Book Review: The Overlook Martial Arts Reader Vol. 2

The Overlook Martial Arts Reader, Volume 2
The Overlook Martial Arts Reader, Volume 2

Title: The Overlook Martial Arts Reader, Volume 2

The Overlook Martial Arts Reader, Volume 2
The Overlook Martial Arts Reader, Volume 2

Author: John Donahue, editor

Publisher: The Overlook Press

Publication Date: November 8, 2004

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 352, 6.3 in x 9.5 in

Cover Price: $14.95; out-of-print, but available on the secondary market

ISBN: 158567463X

Content

The author of The Overlook Martial Arts Reader Volume 2 is Dr. John Donahue. Dr. Donahue studied anthropology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. His doctoral dissertation on the cultural aspects of the Japanese martial arts formed the basis for his first book, The Forge of the Spirit. He has written many books in the fiction and non-fiction genres.

The book is the successor to the first volume by editor Randy F. Nelson. However, this title is ably assembled by Dr. Donahue, and features more of the sorts of material one would expect from a book of this type. In the preface, Dr. Dohanue makes the following statement:

“Part of what this reader is designed to do it [sic, is] to provide a very rudimentary exposure to some of the essential ideas and texts that have influenced the martial arts. There is nothing very mysterious about the selections — Laozi, Konfuzi, Xunzi, Zen commentaries, etc. — but there is nothing like reading the fundamental texts, particularly since their influence echoes throughout the sections that follow. I have also taken pains to present some of the best and most accessible scholarly work on martial arts. It has been particularly gratifying to see the increase of serious attention being paid to these systems as cultural and historical phenomena”.

Pros

This book is a much more successful execution of the author’s goal to introduce readers to fundamental martial arts literature. Those who would like to see the book’s table of contents can do so via the preview provided by the Internet Archive project. A glance of the contents show that Dr. Donahue favors Asian authors, particularly in the foundational parts of the book. This decision rectifies problems seen in the first volume, in my opinion.

Probably my favorite excerpt is Karl Friday’s material, which includes the story Neko no Myojtsu (“The Cat’s Eerie Skill”), by Issai Chozan, published in 1727 as part of a thirty volume collection titled Inaka Soji (“The Country Chuang Tzu”). I also enjoyed “The Classification of the Fighting Arts” by Donahue and Taylor, reprinted from a 1994 entry in the Journal of Asian Martial Arts.

Cons

The book suffers from slight editing woes, as shown in the excerpt in the “Content” section of this review. Another appears a few pages later on page 13:

“The basic tenets of those systems can, for instance, be deeped by an of [sic] understanding traditional sources and explanations.”

While Dr. Donahue includes better introductions for his excerpts, he sometimes does not provide a mini-biography for the authors. For example, he introduces Daoism without talking about Laozi. Later, he does say a little about Kongfuzi before reproducing his excerpt.

In some cases, Dr. Donahue avoids taking small steps to help less-informed readers. For the entry by Xunzi, Donahue says his name is rendered as “Hsun Tzu” in the selection, and “Sun Tzu” in some translations. This may confuse readers who are familiar with “the” Sun Tzu, attributed as the author of  The Art of War. It would have been helpful to point out the difference, and note that the Xunzi in The Overlook Reader Vol. 2 is also known as Xun Kuang 荀況. (“Zi” means “master,” hence “Master Xun” is “Xunzi”).

I noticed that this book repeats Donald N. Levine’s article “The Liberal Arts and the Martial Arts,” published in volume 1. It also includes material by Dave Lowry repeating the myth that Musashi killed Sasaki with a sword carved from an oar. For the real story, see Dr. Alexander Bennett’s introduction to this translation titled The Complete Musashi

Finally, while the permissions page lists the sources for the excerpts, it would have been helpful to have more explicitly said in certain places that the material was actually reprinted from another source. Wing-tsit Chan’s content describing “The Five Agents” and “The Platform Scripture” are two examples. I found myself bouncing between the main text, the table of contents, and the permissions pages to identify the source of what I was reading.

Conclusion4.5 out of 5 Ninja Stars

I give this book 4.5 out of 5 ninja stars.

Devoted readers are more likely to have the original source texts in their library for volume 2 compared to the material found in volume 1. Nevertheless, volume 2 is more successful in its mission to bring important martial arts work together for the curious reader. I took away half a star for the items mentioned in the “Con” section. However, in comparison to the rest of the content, these are minor problems.. If one already has the majority of the included texts, then perhaps the book is more of a 4-star contribution to their library. Nevertheless, I praise Dr. Donahue for adding introductions to each work that place them in context, another feature sorely lacking from Overlook’s first attempt to collect martial arts works in one volume.

Check out my other book reviews here on Martial Journal.

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About Richard Bejtlich 35 Articles
Richard took his first martial arts classes in judo, karate, boxing, and combatives as a cadet at the US Air Force Academy in 1990, and continued practicing several styles until 2001. He resumed training in 2016 by practicing within the Krav Maga Global system, earning Graduate 1 rank. Richard now studies Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with Team Pedro Sauer. Richard is married and has two daughters, and as a cybersecurity professional he helps organizations find and remove computer hackers. Richard is co-author, with Anna Wonsley, of the book Reach Your Goal: Stretching and Mobility Exercises for Fitness, Personal Training, and Martial Arts.

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