A Bibliography of Castaneda Criticism
An Introduction
For several years, roughly between the publications of The Teachings of Don Juan and The Second Ring of Power, quite a few critical studies of Carlos Castaneda's works appeared. The focus of these was inevitably the truthfulness of Castaneda's enterprise: was don Juan and his world real or only the fictional creations of Castaneda? Like other believers in Castaneda's books, I largely ignored these studies, at most skimming through them in a hunt for the idiocies of their authors. And, skimming, I found plenty of idiocies, which served to shore up my conviction that these creeps, stuck on niggling facts as they were, had missed the real value of what Castaneda had to offer. Now, some twenty years later, I thought it was time for me to reopen these books and honestly read them.
An outcome of this decision is that I've taken on the task of annotating the major works and assembling a bibliography. Because this is an ongoing project, I welcome any suggestions for books or articles to include, as well as your criticisms and corrections to what's been posted. Since the bibliography I've outlined has a narrow focus, please feel free to create your own bibliographies and submit them to this sight for posting.
--Sandy McIntosh
(amcintos@optonline.net or drsmac@aol.com)
A Critical Bibliography of Carlos Castaneda