leoniedelt (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
leoniedelt) wrote2007-09-28 12:36 pm
leoniedelt) wrote2007-09-28 12:36 pm
The Serpent and the Rainbow (book)
The Serpent and the Rainbow, by Wade Davis, 1986.
And though Davis describes himself as blond with blue eyes, he looks *nowt* like Bill Pullman on the back cover of the book. Ah well. Still, very much worth reading, though a bit laborious and technobabbly in parts, owing to the subject matter.
I thought this icon appropriate. lol.
First person narrative written by a ethnobotanist about going to Haiti to discover what happened to Clairvius Narcisse (a famous zombi buried alive and enslaved for a number of years afterwards, allegedly), and exactly what was in the zombi powder used by the bokor, for possible use as an anaesthetic in modern medicine.
Really interesting read on a collection of local plants and animals, the drugs/chemicals they contain, their effects on people, and the discovery of two different types of vodoun zombis. Tetrodotoxin from the puffer fish, datura stramonium aka the zombi cucumber plant (and its scopolamine and atropine etc), and a few other things like a poisonous toad and a stinging seaworm and such make up the zombi powder and can simulate death when added together and prepared in a big ceremony. Also the belief that one had been cursed or bewitched made a lot of difference between zombification and simple cases of tetrodotoxin poisoning by eating japanese fugu, for example. The belief that you would become a zombi played a big part in whether or not you did, providing you survived the poisoning of course.
Of course Davis wasn't captured by the tonton macoute, didn't have his scrotum nailed to a wooden chair (bummer! i wanted to read that!) or paralysed by the powder and buried alive, that was all Wes Craven's embellishments to turn a fascinating read into the history, culture and religion of the Haitians and the vodoun into a horror story for a movie.
Really interesting read on a collection of local plants and animals, the drugs/chemicals they contain, their effects on people, and the discovery of two different types of vodoun zombis. Tetrodotoxin from the puffer fish, datura stramonium aka the zombi cucumber plant (and its scopolamine and atropine etc), and a few other things like a poisonous toad and a stinging seaworm and such make up the zombi powder and can simulate death when added together and prepared in a big ceremony. Also the belief that one had been cursed or bewitched made a lot of difference between zombification and simple cases of tetrodotoxin poisoning by eating japanese fugu, for example. The belief that you would become a zombi played a big part in whether or not you did, providing you survived the poisoning of course.
Of course Davis wasn't captured by the tonton macoute, didn't have his scrotum nailed to a wooden chair (bummer! i wanted to read that!) or paralysed by the powder and buried alive, that was all Wes Craven's embellishments to turn a fascinating read into the history, culture and religion of the Haitians and the vodoun into a horror story for a movie.
And though Davis describes himself as blond with blue eyes, he looks *nowt* like Bill Pullman on the back cover of the book. Ah well. Still, very much worth reading, though a bit laborious and technobabbly in parts, owing to the subject matter.
I thought this icon appropriate. lol.
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Nice banner, BTW (even if it's not David ;-)).
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There are also two kinds of zombis, a zombi of the flesh and a zombi of the soul. Its fascinating, actually.
You likey the banner? I made it myself *beams with pride* - That was Bill in Lost Highway, looking particularly pissed off when he couldn't get his wife on the phone. And the lyrics are to the song played in the beginning and end credits, by, guess who. Bowie. :D