Rating: 
Summary: Looking to the future with roots in the past
Review: I was not expecting a classical Gnostic text when I picked this book up, perhaps that's why I'm not as dissapointed as others who have read it. I was looking for a work in the Gnostic tradition (not Tradition). Davis makes some compelling connections between the old and new seekers after Truth. References cited in this book were also good, and steered me toward other interesting works.
Rating: 
Summary: Ritual writing
Review: One of the funniest things about Techgnosis: Myth, Magic + Mysticism in the Age of Information, Erik Davis's much-ballyhooed 1999 release, was how it skewed the conventions of 'Frisco technological mysticism, managing to be distinctively perverse in a world already saturated with impenetrable tech writing and books with incredibly long and pretentious titles. At times the writing was laborious - tedious psychedelic musings, as Davis' Neo-geek garb, pseudo-intellectual facial hair, and droning point of view plugged you into the visionary amorality of robots.
With its oft-seen spiritual imagery and techno-porno bent, Techgnosis: Myth, Magic + Mysticism in the Age of Information finds Davis thin and wandering, blowing ploys that never worked before anyway - long words that no one is meant to understand, echoes of better writing, loose jamming that should have been edited into non-existence.Split into a 'look at how smart I am' side and a 'stealing lots of stuff from more talented writers' side, the book doesn't cohere - whatever Davis has been doing for the last ten years since his glory days as a Rolling Stone contributor, he hasn't been practicing much. Sure, there are moments - the spine features an amazing font, the index is beautifully alphabetised and the Introduction admirably sums up Davis's creed ("Use words with a silent G and you'll surely alienate the unwashed masses"). A shuffling, upbeat passage of silly suppositions and the best use of Xena, Warrior Princess references since The Simpsons, the Intro expresses a bare logic of desire ("I want people to think that I'm smart, but also cool") that makes reading it seem as fun as sticking rusty nails into your eyeballs.
Chapter 1's miasma begins with 'a completely generalised statement about humanity', which starts out as fine, brain-twisting, leather-elbow-patch academia, but loses it after Davis uses the words Dionysian, Apollonian and Bacchantes in the same sentence. I haven't been able to get through the rest of the book without nodding out - the distinct lack of clarity is pleasant enough, but I expected more. Unlike Margaret Wertheim or Richard Coyne, Davis hasn't figured out that a successful Techno-spiritual fusion requires brevity. The great bits here - mystery of faith, cliched exploration of tech-angst, an endearing lack of direction - are overwhelmed by ego-driven writing and ambiguous references to overtly obscure source material. Two-thirds of the way through, Techgnosis starts reading like a fourteen-hour layover in Kashmir, a long-distance runaround with only Wired magazine and a pack of purple Bubblicious to pass the time. Author Bio:
Davis is best known as the man who gave two stars out of five in his Rolling Stone review to Ritual De Lo Habitual, the 1991 seminal rock album from Jane's Addiction - universally regarded as a Classic and the album that launched alternate music. His assured mix of pretension and lack of musical taste has seen him often compared to Dick Rowe, the Decca executive who dramatically missed the boat when he passed on a little-known skiffle band called The Beatles.
Rating: 
Summary: A very useful, wrong-headed gnostic tract.
Review: Sometimes you have to ask at what point "entertainment" ceases to be a spiritual benefit. Davis writes a relentlessly superficial exposition of the currently conventional academic, rationalistic wisdom on cybernetics. His view of history mistakes the loose ends of western civilization for its main thrust. In all of this, the central problem is the exclusion of the body. For an alternative view of spiritual development, note the connection of myth to the body in J. Nigro Sansonese, The Body of Myth. For the core of contemporary spiritual renewal see the emphasis on silence and doing nothing, the allowing of the unconscious to surface in Zen, Sufism, and body-centered psychotherapy. However, as a stunningly clear portrait of what spiritual history is NOT, Davis has done us a signal service.
Rating:
Summary: Techno wizard
Review: Techgnosis creatively runs the gamut of the language and human expression game - unfurled in such divergent media as computers, literature, and science. Davis paints a vivid picture of worlds that have opened up as a result of cutting edge human thinking and natural extensions of the human nervous system which have made our lives - if not entirely more useful - at least a lot more interesting and enjoyable. Davis is a modern shaman who ties together the mystical with the technological in ways that make sense. Very nicely done.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful and Chaotic
Review: This book drew me to it with the cool cover (it's got holes in it!) and pulled me in with phrases like "glittering void of possibility" and "The emperor of technoscience has achieved dominion, though his clothes are growing more threadbare by the moment". I think in pictures, and this book makes awesome imagery. I've never done acid, but I imagine the writing style and imagery create similar pictures in mind. It looks somewhat like Fantasia in my mind. Sometimes you have to go back and reread to figure out how exactly the pink elephants turned into flying horses. :) Due to this, I have never been able to sit down and read this book for more than 20 min at a time (and normally I can sit for hours reading) because my brain threatens to melt down. This book is also not for those who want a concise text that talks about one or two topics exclusively. This book spans topics from Artificial Intelligence to Ben Franklin to Necromancer to Thoth and ties in everything in between - all relating it to how spirituality and technology interact. I didn't know anything about Gnosticsm when I picked up the book - and I can't honestly say I know much about it now. I thought a book that talked about technology and spirituality throughout history would be fascinating - and I was right. It has been very educational, and sometimes I need to look things up to understand a topic, although most of the people and topics he mentioned are familiar to me (even though I seldom know that particular tidbit). For reference, I have an associates degree (general studies) and a handful of computer science classes. I'm not the worlds most educated or well read person, but I have picked up surface information on quite a few topics and find anything to do with magic, spirituality, or computers fascinating. And I like stories about history when they don't bog me down in dates. :)
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and Chaotic
Review: This book drew me to it with the cool cover (it's got holes in it!) and pulled me in with phrases like "glittering void of possibility" and "The emperor of technoscience has achieved dominion, though his clothes are growing more threadbare by the moment". I think in pictures, and this book makes awesome imagery. I've never done acid, but I imagine the writing style and imagery create similar pictures in mind. It looks somewhat like Fantasia in my mind. Sometimes you have to go back and reread to figure out how exactly the pink elephants turned into flying horses. :) Due to this, I have never been able to sit down and read this book for more than 20 min at a time (and normally I can sit for hours reading) because my brain threatens to melt down. This book is also not for those who want a concise text that talks about one or two topics exclusively. This book spans topics from Artificial Intelligence to Ben Franklin to Necromancer to Thoth and ties in everything in between - all relating it to how spirituality and technology interact. I didn't know anything about Gnosticsm when I picked up the book - and I can't honestly say I know much about it now. I thought a book that talked about technology and spirituality throughout history would be fascinating - and I was right. It has been very educational, and sometimes I need to look things up to understand a topic, although most of the people and topics he mentioned are familiar to me (even though I seldom know that particular tidbit). For reference, I have an associates degree (general studies) and a handful of computer science classes. I'm not the worlds most educated or well read person, but I have picked up surface information on quite a few topics and find anything to do with magic, spirituality, or computers fascinating. And I like stories about history when they don't bog me down in dates. :)
Rating:
Summary: He did all of his homework by going out to play.
Review: This book kicks ass. TechGnosis is a real piece of scholarship, written by a real academic (in the Indiana Jones sense of the word). Sure, Davis is extremely educated and well-read, and his debut book is chock full of sub-references that would make Dennis Miller pick up the Norton guides. But isn't that what we've all been looking for? I know I have -- and I'm NOT a brainiac with McKenna-sized holding capacity. For me, this chewy book serves as a deep and well-considered foray into history, harvesting myth and fact to inform a keen analysis of the psychedelic 1990s. It is my favorite new reference book for use after a session of hyperspacial spelunking. My third eye hasn't been this turned on since the early Mondo days. :) As much as Doug Rushkoff makes me feel jazzed and ready to storm the fascist barricades, that feeling lasts only a short moment. Compared to Erik Davis, Rushkoff and Coupland publish cartoons in prose form. In no way a poser, Davis serves as teacher to a wide range of thinkers, adventurers, artists, freaks, and technicians. He does not give gold-plated seminars on how to best manipulate Generation X in a new marketing campaign for Volkswagen. After you read TechGnosis, it should sit on the shelf next to Huxley or DeBord. Davis is not either of these legends (yet), but reading his book is a natural next step after these authors, within any media studies or post-western curriculum.
Rating:
Summary: Scattered style - but poses some important questions
Review: Two factors come into play when I review a book. First and foremost is content, secondary is style. The content of Techgnosis is solid though the style has proven to be scattered.
The book begins by tracing the historical co-mingling of science, mystery and faith. Our predecessors can teach us a great deal with regards to how we integrate technology and faith. In our modern climate we take technological advance for granted even to the point of treating technology as an end in itself. We never look at what is lost or spend much energy integrating advances into our World View. The book stands a call for us to step back and take a larger view of who we are. Don't dismiss this as a Luddite narrative. It is not. The author hits at the core of much of our modern day angst - How do we make sense of the explosive technological advancements of our times? Techgnosis excels in its documentation of several modern failures to integrate these changes. From current resurgence in the practice of witchcraft to UFO sightings, Erik Davis lays them all bare for us to see. As an aside, I've noticed recently that none other than Scooby-Doo has gotten into synch with these off-balanced times. Current plots now ridicule the old "bad guy acting as a ghost to have all the gold to himself" and contain, now get this, wiccans whose aid is enlisted to save the gang by casting spells against "real" witches. Even modern-day comic books have lost their bearings.
While the content of Techgnosis may be worthwhile, the style is shotgun in nature. At times it appears that the author simply wants to impress us with his knowledge of Greek mythology and other trivia rather than building up to a coherent point. The book spends so much energy critiquing failed attempts to understand the human condition that when the author finally attempts to bring it all together at the end it is not clear he is going. A fine book nevertheless, it sheds light on challenges that face our society in the 21st century. Just don't look to it to provide any answers.
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