Man, we're an ignorant, apathetic society

[anarky]

I find this to be the case every so often, and here's another reason.

Ever try looking for a book (or even good website) on the history of a country, subject, and/or time period that isn't currently "in vogue"?

Go into any mall bookstore (meaning the History section is an aisle or two, not these massive sections like at B&N). 99% of the books will be about WWII and the American Civil War. The remaining 1% (the so-called "International History" section) will be the Vietnam War.

You can get stuff on Latin America easily enough, or the big countries of Europe. Or Egypt. Or Muslim nations.

But try to find stuff on, say, medieval Lithuania. Or (as I'm finding now) the history of Vietnam not including the war.

I was doing some digging earlier, and came across the legend of Le Loi and Heaven's Will. Very cool story. Le Loi is an historical figure, and the legend of Heaven's Will is (although obviously not true) really frigging cool. I'd like more than one Wikipedia page of stuff, though.

So I started looking for books on Vietnamese history, legends, folktales, etc. I can find probably 47,039,223 books on the Vietnam War. Even books that purport to be the general history of the entire country turn out to be books on the War, with a three-page first chapter on everything from Whatever BC to about 1950 AD.

One book appears to be in print still. It's pretty flimsy. Oh, and did I mention that it's about all the countries in the region, and the focus of the section on Vietnam is still the War?

Looking for legends and folktales, I found a few kids' books in print, mostly telling only one legend at a very elementary level. Nothing written at the adult level. Hell, the selection is so paltry, the search for anything of that sort on Amazon comes up with memory books for children adopted from Vietnam. No joke.

It just bugs me that there appears to be (at least as I've found thus far) nothing substantial on the history, culture, and stories of like two fucking thousand years of civilization. All that seems to be important to Americans is that we went over there, burned a lot of rice fields and killed a lot of people, and got our asses handed to us by a bunch of guys hiding in the underbrush.

Hell, slightly off-topic, but the most important legend in Japanese history, referenced in just about every fucking manga ever made, has only been printed in English once, by a university printing press, and it's a $90 fucking book. It's so expensive, it's even been stolen out of every library I've checked that supposedly has it in stock. Funny enough, the companion piece, by the same translator, is readily available.

Just had to bitch.

[Double_G]

But try to find stuff on, say, medieval Lithuania.

The only books you could find on Lithuania are travel guides. And you can only find those on amazon, because let's face it, how many people plan vacations to Lithuania?

Hell, slightly off-topic, but the most important legend in Japanese history, referenced in just about every fucking manga ever made, has only been printed in English once, by a university printing press, and it's a $90 fucking book. It's so expensive, it's even been stolen out of every library I've checked that supposedly has it in stock. Funny enough, the companion piece, by the same translator, is readily available.

Which legend is this?

[Snigtad Flornbi]

the 1 whear i fucked ur mom!!!!

ooooooooo smel the burn!!!

[Eternal Padawan]

Totally unrelated, except for the "society is douchetard central" angle. How fucked up is it that "Big Brother" is only a pop culture reference to a CBS summer run tv series and has lost all meaning to the original, far more sinister, Orwellian reference it originated from. Goddamn, humanity is in the toilet, and someone just pushed the flusher.

[vynsane]

meh. what do i care about some stupid legendary crap.

(see what i did there? i pretended to be ignorant and apathetic. now THAT'S comedy.)

[Ran]

I had a long post typed up but I skimmed it before I hit submit. It was pretty boring and pointless so I deleted it.

Anyway, did you look at the reference/bibliography section under the topics of Vietnam and Vietman Origins on wikipedia?

[anarky]

Yeah, and a whole lot of it's out of print.

Funny thing, I made a super-minor change to one word (something like "vietnam history" to "vietnamese history") on Amazon, and this time found two books that didn't come up before that look like they may be worthwhile.

Oh, and DG: the myths surrounding the brother of the founder of the Kamakura shogunate. There are bits of the story that get used all the time, and they're so common I doubt even the creators know where they originated.

[Ran]

Last night after I posted that link for you on the other site, I did a search on the UNLV library website using the name of one of the era or something listed in that link. The first book in the search results came up looked interesting, so I looked it up on Amazon. $120 new or $88 used.

You would have to expect to find a lot on the Vietnam war. What would you expect more American authors to write books on: Pre-imperial Vietnam prior to 1950 or the American involvement in Vietnam that had 60,000 dead and missing Americans plus an additional 300,000 injured? Did you try other Asian-Pacific cultures that weren't involved in an American conflicts?

[anarky]

Yeah, I figured there'd be more on the war. But not practically nothing on everything prior to it.

[vynsane]

my dad buys books at bulk and sells on amazon. give me a list of titles and i can send it to him to see if he gets any. they're usually computer books, but he gets odds and ends every now and again. loves to brag when he gets a book for a buck fifty and sells it for $450.

[anarky]

Semi-related to this, have you ever tried to find books that examine the vampire mythology of the world from a semi-academic standpoint? (By which I mean it actually presents old stories and beliefs about the subject in an objective manner, rather than trying to convince you vampires are real, or spending a lot of time on pussies in black clothes who read too much Anne Rice.)

Very, very little on the subject. And, yet, given the number of pussies in black clothes who read too much Anne Rice and who seem to take their weird little fixation a bit too seriously, you'd think there'd be some more stuff available.

Luckily this is something where the original stories are typically readily available, albeit not in one place, and it's something that a lot of folks with too much time on their hands can write about on Wikipedia.

BTW, I don't mean to offend any of you who may be pussies in black clothes who read too much Anne Rice. Unless that pertains to you, Rollo Blue. You fucking pussy in black clothes who reads too much Anne Rice.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

I fucking hate Anne Rice. Not only are her "vampire" stories completely retarded, but as a narrative storyteller, she's about as gifted as horse is at programming computer games.

There are tons of good modern vampire writers out there. Rice ain't one of them.

[anarky]

I hate to say it, but I can't think of a recent vampire story in any medium that has impressed me. The last was Blade, which is technically an adaptation of a comic from thirty years ago. Before that, probably The Lost Boys.

I know of at least one that's in the works that I, at least, will enjoy when it's done.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro writes "historical vampire horror/romance" novels. If you can get past the romance part, the research she puts into making each era she places her vampire protagonist St. Germaine in authentically and historically accurate is pretty amazing.

Here's the rudimentary wiki.

And about the Count Saint-Germaine.