fyreflye
Perhaps a reissue of the original New Falcon version would have alleviated the problem. I wonder who owns the copyright to that one.
Crowley biographies. Just read Sutin...
Perhaps a reissue of the original New Falcon version would have alleviated the problem. I wonder who owns the copyright to that one.
gregory
Aeon said the extra info is good to have just the same. I can see that - but I DO wish it were in foot and end notes...
fyreflye
Why is that?
Le Fanu
Yes, I wonder. I feel that, having to wade through so much extra stuff not directly related to AC, I remember much less about the significant stuff when I do stumble across it.
While I was reading the Sutin book over the summer at the beach I took notes at the end of the day from passages which I felt were significant for shedding light (perhaps) on the Thoth deck. It strikes me now that I haven't noted anything down from this book. I cannot find anything. I wonder why?
It all reminds me of that smog at the beginning of Dickens' Bleak House.
Aeon418
Never afraid to be the odd one out, but I for one appreciate Kaczynski's attention to detail even though others seem to hate it or find it a bore. But why? Well consider this. How many times can the same abreviated outline character sketch be published? How many times can the same Crowley story be told? You can present the known material in different ways and with a different bias, but there's only so many times you can sell old rope for new money. The horizons of Crowley's life were big, but at some point you have to delve into the minutiae if you want to add to what has already been said by others. A good example is the new biography by Churton. It was a very "entertaining" read, but there was very little in it that I didn't already know. Unless someone is sitting on a cache of extra information that we've never seen before, I don't see how anything new can be added to the story unless it be greater detail and focus on existing material.
Laura Borealis
Is it EVER.- like trying to read an encyclopaedia (I FINALLY finished it...)
I do think (as I have said MANY times) that's rather unfair. I didn't find it at all sleazy. I'll admit it hasn't the detail of Perdurabo - but as I have also said MANY times, I think Perdurabo goes too far in the other direction and a LOT more should have been in footnotes...(I am also troubled by one "fact" in there, but that is for another day - I am now in recuperation mode...)
Y'all have successfully de-enabled me from ever wanting to read Perdurabo.
I am curious about the "fact" though. Not pushing, just curious.
I'm glad I read Sutin, in retrospect, but I probably will never read another biography of Crowley. I've discovered that while I find his deck meaningful and important, I'm much less interested in the man himself and the factual events of his life. Since the biographies don't seem to shed much light on the deck, I'd rather try to tackle the Book of Thoth again, and maybe 777 if I'm feeling strong
fyreflye
Or it means we don't need any more Crowley biographies, especially greatly detailed ones, unless it can be demonstrated that Crowley was a major figure of some kind in something or other important rather than just an amusing nutcase.
Laura Borealis
gregory
What I didn't feel added to the "story" or to my knowledge of Crowley was the bibliographies of every book someone he just met had written, details of their childhood, siblings, school experiences etc right there in the body of the text. They weren't directly relevant to Crowley as such - and I'd have rather looked them up when I actually wanted to know about Joe Bloggs who he met while having coffee in Fez. Reading Perdurabo, I wanted to know more about CROWLEY. And people like Leah, as that was relevant, but not every detail of everyone he was ever involved with.
He was rather more than an amusing nutcase though, fyreflye...
When I get over this (and finish a couple of other fat books that await my attention) I will try Sutin....
Le Fanu
But that's the point I think; There is presumably new material about Crowley in Perdurabo but there's infinitely more new material about those who came into his orbit invariably briefly. Of course all knowledge is useful knowledge (I guess) but the most important thing for me in a biography - and which is a feature of all great biographies from Boswell's Dr Johnson onwards - is that you truly get a sense of the person from them, a sense of the presence and the mind. I do not get this from Perdurabo. I do not get a sense of Crowley the man at all. Maybe I am an inept reader but throughout my life (and as a huge fan of the genre of biography) many biographies have made a huge impression on me, and many of them have been of Crowley's contemporaries; Pound, Woolf, Ottoline Morrell, Strachey, Eliot, but this one feels curiously dead. I so want to get a sense of Crowley the man, and knowing about Loveday's battalion or somebody's banker husband (and similar stuff in excess) doesn't help me. The figure of Crowley does not feel central to the book. And - yes - that's an odd thing to say but it's true. Can't put my finger on it but AC doesn't feel like the core here.
I admit that of course all this extra stuff is *useful* simply because I don't want to appear as someone who rejects all learning but it's an exhausting read which I press on with dutifully.
(I am surprised how all Crowley biographies seem to give relatively short shrift to the Thoth deck. I always think it should be a large proportion of his later life but then I'm biased and think it should be at least a quarter of the book!
)ETA; up to page 387!
