Crowley

Joshua A. Solomon · 05 Aug 2003, 09:56 · from urth-v0308.mbox · original

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From: "Joshua A. Solomon" <J.A.Solomon at city.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: (urth) Crowley
Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2003 10:56:57 +0100
Message-ID: <urth-v0308-3852 at digest.urth.net>
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Right. Let's see. Here's one (p. 35 of the Fantasy Masterworks edition of
Little, Big). "If all the plates were on glass, he could hold them all up at
once...") This is exactly what Painted Red does in Engine Summer (ES). It's
a device (I call it superposition) Crowley uses repeatedly in all his books,
starting with ES. Note that it's impossble to 'get the big picture' in this
way. Interpretations of the picture always seem to come from within the
character's own head.

Just reviewing what I've already written, note that Painting, the colour red
(not to mention its homophone Read, its homograph Read and its homophone
Reed), Engines (NB: red indian) and the seasons all have special meanings in
Crowley's books. There was one passage, somewhere in Little, Big (LB), where
he 'explains' that (IIRC), although Novembry in Edgewood, it was November in
the Tale. The difference between those who know which month it is and those
who don't was first explored in ES. In LB the seasonal differences are
sometimes expressed with a suit, eg. a DIAMOND in bevelled glass or the
noisy bridge rod and gun CLUB. Don't get me started on bridges and guns. See
for yourself in The Deep.

Oh hell, I really could spend all day on this, but I need to do some
science. Check out

Letters/Envelopes
Voices
Pointy things like thorns
Pipes
Eggs/Balls
etc., etc. All of these things crop up in his first 3 novels.

One of my favourite passages in LB is on p. 417:
"That ain't the worst of it," George said.... He put the coffee before
Auberon. "Milk? Sugar?"
    "Black."
(Discussion of fireworks, the colour of love and nightingales ensues.)

On 5/8/03 4:59 am, "urth at urth.net" <urth at urth.net> wrote:

> From: "Joshua A. Solomon" <J.A.Solomon at city.ac.uk>
> Date: Mon, 04 Aug 2003 11:58:22 +0100
>=20
>> From: "Alice K. Turner" <aturner6 at nyc.rr.com>
>> Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2003 03:07:35 -0400
>>=20
>>>> Little, Big can be especially bewildering if
>>>> you are not familiar with the symbolic devices
>>>> he develops in his earlier novels.
>>=20
>> Hmm. By this time I suppose I'm pretty conversant with Crowley but I don=
't
>> know what you mean by this. LB does not seem to me to pick up on themes =
from
>> his three earlier books, other than details like cards and games. Not do
>> they seem to have a lot in common. What am I missing here?
>=20
> I'll bring my copy of Little, Big (over a bridge to the island/hub) to my
> computer tomorrow, and see what they can produce. :-)

--=20

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