In my pursuit of written sources about Supernatural which would at least resemble academic discourse, I came across three seemingly interesting (albeit not particularily sociological) books:
- The Mythology of Supernatural by Nathan Robert Brown
- TV Goes to Hell edited by Stacey Abbott and David Lavery
- Supernatural and Philosophy edited by Galen A. Foresman
While I'm still waiting for the last one (which, by the way, was published by Blackwell, so my expectations are high), the first two reached my already. I began today with The Mythology..., which so far is surprisingly underwhelming. I'm about 20% in and really not impressed. I mean, it's a good read for someone who decided to broaden their religious knowledge because of the show, but for anyone with a tiny bit of previous experience in the field the mistakes he makes are surprisingly easy to spot. I mean, it's one thing that he wrote things wrong, but what happened to his fact-checkers? Did they forget how to google stuff? I know, it's minute details, but they make me so annoyed. The bibliography for the book is ridiculously short, so I guess I could've expected it. But in my humble opinion a person who calls themselves a "mythologist" whose work "has led him to do extensive research" in various fields (that's from the book back cover) should not make cardinal mistakes when they can be easily verified using Wikipedia. I mean, seriously. That's just sloppy.
I have to suffer through it anyway, but venting makes it slightly more bearable.
P.S. Another annoying thing? It's been three days since I emailed my thesis supervisor and there's still no response. I do love her, but her communication skills are debatable.
