Small g, Big G
The Urth list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 19 Jan 2003
https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/3772

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ArchD'Ikon Zibethicus — 19 Jan 2003, 06:33

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
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Weep at least once to see God.

- Sri Ramakrishna

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Dan'l Danehy-Oakes — 20 Jan 2003, 17:06
  follows, by subject match ArchD'Ikon Zibethicus

> > 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...

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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