Crowley, then ...

James Jordan · 29 Jul 2003, 01:33 · from urth-v0307.mbox · original

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From: James Jordan <jbjordan4 at cox.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) Crowley, then ...
Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2003 20:33:21 -0500
Message-ID: <urth-v0307-3792 at digest.urth.net>
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         If'n you wanna search the Archives, you'll find a looooong=20
discussion of LB a few years back.
         Since alga brought me up, I'll confess to starting the whole thing.
         I loved *Engine Summer* and *Great Work of Time.* I wanted to like=20
LB, but the ending horrified me. Instead of being glorified in any kind of=20
way that I MYSELF would like to see, they were gradually and to me=20
horrifyingly reduced to mere archetypes, flat 2-dimensional playing cards,=20
stript of all human depth, fated to eternal repetition.
         When I finished the book, I ripped it in half and threw it across=20
the room. Yes, I found it very effective.
         But what was Crowley doing? Was my response his intention? I=20
thought at the time that it was.
         For me, it was an anti-gospel novel. And initially I took it that=20
Crowley deliberately set out to do just that, to horrify the reader and=20
point him/her back to the Christianity that the characters leave behind a=20
generation before the novel begins. I read it as revealing the appalling=20
consequences of turning back to the pagan world.
         alga and others persuaded me that there was more to LB than that,=20
and that if I did not like the book, it was not Crowley's intention to=20
leave the reader appalled.
         I remain unsure of what Crowley's intention was, however. Was it=20
just to write an interesting novel? Or does he see something good and=20
wonderful in what happens to his characters? Is he arguing that a collapse=20
back into an infantile and pagan world is what we all really need, and that=20
the depth of character into which human beings have grown during the last=20
several millennia is something to be rejected? Or is LB basically an=20
experiment?
         He says he wanted to write a novel presenting a "fairy religion."=20
He has done so, and very effectively. I continue to think LB is a brilliant=20
and effective novel. But for me, it is a very effective horror novel.

Nutria


--=20

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