New Crowley Biography?

Le Fanu

I have to admit I find Kaczynski to be a poor stylist - his writing is drudgery. He has written what is essentially a series of exhaustively researched footnotes to Crowley's life.
NOW you tell me! I spent ages - while the book was OOP - thinking how I didn't have access to the definitive Crowley biography and was all the poorer for it.

oh but what a hellish slog. Can you believe I have been trying to read this since July? I will pick up anything to have to avoid going back to it. I'm in awe that someone could write a biography of a man who lived life so extravagantlty and for it to be so lifeless. I read a chapter then need a few weeks off. I keep thinking "once we get to Cefalú it will be FUN" but it's agony to get there...

How far have you got sapienza? I'm on p.323. Only 228 pages to go (I keep checking).
 

Ross G Caldwell

NOW you tell me! I spent ages - while the book was OOP - thinking how I didn't have access to the definitive Crowley biography and was all the poorer for it.

oh but what a hellish slog. Can you believe I have been trying to read this since July? I will pick up anything to have to avoid going back to it. I'm in awe that someone could write a biography of a man who lived life so extravagantlty and for it to be so lifeless. I read a chapter then need a few weeks off. I keep thinking "once we get to Cefalú it will be FUN" but it's agony to get there...

How far have you got sapienza? I'm on p.323. Only 228 pages to go (I keep checking).

Well, Kaczynski is still essential - he's just not a great read. The new generation of biographies (after the long, desultory era from the 1950s through the 1990s) sets a new standard.

I could add that part of the pleasure of Symonds really is his bias - he's like a buddy constantly making very funny wisecracks while you're watching a movie. He's driven me to tears on occasion. It'd be unimaginable for the pious Kaczynski to achieve something like that.
 

gregory

I have to admit I find Kaczynski to be a poor stylist - his writing is drudgery. He has written what is essentially a series of exhaustively researched footnotes to Crowley's life.

To get the narrative of Crowley's life down, you need a better writer. I don't have Sutin, but I'm hoping Churton will pull me in to a story that, like Aeon, I know like the back of my hand.

Symonds is still the best stylist, the best storyteller, of Crowley's life IMO. He really was a great writer. If you can see past his bias, you will find him very entertaining. He keeps the plot moving. You can still get "The King of the Shadow Realm" or "The Beast 666" (almost identical books) for less than 40 euros.
Ross - you have said exactly what I said to LeFanu the other day by PM (though without the expletives). IT DOES read like footnotes. It is infuriating that every damn new character who shows up, you have to have their entire life history with a complete bibliography of every poem they ever published in their school magazine.

I LOVE Symonds, though Aeon has pointed out that I should love something better, more :D and I did not AT ALL feel Crowley came over as evil in his book; any bias passed me right by. (I got mine for about 2 euros, used :)) In Perdurabo, at least, he comes over as a BORE. That he was not. I have Sutin, but am not allowing myself to read it till I finish the other. This may take some time; I have to keep taking time-outs to empty my brain of all the extraneous detail... :(
 

sapienza

How far have you got sapienza? I'm on p.323. Only 228 pages to go (I keep checking).
I'm a bit ashamed to say that I'm only up to page 65. I read that through pretty much without a break and then just couldn't seem to find the will to carry on with it. And it's like once you have stopped it's almost impossible to start again.

IT DOES read like footnotes. It is infuriating that every damn new character who shows up, you have to have their entire life history with a complete bibliography of every poem they ever published in their school magazine.
This is how I felt as well, and I'm only in chapter 3! I just wanted to know his life story, not the life story of everyone he ever crossed paths with.

I might get through it one day. I just need to find the motivation to start again, but there are so many other things to read out there that right now it's not looking good. :)
 

gregory

I'm a bit ashamed to say that I'm only up to page 65. I read that through pretty much without a break and then just couldn't seem to find the will to carry on with it. And it's like once you have stopped it's almost impossible to start again.


This is how I felt as well, and I'm only in chapter 3! I just wanted to know his life story, not the life story of everyone he ever crossed paths with.

I might get through it one day. I just need to find the motivation to start again, but there are so many other things to read out there that right now it's not looking good. :)

I WILL get through it (I am about 1/3 of the way.) I am like that. But I am SO not enjoying it and - sadly - I am SO going off Crowley as a result. The whole thing feels like some kind of deliberate effort to try and rehabilitate, to make him look respectable - and respectability has nothing to do with this. He was what he was, which was something rather special. Trying to write him up as dry as dust, with ever such distinguished associates will not make his detractors any less detracting.

It's like these writers want him to be GOOD, so they don't want to mention all the dodgy stuff he DID do, so as to make him sort of pure. But half the point of him was that - yes, he was TOTALLY dedicated to his own form of religion - but he DID do a lot of iffy stuff, and that's fine with me. Airbrushing him is not. And this kind of writing makes his whole THRILLING life - dull.
 

Le Fanu

Hey, it looks like I'm ahead of you others! Now that makes me feel good about my staying power. :D

I get these surges of LOVE for the Thoth deck and I have to take advantage of these moments to read a few more lines of Perdurabo. Only in these moments do I feel brave enough. Then I put it aside for something else.

On and on it goes. Wading through all these other biographies inside the text.

I remember when I read a definitive, very exhaustive biography (much more readable than Perdurabo) of my favourite writer whose books I used to read and reread all the time. As soon as I had finished it I felt I never wanted to read anything else about them. That was in 2001 and I haven't picked up a book by or about them since :(

Sometimes these thorough bios can kill the love. One has to be careful...
 

Babalon Jones

LOL having the same struggles with Perdurabo. Ironic, "I shall endure", haha. I'm trying, I'm trying!

If only it were not so LARGE (that's what she said, haha). Hate to drop that one on my face when I nod off...

Have put it aside for now for Aleister's confessions, another massive tome, but at least a paperback version.
 

gregory

Can't read it in the bath, that's for sure :(
 

sapienza

LOL having the same struggles with Perdurabo. Ironic, "I shall endure", haha. I'm trying, I'm trying!
:laugh:

I have to say I'm somewhat comforted to know I'm not alone in my struggle with Perdurabo. My love for the Thoth comes in waves as well. It's a bit or nothing for me with this particular deck and all that goes along with it.
 

Laura Borealis

I struggled enough with Sutin... I know for sure I don't have the fortitude for Perdurabo.
Reconsidering Symonds. I mean, I am already biased and it's nobody's fault but Crowley's. :p