About Me

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Australian philosopher, literary critic, legal scholar, and professional writer. Based in Newcastle, NSW. My latest books are THE TYRANNY OF OPINION: CONFORMITY AND THE FUTURE OF LIBERALISM (2019); AT THE DAWN OF A GREAT TRANSITION: THE QUESTION OF RADICAL ENHANCEMENT (2021); and HOW WE BECAME POST-LIBERAL: THE RISE AND FALL OF TOLERATION (2024).

Monday, December 13, 2010

Fascinating paper on the history of Santa

Check out this fascinating and detailed paper by David Kyle Johnson. You won't be sorry.

8 comments:

Russell Blackford said...

Which is not to say that every conjecture in the paper is correct. But it's fascinating reading.

setAD7 said...

A very interesting read. Thank you for posting!

Blake Stacey said...

I'm dubious on the Greek mythology part, for example. Equating "Pan" with the Greek word for "all" (as in Pangaea) is folk etymology, and Zeus-worship is pretty darn old (the name goes back to Proto-Indo-European, after all, and was probably syncretized with storm-related deities worshipped in that area before).

Blake Stacey said...

(Oops, I should have linked to this page about Pan.)

Laureli said...

It reminded me of this nice little movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_Exports

Supertec said...

Should be taught in primary schools, if only for the hilarious indignation that's bound to follow.

Russell Blackford said...

Yeah, the conjecturing about Pan was one area that didn't seem right.

Mike said...

This movie about Santa may get more attention than the paper.