Subject: (urth) Small g, Big G

From: ArchD'Ikon Zibethicus <zibethicus at hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 06:33:21 +0000

Nigel thus:

>Williams is such a wonderful but odd writer, isn't he? I confess to an
>intense love-hate relationship with his books.

Mystical, baffing and worth re-reading...

>If I may make so bold about such a complex and mystical book, can I 
> >suggest that the primary thing going on in "The Place of the Lion" is 
> >that the archetype of each of the nine orders of angels is let loose >in 
>the world.

(bows) This is a much better way of describing it...my only excuse, which is 
not a valid one, is that I was writing under conditions of some haste and 
lamentable fatigue.

>Remember that the heroine's thesis in "The Place of the Lion" is - if >my
>memory serves me - on "Neoplatonism in the Court of Charlemagne". 
> >Archetypes were Platonic and then Neoplatonic commonplaces long before 
> >Jung reapplied the idea of psychology.

...mmm...that's right...I'll havta re-read it...(sighs, slings it on top of 
the 'Urgent Reading' pile...)

>Which is not to say that that idea may not also be present in >Williams, 
>but I really don't believe that it's primary.

To be sure!  I should know better than to post in haste (post-haste?) on 
_this_ list!  Nothwithstanding this, I think that my point about retaining a 
cautious distinction between theological and fictional intentions is still, 
possibly, a partially valid one.

>consider how much he may too have
>been playing with similar ideas to Williams. Interesting to see that he
>explicitly mentions reading Charles Williams in the interview which he >did 
>with Nutria.

Hmmmm...that's right...

->Zx<-
____________________________________________________________

Consciousness will always be one degree above comprehensibility.

- G.C.H. Ehrensvard
____________________________________________________________

Weep at least once to see God.

- Sri Ramakrishna

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From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <ddanehy at siebel.com>
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 17:06:34 +0000

> Mystical, baffing and worth re-reading...

For those who do like CW, may I recommend (if you do not
already know his work) Tim Powers? The closest living writer
to "carrying on the Williams tradition," except that he is,
in my humble, a better prose stylist than Williams ever 
managed to be. Williams was a fine poet, but in the writing
of fiction ... I wish I knew who first said it, but I've
always agreed with this: "He wrote potboilers, but he 
always boiled an honest pot." 

Anywho, Powers is an astonishing writer ...

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