Marlo Morgan

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Marlo Morgan (born September 29, 1937 in Fort Madison , Iowa ) is an American author and doctor . She became known through her novel "Traumfänger" (original title Mutant Message Down Under , 1991).

Life

Marlo Morgan studied medicine in the USA and was particularly involved in the field of health care. After an internship at a pharmacy in Brisbane, Australia in the 1980s, she sold tea tree oil in Missouri for a network marketing company Melaleuca Inc. As a sales promotion, she told the story that she was kidnapped by Aborigines during her stay in Australia was forced to walkabout through the desert. She claimed that the resulting wounds on her feet were healed by the indigenous people using the same tea tree oil that she sells. From a scientific point of view, however, due to the complex manufacturing process, it is disputed that tea tree oil is a traditional Australian remedy at all, see tea tree oil # Heilmittelgeschichte .

In the 1990s, the story became the successful novel Dream Catcher , which grossed her millions of dollars. She gave several lectures in the USA in which she - based on her alleged experiences in Australia - tried to draw attention to the spirituality of the indigenous people. It wasn't until 1996 that she admitted that her stories are purely fictional inventions.

Today she lives in the US state of Missouri .

Dream catcher

Morgan was her 1991 book "Dream Catcher" in which the protagonist, a white American woman middle-aged, from a known Aboriginal strain called Real People is kidnapped, with this one Walkabout takes while - away from Western civilization - the Get to know and appreciate the closeness to nature and spirituality of the Australian natives.

The first, self-published edition, which she produced with her children, contained advertisements for the company Melaleuca Inc., for which she sold tea tree oil.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, Morgan called the story true-story, but retracted it to an Aboriginal commission in 1996, admitting that it was fictitious.

Numerous errors in content were attested to the novel and the author was accused of poor research and ignorance regarding Australia and especially the indigenous people. In the first version of the book, for example, the protagonist paid for a long-distance call in an Australian telephone booth with a quarter dollar (as would have been customary in the USA, see quarter-dollar (United States) ), although there were no such coins in Australia and much more for a long-distance call Money would have been needed. It also claimed that it was the first to market fly screens in Australia in the 1990s, which Australians themselves deny.

In particular, the representation of the Aborigines in the book is rejected. Morgan describes many things such as ornaments, instruments, cooking utensils, ceremonies, landscapes, social ties and clothing, the existence of which cannot be assigned to any known Australian culture.

A film version of the book was planned, but could be prevented by several Aborigines who did not agree with the portrayal of their people in the book "Traumfänger".

Works

  • Mutant message down under . 1991 (German dream catcher translated by Anne Rademacher, Goldmann, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-442-30631-0 )
  • Message from forever . (later also: Mutant Message from Forever .) 1998 (German dream travelers translated by Elke VomScheidt, Goldmann, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-442-30786-4 )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Publishing information on Marlo Morgan , Goldmann and Random House, accessed on January 14, 2018.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Cath Ellis: Helping Yourself: Marlo Morgan and the Fabrication of Indigenous Wisdom . In: Australian Literary Studies. Volume 21, Issue 4, 2004, pp. 149-164. ISSN  0004-9697 , retrieved from marlomorgan.wordpress.com on January 14, 2018.
  3. ↑ Marlo Morgan — Mutant Message Down Under: Timeline ( January 16, 2012 memento in the Internet Archive ) at creativespirits.info, accessed January 14, 2018.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g Chris Sitka (Napaltjarri): Morgan's Mutant Fantasy - A critique of Marlo Morgan's book Mutant Message Downunder ( Memento of March 13, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), 1997 (English) as well as an undated second version on creativespirits .info ( memento of March 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on January 14, 2018.
  5. ↑ a b c Marlo Morgan — Mutant Message Down Under: Fiction versus literature ( Memento March 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) on creativespirits.info, accessed January 14, 2018.
  6. ↑ Aborigines protest against a film adaptation , 1996 (English)


personal data
SURNAME Morgan, Marlo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American author and doctor
DATE OF BIRTH September 29, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Fort Madison , Iowa