Any thoughts on Dennis Wheatley ?

[Astro Pen]

For SF fans his "Star of Ill Omen" (1952) is well worth a read. It was not his usual fare, which I think upset his regular readers. But it is an interesting departure.

 

[BAYLOR]

For SF fans his "Star of Ill Omen" (1952) is well worth a read. It was not his usual fare, which I think upset his regular readers. But it is an interesting departure.

A Science Fiction novel ? interesting.

 

[hitmouse]

Yes, in late 19c England quite a few tried the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a magical order created by Aleister Crowley. Arthur Machen also attended some sessions, I suppose enticed by his friend A. E. Waite, who studied magic seriously. Yeats had a famous spat with Crowley and later channeled his interest in magic into his poetry and his own system, explained in A Vision (1925).

But lots of artists pursued occult venues. Theosophy was pretty popular and it's been argued that Kandinsky's and Hilma af Klint's abstract painting developed from their theosophic teachings. It's curious that ever since magic fell into disrepute in the 18c, there's been a steady continuum of artists involved or at least piqued by it. From Blake to Mozart to Baudelaire, interest in magic has been one of the secret forces directing the arts for the past 200 years.

Another way of looking at this is that it is probably only in the last 200 years or so that supernatural stuff has faded out from the arts in any significant way, having been an overarching theme since the beginning of civilisation. The fact that some people got their kicks from now out-of-fashion cod mysticism of the Blavatsky/Crowley flavour is really a minor footnote compared to the sweeping contribution of more conventional religious supernatural themes.

 

[Sargeant_Fox]

Another way of looking at this is that it is probably only in the last 200 years or so that supernatural stuff has faded out from the arts in any significant way, having been an overarching theme since the beginning of civilisation. The fact that some people got their kicks from now out-of-fashion cod mysticism of the Blavatsky/Crowley flavour is really a minor footnote compared to the sweeping contribution of more conventional religious supernatural themes.

There's an ancient connection between art an magic; Orpheus is a paradigm. But what I find fascinating is the persistence of what to the dominant scientific outlook is an atavistic interest. And since the collapse of Christianity it's adopted the weirdest forms. There's the Blavatsky/Crowley mysticism, but also neopaganism, Masonry, alchemy, Eastern mysticism, and even old-fashioned Christianity. Arthur Machen, who tried the Golden Dawn for a while, found it useless creativity-wise, and stuck to the Anglo-Church. To me the form this pursuit of the occult takes in artists isn't important, but the continuity past a time when common sense says it's bonkers. What's important is wondering whether this helps at all in making art more interesting, or whether they'd have developed the same art regardless.

 

[Karapace]

Dennis Wheatley got me interested in the occult (sort of the opposite of what he was aiming for I think). Very dated now I would imagine but teenage me thought they were great.

 

[HareBrain]

What's important is wondering whether this helps at all in making art more interesting, or whether they'd have developed the same art regardless.

I think taking on board different models of how the universe works, even if temporarily (until common sense reasserts itself) can only help with developing different fictional realities. I've certainly found it so. I think it's quite similar to how having a background in anthropology (such as Ursula le Guin and Steven Erikson) help with developing fictional cultures.