Book Review: Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes: A No-Bullshit Guide to World Mythology by Cory O’Brien
Our modern world is built, among other things, on the mythology of the past. The stories of how the world came to be, where people came from, and the foibles of the gods are deep in our cultural DNA. But many of us have heard only the mildest versions of these tales, or only those that are the most popular among the majority culture, or simply forgotten since childhood just how weird some of the myths can be.
This book is a compilation and re-editing of the author’s posts on his website retelling various myths in a humorous manner. While the book leads with the familiar Greek and Norse tales, and those take up the most space, there’s also stories from Sumeria, China and various parts of Africa, just to name a few. Indeed, the last mythology section is on American folk heroes.
The humor is very “fratboy”, with quite a bit of salty language and focus on sex, which will doubtless make it popular with fourteen-year-olds whose parents will find such topics objectionable. It’s a bit hit-and-miss, and becomes tiring by the end of the book. The illustrations by Sarah E. Melville match the text with “classical” stylings mixed with graffiti -like modifications.
Good stuff: I like the relatively deep dive into world mythology, so the book is not just the same handful of stories that we’ve heard over and over. This volume could certainly spark an interest in learning more in a reader who wouldn’t have picked up a more scholarly or clean- cut book. There’s plenty of room for a sequel!
Less good: Many of these stories have clearly been picked for their prurient content. A number of times, vulgarity is used when a lighter touch would have made a better joke. It’s misleading to mark a section “Judeo-Christian” if it never gets beyond the Old Testament. No sources are cited and there’s no further reading list.
The odd: There’s a thing that happens in stand-up comedy where the comedian spends most of the act being mean and foulmouthed, then in the last couple of minutes, “…but seriously, folks” and suddenly a plea for world peace and understanding. That happens here too.
Overall? I’ve seen worse bastardizations of mythology; if the fratboy style of humor is your thing, by all means check this out.
