Ancient Egypt in the Popular Imagination: Building a Fantasy in Film,… (edition 2012)

This books analyzes the use of Ancient Egypt in popular culture, in all its varied forms, from films to books to art to music. The amount of research involved is extensive. I can't imagine how many hours he must have spent watching mummy movies (among others), or how many bandaged creatures traipsed through his dreams as a result. While I can respect the amount of work that went into the book, I did not enjoy it.
The first two chapters focus on Ancient Egypt in films. The overwhelming majority of Universal and Hammer mummy movies contain the same character names and relatively similar plots and titles making it really hard to distinguish one movie from another, especially when two or more titles may be mentioned in a single paragraph. Given the similarity to the plots, it's was almost redundant to go so far into detail with each movie's storyline.
The chapter on music assumed that the reader knew quite a lot about musical terminology, which probably cannot be widely assumed of students of popular culture and/or Ancient Egypt, the intended audience. On a positive note for this chapter, I wished I had an accompanying CD so that I could listen to the songs he was describing so that I could truly understand the distinctions and comparisons he was making.
Overall it was a decent book, but not one I would recommend to anyone with only a casual interest in Egypt and/or mummies. ( )

Overall, it’s a comprehensive look at the popular view of Egypt, which the title indicates to be its intention. Since I enjoy reading about Egypt, I enjoyed the book for this reason. However, I didn’t feel it was very well organized. I understand that they were placed in broad categories, but they didn’t seem to have any reason for their order. Personally, I would have gone as chronological as possible, maybe starting at Egyptology and then working my way toward the modern films, etc. Also, within the chapters, there were no subheadings or anything of that nature, just a long, somewhat rambling essay on the topic. ( )

I was looking forward to an entertaining read here, and it was a relatively interesting book. However, I think it could have benefited from some rewriting. It seemed that it jumped around a lot, and that the author made lots of declarative statements that weren't really corroborated by the examples he gave.

It would also have helped to know what exactly the author's thesis was. It seemed that he had a point he wanted to make about how the popular culture sees Egypt, but it was hard to see what this point was. There were a lot of lists of various works and descriptions of them, but he didn't organize this into some sort of schema so you could see what these things represented in the overall pattern, and how they had changed over time, for example, and how this was important. Overall, it got hard to read because it just seemed like it didn't matter.

I guess that his thesis is that we can learn a lot about ourselves from how we think of ancient Egypt in our cultural products, because God knows our depiction of ancient Egypt is wildly inaccurate. His conclusion mentions parenthetically a sort of similarity in how the West sees real figures such as Osama bin Laden. I think he could have made a lot more out of this argument, but it's just not there.

So in the end, while I learned quite a bit about various Western portrayals of Egyptian stories and mythology, from "mummy movies" to Mozart, I finished this book feeling a bit frustrated and it took me much longer to read than would have been the case if there had been a more compelling narrative. ( )

How seriously do you take your movies? Did you take a film class in college? If so, you are probably in the target demographic for David Huckvale's Ancient Egypt in the Popular Imagination. While ostensibly about all of the arts, including literature, art and music; the author's love is clearly in movies, and we are constantly brought back to cinematic works even as derivatives. This is my first exposure to this sort of treatment...I found it somewhat interesting at first, but tedious as the book wore on.

The reason for this isn't the mere impact of Egyptian history, which is fascinating in its own right, but the pulp aspect that began with Gothic novels in the 19th century.. This leads us down a dark alley, where they every bad is held in equal esteem with the very good. Cultural significance of "B" movies is specious at best, yet the author treats them the same as cinematic (or literary) classics. For someone whose interest is in historical fidelity, this wears thin after a while. I do not like to see mysticism treated as seriously as archeological research, yet we have much of it in this book.

On the plus side, the book is well illustrated with artwork and movie paraphernalia. Color images would have been preferred...I am really looking forward to the day when digital publishing is the norm and color images are always included when available. Huckvale does have a good grasp on the history of the science of Egyptology, and does a good job tying seminal events in that field with spikes in popular awareness.

In the end, as one trained in classical history this book smacks of a typical "Hollywood" treatment where the facts as we know them are often set aside for the sake of a fantastical story line. At least the author does tell us about both -- but he makes no judgement with regards to improper use of historical authenticity. Huckvale isn't the most egregious bane of historical fact with regards to its portrayal in the arts -- but he doesn't challenge the Hollywood line, either. If this book is indicative of film classes offered in college, I'm glad I didn't waste my time taking such a class. But if you did and you liked it, well, this book might be right up your alley. ( )

A thorough review of the roots, trunks and branches of Western fascination with ancient Egypt and orientalism. The author has an overwhelming knowledge of literature and history related to and predating the books and movies we think of as “Egyptian”- The Mummy(in its myriad versions), Cleopatra, The Ten Commandments.
Huckvale traces how the original stories behind these movies became part of the cultural nomenclature, almost iconic, long before the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb seized the public imaginations.
He also examines how art, music and design have been influenced by ancient Egypt. Not incidentally, Huckvale reveals a deep knowledge of ancient Egyptian history. He is also not shy about exposing the darker side of Egyptiana: casual racism, cultural superiority, the exploitation of artifacts, religion, and design.
The only quibble I had with the volume was its slant towards the British and continental cultures. It also lagged a bit from here to there, not enough to make me stop reading, but enough to send me for coffee – or tea! Overall, quite interesting and worth a reader’s time. ( )