Dear steven
If you don't mind me saying i think you are arguing in a very loaded way -
which tends, to me at least, to vitiate your more interesting comments
- i don't want to start a flame war - just a suggestion -
for example you write how 'you find it amusing that charlatans like Gardiner
and
cranks like Le Vey can be mentioned in the same breath
as genius like Spare, there's simply no comparison :)'
Which is just a way of saying you like austin spare but not gardiner or le
vey -
although i think maybe objectively, austin spare exhibited just as many of
the traits of the charlatan as the others (and indeed talents ).
The charlatan and the magus personalities often are combined - and indeed
that's also an characteristic of surrealism.
Incidentally there is a rather voluminous study of COS and TOS written by
michael aquino and available for free download via his web page - can't say
i've finished reading it yet but it is certainly very detailed and
informative although here too one has to beware of some bias.
Nadia Choucha's essay certainly opened up the issue for me, although
of course there is more to say.
BTW I was looking at alex sanders film 'legend of the witches' on DVD last
nite and that is areally interesting film - despite the flaws, that group
really did IMO expore some of the more interesting aspects of magick - check
it out - also note that maya deren's film has just been released on DVD
'love and do what you will'
mogg
The basis of Surrealism, one of my specialist areas of
expertese (though not exhaustive expertese, if such a
thing was possible) is the 'transcendence' of duality,
an idea basically first thought up by Alfred Jarry,
and inherited by the Dadaists and Surrealists. The
other primary factor is the Freudian Unconscious, but
thats really a later addition. The common denominator
perhaps being a negation of rational consciousness and
trance induction in order to contact that which is
beyond the rational mind and its binary oppositions.
Randomness is also geared towards by passing linear
causality as product of contingent rationalism.
Steve
___________________________________________________________
To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo!
Security Centre. http://uk.security.yahoo.com
|