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Courting the Wild Twin
Master mythologist Martin Shaw uses timeless story-wisdom to examine our broken relationship with the world.
There is an old legend that says we each have a wild, curious twin that was thrown out the window the night we were born, taking much of our vitality with them. If there was something we were meant to do with our few, brief years on Earth, we can be sure that the wild twin is holding the key.
In Courting the Wild Twin, Dr. Martin Shaw invites us to seek out our wild twin––a metaphor for the part of ourselves that we generally shun or ignore to conform to societal norms––to invite them back into our consciousness, for they have something important to tell us. He challenges us to examine our broken relationship with the world, to think boldly, wildly, and in new ways about ourselves—as individuals and as a collective.
Through the use of scholarship, storytelling, and personal reflection, Shaw unpacks two ancient European fairy tales that concern the mysterious wild twin. By reading these tales and becoming storytellers ourselves, he suggests we can restore our agency and confront modern challenges with purpose, courage, and creativity.
Courting the Wild Twin is a declaration of literary activism and an antidote to the shallow thinking that typifies our age. Shaw asks us to recognize mythology as a secret weapon—a radical, beautiful, heart-shuddering agent of deep, lasting change.
There is an old legend that says we each have a wild, curious twin that was thrown out the window the night we were born, taking much of our vitality with them. If there was something we were meant to do with our few, brief years on Earth, we can be sure that the wild twin is holding the key.
In Courting the Wild Twin, Dr. Martin Shaw invites us to seek out our wild twin––a metaphor for the part of ourselves that we generally shun or ignore to conform to societal norms––to invite them back into our consciousness, for they have something important to tell us. He challenges us to examine our broken relationship with the world, to think boldly, wildly, and in new ways about ourselves—as individuals and as a collective.
Through the use of scholarship, storytelling, and personal reflection, Shaw unpacks two ancient European fairy tales that concern the mysterious wild twin. By reading these tales and becoming storytellers ourselves, he suggests we can restore our agency and confront modern challenges with purpose, courage, and creativity.
Courting the Wild Twin is a declaration of literary activism and an antidote to the shallow thinking that typifies our age. Shaw asks us to recognize mythology as a secret weapon—a radical, beautiful, heart-shuddering agent of deep, lasting change.
128 pages, Paperback
Published March 11, 2020
182 people are currently reading
3049 people want to read
About the author
Martin Shaw
22 books385 followersDr Martin Shaw is an acclaimed teacher of myth. Author of the award-winning Mythteller trilogy (A Branch from the Lightning Tree, Snowy Tower, Scatterlings), he founded the Oral Tradition and Mythic Life courses at Stanford University, whilst being director of the Westcountry School of Myth in the UK.
He has introduced thousands of people to mythology and how it penetrates modern life. For twenty years Shaw has been a wilderness rites of passage guide, working with at-risk youth, the sick, returning veterans and many women and men seeking a deeper life.
His translations of Gaelic poetry and folklore (with Tony Hoagland) have been published in Orion Magazine, Poetry International, Kenyon Review, Poetry Magazine and the Mississippi Review.
Shaw’s most recent books include The Night Wages, Cinderbiter, Wolf Milk, Courting the Wild Twin, All Those Barbarians, Wolferland and his Lorca translations, Courting the Dawn (with Stephan Harding). His essay and conversation with Ai Weiwei on myth and migration was released by the Marciano Arts foundation.
For more on Martin Shaw’s work:
cistamystica.com | drmartinshaw.com | schoolofmyth.com | martinshaw.substack.com
He has introduced thousands of people to mythology and how it penetrates modern life. For twenty years Shaw has been a wilderness rites of passage guide, working with at-risk youth, the sick, returning veterans and many women and men seeking a deeper life.
His translations of Gaelic poetry and folklore (with Tony Hoagland) have been published in Orion Magazine, Poetry International, Kenyon Review, Poetry Magazine and the Mississippi Review.
Shaw’s most recent books include The Night Wages, Cinderbiter, Wolf Milk, Courting the Wild Twin, All Those Barbarians, Wolferland and his Lorca translations, Courting the Dawn (with Stephan Harding). His essay and conversation with Ai Weiwei on myth and migration was released by the Marciano Arts foundation.
For more on Martin Shaw’s work:
cistamystica.com | drmartinshaw.com | schoolofmyth.com | martinshaw.substack.com
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 142 reviews
March 29, 2020
If you enjoy Joseph Campbell, James Hillman and the myth work of Robert Bly, this is a book for you. For full effect, read it in the woods. Or how I did, during a storm full of lightning and thunder.
August 11, 2024
I did not fully connect with this book until the last chapter - that one really resonated deeply with me. Some beautiful language & insides. But the way the two stories were dissected reminded me a lot of Women Who Run With The Wolves and that one was much more substantial imo!
June 7, 2020
This slim volume is a master class in the power of fairy tales for transformation and healing, not just self but world, and the deep art of storytelling. The two tales "Lindworm" and "Tatterhood" are personal favorites but less well-known outside of storytelling circles. This is a book I know I will return to whenever I'm in need of sustenance.
January 25, 2024
this book is sublime. Shaw’s prose is magical, achingly gorgeous and so crucial. something in this speaks to me so deeply, the genius of the analysis and connection between mythology and soul is illuminating. i will be returning to this book whenever i feel the fatigue and meaningless of modernity weighing on me.
some of the innumerable heart-rending quotes:
‘it is an unnecessary misery to feel that the honeycomb of previous centuries is not available. it is.’
‘but that pesky alchemical insistence within myth never goes away, that we acknowledge deeply the wound but can’t languish there as it’s final articulation, it’s last alliteration. beauty is created not just by desire but by diligence. by circling again and again like a hawk round the well to what truly sends you both dizzy with admiration but also utterly focused in service. be mastered by beauty is what i’m saying. be defeated by it. rise to it in the weepy faithfulness of your response.’
‘attend to the grace. start to gaze through a divine and subtle lens at your life and everything changes. it doesn’t last for long, and the profundity of that realisation can be the beginning of gratitude.’
some of the innumerable heart-rending quotes:
‘it is an unnecessary misery to feel that the honeycomb of previous centuries is not available. it is.’
‘but that pesky alchemical insistence within myth never goes away, that we acknowledge deeply the wound but can’t languish there as it’s final articulation, it’s last alliteration. beauty is created not just by desire but by diligence. by circling again and again like a hawk round the well to what truly sends you both dizzy with admiration but also utterly focused in service. be mastered by beauty is what i’m saying. be defeated by it. rise to it in the weepy faithfulness of your response.’
‘attend to the grace. start to gaze through a divine and subtle lens at your life and everything changes. it doesn’t last for long, and the profundity of that realisation can be the beginning of gratitude.’
May 8, 2021
“The radical agency of beauty,” the cover says.
“What you exile will grow hostile toward you,” the story says.
This small volume might be quickly read but it asks questions that linger— difficult questions of the reader’s origin story and of our relationship to the earth and to our old, original longings. Using two ancient tales of exile and magic, and full of sentences I had to repeat aloud because of their beauty, Martin Shaw shows in Courting the Wild Twin the healing possibilities within story, and storytelling as a communal practice of spell-breaking. A book to return to again and again, especially in heartbreak, and especially if you, like me, are often unsure of how to keep dreaming into a world experiencing collapsing climate and catastrophic change.
Relationship and relatedness.
Communication with beauty.
Image versus concept, and hearing instead of merely seeing.
And this question: what are the twelve secret names of that which claims you?
“What you exile will grow hostile toward you,” the story says.
This small volume might be quickly read but it asks questions that linger— difficult questions of the reader’s origin story and of our relationship to the earth and to our old, original longings. Using two ancient tales of exile and magic, and full of sentences I had to repeat aloud because of their beauty, Martin Shaw shows in Courting the Wild Twin the healing possibilities within story, and storytelling as a communal practice of spell-breaking. A book to return to again and again, especially in heartbreak, and especially if you, like me, are often unsure of how to keep dreaming into a world experiencing collapsing climate and catastrophic change.
Relationship and relatedness.
Communication with beauty.
Image versus concept, and hearing instead of merely seeing.
And this question: what are the twelve secret names of that which claims you?
October 30, 2020
Two and a half? Some nice language/thought jewels, but half the time I didn't know what he was talking about. It wasn't what I expected.
July 27, 2020
Insanely beautiful. A journey into the other world to bring back your wild spirit, the one that knows how to fall in love so deeply with the natural world that we spark the possibility of saving it and our lost selves both.
May 25, 2020
“Find something to adore and keep talking to it.”
September 5, 2020
In a world drowning itself in dualisms, Shaw's call-to-action is weighty yet simple: like the blind oracles of old, listen closely and find a third way.
April 6, 2025
šīgada THE grāmata. citāts pēc citāta.
Bad storytellers make spells. Good storytellers break them.
relatedness breeds love, and love can excavate conscience.
without relatedness we dwell in the Moon palace: safe but we touch nothing. hertbreak gets us there. the earth is only three steps down; instigated by longing to connect, for opinion, passion.
keep an eye on the miraculous. its not for us to bloe the candle out; only the gods can do that.
your wild tein is incorrigible, melodramatic, and has only your best interests at heart.
the greatest poems are not written by the woman who got that last kiss; they are written by thr woman who didnt.
Bad storytellers make spells. Good storytellers break them.
relatedness breeds love, and love can excavate conscience.
without relatedness we dwell in the Moon palace: safe but we touch nothing. hertbreak gets us there. the earth is only three steps down; instigated by longing to connect, for opinion, passion.
keep an eye on the miraculous. its not for us to bloe the candle out; only the gods can do that.
your wild tein is incorrigible, melodramatic, and has only your best interests at heart.
the greatest poems are not written by the woman who got that last kiss; they are written by thr woman who didnt.
April 26, 2024
The premise of this sounded right up my street. I really liked the concept, the idea of old folklore and mythology tying neatly into modern psychology. However, I think this could have been executed a bit better. I thought the writing was beautiful in some parts but in other parts it was overdone and it took the experience away. I also don’t think this should be classed as fiction, personally I think it belongs in the self help category, which again, I didn’t love. I really liked the atmosphere in the first half of the book but unfortunately I lost interest in the second half.
April 14, 2021
Kind of strange book, not really what I expected. I enjoyed the fairytales a lot, they were not ones I had ever heard before, and the analysis of them within the context of the "wild twin" rhetoric was interesting. Some really great, thought-provoking ideas throughout the text, HOWEVER, there were a number of points where I lost the thread. Part literary analysis, part philosophical essay, part environmental lecture, part history lesson, part self-help book... it asks a lot of its lean 120 pages. But the writing is lovely and lyrical, and I was engaged enough that I'll seek out more of Shaw's work, and try to track down some of the referenced sources for more context, and I guess, as a scholar and teacher, that's one of the best possible outcomes for the author.
February 26, 2022
I first read this a couple years ago and just revisited it again, only this time via audio. Shaw reads the book himself and that makes all the difference. It doesn't hurt that I am a much-changed person from when I absorbed the book the first time. These past two years have been an eternity, haven't they? This book is a wondrous place to find a new way at looking forward by looking back. If that last sentence makes sense to you, then you're ready for Martin Shaw....
May 8, 2021
I found this very difficult to get through, but ultimately am happy to have read it and have exposure to a somewhat niche discipline. It made me reflect on traditional / ancient practices of storytelling and sitting with texts for longer than just the time it takes me to read and review. Reflection is also important!
May 19, 2023
I want to hang out with everyone who gave this book 5 stars.
April 9, 2024
oh em gee! loved it!
November 6, 2024
New ideas for me to ponder.
March 14, 2021
The book is rich in poetic language and eloquent thought. Dr Martin is an exceptional storyteller with a compelling sensibility. I, however, expected a more Jungian approach in text analysis - tackling archetypal psychology and tapping into cultural and folklore relevance more often. Nonetheless, this is a very good read for anyone interested in mythology.
March 5, 2024
Shaw is a gifted storyteller. I enjoyed this entrancing book, though I'm not sure I understood all of it.
February 8, 2022
Martin Shaw is amazing. I need to listen to this again, at least once more. The writing is amazing, and the author is fantastic as an audible narrator. The perspective is life-altering, and so good! Enough said. Trust me, you don't want miss this one, or his other masterpiece, Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass
May 20, 2020
Martin Shaw is a professional story-teller, a wilderness guide, and a writer/translator of myth and meaning. I found Courting the Wild Twin interesting (such a bland adjective) and somewhat dis-organized. He suggests we have a twin (mythically) who went her/his way at our birth and live in the wild. At some point, we must connect with that twin or our lost childhood self, in order to be whole. I would've liked more depth on that idea. It's very Jungian to discover and unearth all the buried parts of ourselves, to make them conscious, and to unite them with our adult/conscious self and personality.
Shaw writes of how to be a story-teller, which I tried to transfer onto being a story-writer, but was unsuccessful. Uniting with the wild earth, nature, or the outside world is key in Shaw's beliefs. He is very gender-inclusive which is a delight. It's the first time I read of "the castration of the earth" vs. the oft-heard "raping of the earth." However, my disappointment in his book over-rode my delight.
Shaw writes of how to be a story-teller, which I tried to transfer onto being a story-writer, but was unsuccessful. Uniting with the wild earth, nature, or the outside world is key in Shaw's beliefs. He is very gender-inclusive which is a delight. It's the first time I read of "the castration of the earth" vs. the oft-heard "raping of the earth." However, my disappointment in his book over-rode my delight.
June 27, 2020
I chose this book after it came highly recommended by a number of friends. I was perplexed by it. Confused and lost in the words and stories I did not find it as amazing as the reviews proclaimed, UNTIL I watched a podcast where Martin Shaw (during lockdown) talks about this book. At that time it totally turned around what I had absorbed and where he was coming from and made sense. I don't know if I hadn't been lucky enough to have caught the podcast if I would have given this 4 stars most likely 2-3 ... sometimes you just need a path to follow to find the light at the end of the tunnel, in this case that was me.
April 22, 2021
There are two folktales shared within the book. I enjoyed them, and Dr. Shaw’s comments on them were insightful. However, the last third of the book where I expected to hear more in-depth content about the wild twin (what the book is allegedly about) was a very chaotic and unorganized sermon about climate change. I finished the book feeling highly disappointed and like he spoke little to nothing about the subject of the wild twin at all. His prose is poetic and there were several word gems found throughout, but there were many moments where I stopped and thought, “What in the world is he talking about?”
May 22, 2020
This book is an experience. Easy reading? No. Engaging? Yes. Thought provoking? Indeed.
June 3, 2021
My book. The book meant for me. For my heart. Exquisite. A feast. I could not praise it highly enough.
July 15, 2021
Holy moly, this was amazing.
August 30, 2021
Wizardly.
July 1, 2023
This book has me thinking about how language can be used differently. "Not in thesaurus speak," he writes, "but in image power." Image power, and in the nuance, emotion, and alchemy enabled through storytelling. Myths, as opposed to facts, can work a strange alchemy in our inner worlds, I am learning. And this is something I want to utilize more in my own work, and to give more precedence to in my own learning. More myths, more stories. Less bare-bones facts. Science will fall short, it has and it will.
The words themselves are animate, Martin reminds. They speak secrets the mind can't quite catch up with yet. I was touched by some of his stories, and believed this, but I really began to believe this when listening to him tell a story (in a different context) and finding water pour from my eyes more heavily than it has in months. I was not sobbing, but I was weeping, a massive weeping, but I could not quite articulate what was happening. I was in an ocean of inner world, and so many parts of me were there, and they were only invited together through the living fabric of oral storytelling. There is an ancient power in that I want to explore more.
I appreciated his discussion of eros vs. amor. Eros is wonderful, an important thing in this era, but amor -- the fidelity and depth of that -- must not be forgotten, especially in this moment of planetary collapse. I felt called to return, and to return, and to return, with deep listening and thorough fidelity. A particular bend in the brook, a particular tree. Any love, lived deeply, can be a portal into the promise born of particularity. (Addiction only eros is the end of loyalty to person or place or community; "I feel I have been claimed by certain stretches. I cannot just bound from ecstasy to ecstasy across the world. Flower to flower to flower, makes you a jigglo, not a husband. The underworld wants to make a husband of you. A wife. A being of fidelity, wherever you are on any spectrum.")
Is it not time to stop telling the earth what it needs to be? I need to allow it to speak, and to behold what it becomes when let to do so.
Wild twin, catch glimpses, forever chase. What a splendor.
Tension between temples; the crossroads of worship. Trouble arises in the monolith.
culture - defined not by what you gain but by what you are willing to live without.
restoration - not too late to want it, to fight for it, to believe in it.
"words have fur and light in them"
moon palace - see everything but touch nothing
find something to adore, and pray. (important exercise!)
not just stories, but spirit spark and quacks and magic and ancestral dead. More tangible in the wild. they step forward. (yes!)
communicate with beauty (my question ; learn how it works)
earth wearied of our practicality
staggering spiritual repair is called for; soul seems more dangers to talk about than most things these days. "It is not relentless self-absorption that makes us realize our interior mess is directly mirrored outside ourselves. That's not vanity, that's attention. It's not hubris, it's horrifying clarity. If you don't attend to your soul's vitality with intent then suppressed, it will run you ragged."
"Not ever knowing appropriate sacrifice is not a victory; it's a sedative. But when we prematurely claim doom, we have walked out of the movie fifteen minutes early, and we posit dominion over the miraculous. We could weave our grief to something more powerful than that: possibility. Let the buck stop with you. Where is your self-esteem, if you claim the world is doomed, with you still kicking in it? How can that be? What are you, chopped liver? Is that really your last word on the matter? I'm not suggesting a Hercules complex land on your shoulders, but if ever you long for a call to action, this is the moment."
Listening as a practical action. And speaking.
"If you actually carry a few ancient stories in your jaw, then the very words themselves are how you taste your ancestors, how you most dynamically inhabit the roughage and complexity of their thoughts. By passing them on. They have traveled thousands of years to take up location in the pearly palace of your mouth. As we walk through the darkness with the candle of our love, we should speak in a language the underworld understands. We should speak with story."
Perfectionism, not enough: But if you are still listening to this book, then I can only surmise you have some interest in it. Even love for myth and its relationship to the earth. For those in that particular part of our collective cave, I ask you to continue listening and see what you could adapt into some other art form. That kind of wiliness is a needed ability right now."
love a place; be famous for five miles; show the stories you're serious.
Extraordinary act of will and beauty to question the impatience, remember the worth of things. Speed is not bringing substance. Its ease derails us from understanding the importance of making itself.
The words themselves are animate, Martin reminds. They speak secrets the mind can't quite catch up with yet. I was touched by some of his stories, and believed this, but I really began to believe this when listening to him tell a story (in a different context) and finding water pour from my eyes more heavily than it has in months. I was not sobbing, but I was weeping, a massive weeping, but I could not quite articulate what was happening. I was in an ocean of inner world, and so many parts of me were there, and they were only invited together through the living fabric of oral storytelling. There is an ancient power in that I want to explore more.
I appreciated his discussion of eros vs. amor. Eros is wonderful, an important thing in this era, but amor -- the fidelity and depth of that -- must not be forgotten, especially in this moment of planetary collapse. I felt called to return, and to return, and to return, with deep listening and thorough fidelity. A particular bend in the brook, a particular tree. Any love, lived deeply, can be a portal into the promise born of particularity. (Addiction only eros is the end of loyalty to person or place or community; "I feel I have been claimed by certain stretches. I cannot just bound from ecstasy to ecstasy across the world. Flower to flower to flower, makes you a jigglo, not a husband. The underworld wants to make a husband of you. A wife. A being of fidelity, wherever you are on any spectrum.")
Is it not time to stop telling the earth what it needs to be? I need to allow it to speak, and to behold what it becomes when let to do so.
Wild twin, catch glimpses, forever chase. What a splendor.
Tension between temples; the crossroads of worship. Trouble arises in the monolith.
culture - defined not by what you gain but by what you are willing to live without.
restoration - not too late to want it, to fight for it, to believe in it.
"words have fur and light in them"
moon palace - see everything but touch nothing
find something to adore, and pray. (important exercise!)
not just stories, but spirit spark and quacks and magic and ancestral dead. More tangible in the wild. they step forward. (yes!)
communicate with beauty (my question ; learn how it works)
earth wearied of our practicality
staggering spiritual repair is called for; soul seems more dangers to talk about than most things these days. "It is not relentless self-absorption that makes us realize our interior mess is directly mirrored outside ourselves. That's not vanity, that's attention. It's not hubris, it's horrifying clarity. If you don't attend to your soul's vitality with intent then suppressed, it will run you ragged."
"Not ever knowing appropriate sacrifice is not a victory; it's a sedative. But when we prematurely claim doom, we have walked out of the movie fifteen minutes early, and we posit dominion over the miraculous. We could weave our grief to something more powerful than that: possibility. Let the buck stop with you. Where is your self-esteem, if you claim the world is doomed, with you still kicking in it? How can that be? What are you, chopped liver? Is that really your last word on the matter? I'm not suggesting a Hercules complex land on your shoulders, but if ever you long for a call to action, this is the moment."
Listening as a practical action. And speaking.
"If you actually carry a few ancient stories in your jaw, then the very words themselves are how you taste your ancestors, how you most dynamically inhabit the roughage and complexity of their thoughts. By passing them on. They have traveled thousands of years to take up location in the pearly palace of your mouth. As we walk through the darkness with the candle of our love, we should speak in a language the underworld understands. We should speak with story."
Perfectionism, not enough: But if you are still listening to this book, then I can only surmise you have some interest in it. Even love for myth and its relationship to the earth. For those in that particular part of our collective cave, I ask you to continue listening and see what you could adapt into some other art form. That kind of wiliness is a needed ability right now."
love a place; be famous for five miles; show the stories you're serious.
Extraordinary act of will and beauty to question the impatience, remember the worth of things. Speed is not bringing substance. Its ease derails us from understanding the importance of making itself.
July 14, 2025
An extremely disappointing experience that never offers anything beyond the excitement of the premise, which had so much potential. I certainly hope that there are others that draw value from this, and I definitely believe there is value in it, but it is written in such an overly self-congratulatory way that I found myself getting more and more frustrated as the purpose of the book was not just abandoned for distracted rambling, but seemed to be abandoned so the author could write as much "quotable" nonsense as possible. I think many of the base-level concepts in the book are solid, even the distracted concepts about connecting with the Earth, but I couldn't shake the feeling that they were written so that you will "admire" the author more than anything else. He literally congratulates himself throughout, and compliments himself on his storytelling ability, which is related to my biggest problem with the book.
The parts on topic are an analysis of two old folktales. I love folktales, and I think they were great choices for the concept of "Courting the Wild Twin". However, the author strips away the true power of storytelling by analyzing every part of both stories. As the stories are coupled with his own analysis, the less they support the premise. Why focus on other people making peace with / courting the wild twin, rather than the character that should represent the reader in this case?
I think that the author should have 'reimagined' the stories and built on them with the sibling relationship in mind, and dropped most of the analysis. It would have given us a chance to bathe in the ultimate storytelling ability we've heard so much about, but more importantly it would have presented the core concept in a beloved format and still allow for different interpretations to surface.
There was some real potential with this, and the author is clearly a good writer, but I would encourage others to stick with the realization that you have a wild twin out there in the wilderness, seek them out without using this as a guide, and when you make peace with them read some Mary Oliver poems together instead. I recommend 'Mysteries, yes'.
The parts on topic are an analysis of two old folktales. I love folktales, and I think they were great choices for the concept of "Courting the Wild Twin". However, the author strips away the true power of storytelling by analyzing every part of both stories. As the stories are coupled with his own analysis, the less they support the premise. Why focus on other people making peace with / courting the wild twin, rather than the character that should represent the reader in this case?
I think that the author should have 'reimagined' the stories and built on them with the sibling relationship in mind, and dropped most of the analysis. It would have given us a chance to bathe in the ultimate storytelling ability we've heard so much about, but more importantly it would have presented the core concept in a beloved format and still allow for different interpretations to surface.
There was some real potential with this, and the author is clearly a good writer, but I would encourage others to stick with the realization that you have a wild twin out there in the wilderness, seek them out without using this as a guide, and when you make peace with them read some Mary Oliver poems together instead. I recommend 'Mysteries, yes'.
January 18, 2025
When I was living in Jersey in my early 20s a brilliant person gave me a book by Joseph Campbell. It changed my life and I immediately starting dreaming about living in a cabin in the woods by myself, where I would read and write by the fire. I have Mr. Campbell's face tattooed on my arm as I write this in my cabin in the woods, sitting in front of a fire. Martin Shaw is no Joseph Campbell, but he's talking about similar things—mostly storytelling and myths.
Courting the Wild Thing features two stories/tales made up by Shaw (I think), interspersed with analysis and a kind of life advice. Like Campbell he tells stories that often focus on the hero's journey. Someone has a nice, safe life at home (often in a castle or mansion), then something happens that requires that person to go on a journey far from home. They learn, they expand their view of the world, and they become a different person. Then they return home as this new, heroic human.
This book didn't change my life, but there were a few things that reminded me of where my brain/soul should be, and of how far I've come in these past two decades. He talks about confusing things that are life giving with things that are life preserving. He talks about how when we exile a part of ourselves, that part will grow hostile towards us (in fact, both the stories he tell involve an exiled twin). He also emphasizes the importance of story tellers. Those story tellers that stand up and tell stories, who have a story for every occasion, who change their stories to fit the circumstances.
Unlike Joseph Campbell, Shaw talks a bunch about climate change. He writes about how, due to there being a lack of real story tellers, we're scared. We have nothing to hold us to the earth as everything around us burns/freezes/melts/floods. This lack of connections lead us in the west to have kind of a death wish.
Besides making me remember how I got to where I am, and that my love of telling stories is beneficial to humanity, this book makes me want to reread Reflections on the Art of Living.
Courting the Wild Thing features two stories/tales made up by Shaw (I think), interspersed with analysis and a kind of life advice. Like Campbell he tells stories that often focus on the hero's journey. Someone has a nice, safe life at home (often in a castle or mansion), then something happens that requires that person to go on a journey far from home. They learn, they expand their view of the world, and they become a different person. Then they return home as this new, heroic human.
This book didn't change my life, but there were a few things that reminded me of where my brain/soul should be, and of how far I've come in these past two decades. He talks about confusing things that are life giving with things that are life preserving. He talks about how when we exile a part of ourselves, that part will grow hostile towards us (in fact, both the stories he tell involve an exiled twin). He also emphasizes the importance of story tellers. Those story tellers that stand up and tell stories, who have a story for every occasion, who change their stories to fit the circumstances.
Unlike Joseph Campbell, Shaw talks a bunch about climate change. He writes about how, due to there being a lack of real story tellers, we're scared. We have nothing to hold us to the earth as everything around us burns/freezes/melts/floods. This lack of connections lead us in the west to have kind of a death wish.
Besides making me remember how I got to where I am, and that my love of telling stories is beneficial to humanity, this book makes me want to reread Reflections on the Art of Living.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 142 reviews