{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2643", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 2643, "subject": "Gnowing Gnostic Gnovels", "messages": 2, "voices": 2, "first": "2001-05-11T22:07:27+00:00", "last": "2001-05-13T22:57:19+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Alice Turner", "address": "akt at attglobal.net" }, "date": "2001-05-11T22:07:27+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Gnowing Gnostic Gnovels", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "A plea for help. I'm more and more thinking I might write something\nabout Pullman's trilogy. I'm still reeling at the idea of Gnostic\njuveniles--I wouldn't have thought it remotely possible, and am going\nback to reread. (That first book is ***wonderful!***) Here's a question\nthen: Aside from Crowley's books and Bloom's unfortunate novel (what was\nits title, mantis?) are there other *concious* Gnostic novels, not\ncounting ones like -Voyage to Arcturus- that seem instinctively to tap\ninto an ancient view? (Actually I'd be intereested in thoughts on the\nlatter, too.) This is rather off-topic, so perhaps you might email me\nunless you sense a general interest.\n\n-alga" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Jesper Svedberg", "address": "jesper.svedberg at mailbox.swipnet.se" }, "date": "2001-05-13T22:57:19+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Re: Gnowing Gnostic Gnovels", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "From: \"Alice Turner\" \nSubject: Gnowing Gnostic Gnovels\n\nA plea for help. I'm more and more thinking I might write something\nabout Pullman's trilogy. I'm still reeling at the idea of Gnostic\njuveniles--I wouldn't have thought it remotely possible, and am going\nback to reread. (That first book is ***wonderful!***) Here's a question\nthen: Aside from Crowley's books and Bloom's unfortunate novel (what was\nits title, mantis?) are there other *concious* Gnostic novels, not\ncounting ones like -Voyage to Arcturus- that seem instinctively to tap\ninto an ancient view? (Actually I'd be intereested in thoughts on the\nlatter, too.) This is rather off-topic, so perhaps you might email me\nunless you sense a general interest." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Well, how gnostic must a boook be to be called gnostic? There are many\nbooks that are more or less inspired by gnostic concepts and there are\nalso books that are inspired by things that are related to gnosticism,\nlike neo-platonism or hermetic magic. Mary Gentle's _Rats & Gargoyles_\ndeals with many such concepts, but I'm not sure it's gnostic.\nThe Encyclopedia of Fantasy's entry for \"Gnostic Fantasy\" mentions Roger\nZelazny's Amber series, E. R. Eddison's Zimiamvia trilogy and C. S.\nLewis's _That Hideous Strength_ and _The Last Battle_. The article also\nsays that \"Franz Kafka and Jorge Luis Borges can be interpreted as\ngloomy modern Gnostics for whom the fallen world is an endless labyrinth\nof texts and sophistries, without any exit to trancendence.\"\nOther works that might be of interest are H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu\nmythos, which may be inspired by gnosticism, various works by Robert\nCharles Wilson, for instance _Mysterium_, Philip Jose Farmer's World of\nTiers series and also Guy Gavriel Kay's \"Fionavar Tapestry\" has a rather\ngnostic cosmology.\nYou might want to search Google's Usenet archive\n(http://groups.google.com) for \"gnostic\" in the group\nrec.arts.sf.written to get some more suggestions.\n\nLast year, I read an interesting book, _The Holy Grail_ by Malcolm\nGodwin, about the grail mythology. One of the theories Godwin had was\nthat the gnosticism one one of the central traditions behind the grail\nmyth. It is a pretty good book, the scholarship isn't exactly impeccable\nand it is rather anti christian in tone, but it brings out tons of nifty\nideas from the medieval grail romances that easily would fit into a\nWolfe novel.\n\n\n // Jesper Svedberg" } ] } ] }