The Unexpected Guest

[EloiseA]

Yes, I have a copy of Greater Trumps along with some sacramental theology from the very strange Inkling Charles Williams -- and his eerie All Hallows Eve, 1945 that opens with two dead women wandering through a devastated London. Williams was also a Dante scholar (not the Dan Brown kind) and this last novel was his exploration of a 'descent into hell' with a magician misusing magic to gain control of the souls of the dead at the end of the war.

I'm not working on tarot imagery at the moment but I might begin a thread next week for those of us who have drawn on tarot imagery. Teresa, you might also like to look at work on trance and tarot by the poet Alice Notley:

http://phillysound.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html

 

[HareBrain]

Yes, I have a copy of Greater Trumps along with some sacramental theology from the very strange Inkling Charles Williams -- and his eerie All Hallows Eve, 1945 that opens with two dead women wandering through a devastated London.

I've read that too. Superb.

Williams was also a Dante scholar (not the Dan Brown kind) and this last novel was his exploration of a 'descent into hell'.

Well, one of them, since he also wrote a novel actually titled "Descent Into Hell" . That was particularly effective for its chilling portrayal of a man who creates a psychic simulacrum of a woman he fancies, and then prefers it to the real thing.

 

[EloiseA]

I'd forgotten that Harebrain, I think of Descent into Hell which I read about 20 years ago as his 'Pygmalion venture' but it is much more than that.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I didn't really enjoy All Hallows Eve very much, though everything else of his that I've read I loved.

Maybe we need a Charles Williams thread. Maybe that should even be a probably.

I will check out the Alice Notley link ... and thank you!