Kyle Harrison
to-read
Trickster Makes This World
Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art
- Author
- Lewis Hyde
- Published
- 1998
- Pages
- 425
- Recommended
- Once
Why it’s on the list: Hyde on the trickster — Hermes, Coyote, Krishna, Loki — as the figure every culture invents to break its own rules, and on boundary-crossing as the mechanism of invention.
Where I saw it: Recommended by @oldbooksguy on X (June 18, 2025): “This book uses the trickster archetype (present in all ancient cultures) to teach you important lessons about creativity. Highly underrated.”
Connections
- Creativity — Hyde’s real subject, approached through myth.
- Storytelling — the archetype and why it recurs everywhere.
- The Hero with a Thousand Faces — Campbell’s version of the same cross-cultural argument, also on this list.