Imagining Atlantis

by Richard Ellis

Book Overview

Ever since Plato created the legend of the lost island of Atlantis, it has maintained a uniquely strong grip on the human imagination. For two and a half millennia, the story of the city and its catastrophic downfall has inspired people--from Francis Bacon to Jules Verne to Jacques Cousteau--to speculate on the island's origins, nature, and location, and sometimes even to search for its physical remains. It has endured as a part of the mythology of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375705821
• ISBN13: 9780375705823
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Deep Exploration

This book is a well researched exploration into the Atlantis myth. It delves into the various stories and characters who invented, reinvented and searched for Atlantis. Far from being a bashing, it treats the wacky and way out on equal terms with the scholarly and thoughtful. If pseudo-science can't stand up to the scrutiny, it isn't the author's fault.This book will appeal to those who like to see all sides researched. It will not be liked by those who are angry that a treasured belief should be looked at with science and knowledge.

Heroic

The first book brave enough to really go out after all the snake oil salesmen who claim to have "discovered" the real atlantis everywhere from Bermuda to the Mediterranean, just so they can sell more books and end up on the New York Times Best Seller lists. Pellegrino is the biggest case in point. I used to like some of his books and "Unearthing Atlantis" actually sounded like it made sense until Ellis unearthed how the author was so slick that he could delude even the smartest people with his clever words. Ellis reveals how Pellegrino never even visited the famous places he wrote about (like Thera, Crete, and the Titanic), even though he cleverly implied that he had done so. Similarly, Pellegrino tried to enlarge his own reputation by pretending to be friends with the famous explorers Robert D. Ballard and Spyridon Marinatos (who never knew him) and Sir Arthur C. Clarke, who Ellis reveals to have known Pellegrino only as a stealer of other people's ideas - such as his Thera theory, the centerpiece of "Unearthing Atlantis" which was actually the work of the aforementioned Marinatos, not Pellegrino. We in the various Atlantis historical societies have known for many years that the truth needed to be exposed. I'm really not glad that Pellegrino is dead. I'm just glad that he isn't writing books anymore, because he really did manage to pen some of the worst yarns in the entire history of the English language.

Encompassing Our Atlantean Imagination

Ellis presents a very forthright book. It is a good overview, thorough enough to encapsulate the history of Atlantis lore, theories, and studies, yet easy enough to remain readable without being a boring list of facts and references. Ellis does a fine job of refuting most theories and pointing out other reserachers factual and logical errors. I was especially pleased to see a refutation of the current craze, that Atlantis is merely the Minoan Thera. I believe this book presents the most grounded work I have seen on the Atlantis myth. There are no UFOs or aliens, no prophecies or psychics, no Biblical and mythical allusions, and no global catastrophes or conspiracies. This is a good thing, and a breath of fresh air in the Atlantis mythos.However, the book suffers in two ways. One, it dismisses the Atlantis tale out-of-hand, as a moral myth, without allowing for the factual kernels of Plato's tale to remain standing. There is no potentiality for future possibilities, if it is simply dismissed, and the whole subject is closed. Secondly, Ellis' book suffers from a few structural flaws, such as an odd repetition of certain phrases and thoughts, as if the book received no final editing and remained a rough draft. Three, his research lacked depth in certain areas, such as in history and archaeology, though I am aware and he states that these are not his specialties.Overall, it is a valuable addition to the study of Atlantis.

Story of the Atlantis myth is more interesting than the myth

Atlantis is a myth, whether there really was such a place. Art and literature have embellished whatever historical truth there might have been, and obscured any reality. This masterpiece combines sound research with the fanciful stories to make a most inestering reading experience

The exposition of the myth is more interesting than the myth

Atlantis is a myth, whether there really was such a place. Art and literature have embellished what ever historical truth there might have been, and obscured any reality. This masterpiece combines sound research with the fanciful stories to make a most interesting reading experience.