Having been disappointed by Armstrong’s The Age of Transformation, I’m glad to report that I enjoyed reading this very short reflection on the development of mythology through the ages – I’m still not convinced by Armstrong’s Axial Age hypothesis, but I found a lot of resonance for me in her thoughts about the importance of myth and how societies have changed their approach to it in the wake of technological and social change since the invention of agriculture to the present day. She urges a wider appreciation of the importance of myth in the present day to which I’m totally sympathetic.
This. Tell them straight and politely that their referee did not respond. I only found out that one of my academic referees was stabbing me in the back in references he had agreed to write, using them as a platform to promote his pet student and do me down because a senior academic sent me a copy of a reference for my information. Fortunately this was early enough for me to drop him like a stone and find someone decent instead.