the aforementioned myths.

I was also taken by surprise by the tone taken by the authors. I picked up this book to learn more about how different cultures viewed the cat, and although the authors do a good job providing a truly worldwide view, they veer into modern mysticism, the supernatural and pseudoscience which was distracting from the serious work that I'm sure they put into this book.

[Adriane · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I liked this book, but it didn't feed my need for information as much as I hoped it would. It certainly gave me a hunger to read the books it quotes and references but I didn't get as much substance as I would have hoped from it.

Thanks why it's 3 stars, it was good for what it was, but it felt like a book report essay for most of it and left me hungry for other books instead of full of knowledge as I like to be after reading this type of book.

The illustrations are cute, and I think this is a good start for anyone intrigued by mythology and/or cat science.

[Mariah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting but when the facts would start to get good and juicy they’d switch the subject or leave a small tidbit without explaining the why or how of the tidbit. Or they’d start a story but explain it badly. I do wish this book was longer! It had great potential but I feel it fizzled out before it really got started. What little information was there was interesting though, and worth a read - even though it left me scratching my head and wondering why there wasn’t more! They’d obviously researched very hard but I feel another edit by filling out the stories and concepts would have been worth the effort!

[Shane Noble · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's about cats, so of course it's going to be good. The authors give a tour of breeds of cats from around the world along with some stories and myths about them. I just wish it had been a little more in-depth. There was an extensive bibliography, though, so I may have to check out some of those.

[William Dickerson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting collection of stories, history, and myths about cats throughout history. Check it out if you are into cats.

www.lockheed40books.com

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this, a small, enjoyable collection of cat mythology and stories.