Shipped from UK, please allow 10 to 21 business days for arrival. First published in 1969 in Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, a collection of stories in tribute to the imaginative genius of H. P. Lovecraft. A good, clean & sound copy.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Colin Henry Wilson was born and raised in Leicester, England, U.K. He left school at 16, worked in factories and various occupations, and read in his spare time. When Wilson was 24, Gollancz published The Outsider (1956) which examines the role of the social 'outsider' in seminal works of various key literary and cultural figures. These include Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, William James, T. E. Lawrence, Vaslav Nijinsky and Vincent Van Gogh and Wilson discusses his perception of Social alienation in their work. The book was a best seller and helped popularize existentialism in Britain. Critical praise though, was short-lived and Wilson was soon widely criticized.
Wilson's works after The Outsider focused on positive aspects of human psychology, such as peak experiences and the narrowness of consciousness. He admired the humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow and corresponded with him. Wilson wrote The War Against Sleep: The Philosophy of Gurdjieff on the life, work and philosophy of G. I. Gurdjieff and an accessible introduction to the Greek-Armenian mystic in 1980. He argues throughout his work that the existentialist focus on defeat or nausea is only a partial representation of reality and that there is no particular reason for accepting it. Wilson views normal, everyday consciousness buffeted by the moment, as "blinkered" and argues that it should not be accepted as showing us the truth about reality. This blinkering has some evolutionary advantages in that it stops us from being completely immersed in wonder, or in the huge stream of events, and hence unable to act. However, to live properly we need to access more than this everyday consciousness. Wilson believes that our peak experiences of joy and meaningfulness are as real as our experiences of angst and, since we are more fully alive at these moments, they are more real. These experiences can be cultivated through concentration, paying attention, relaxation and certain types of work.
Read this yesterday on the train. CW has written a good contribution to the Cthulhu Mythos and all the better for being set in Britain. I'm biassed because I like Arthur Machen, am interested in the Voynich manuscript and have a professional interest in Caerleon where quite a bit of this is set. However if you are a fan of the Mythos you won't be disappointed.
Неплохая попытка поиграть с Лавкравтом, если не по стилю, то по мифологии. Уилсон кажется и не может приблизится к лавкравтовскому стилю, он слишком нормальный. Начинает с привязки к реальным фактам, типа Рукописи Войнича, которая оказывается неполным Некрономиконом. Впрочем эта линия как-то быстро затирается и в центра повествования поездка в Уэльс, где происходит борьба с таинственной инопланетной расой ллойгор (Ллойд?), которые не могли жить на Земле поскольку были пессимистами. На самом деле, вся мистическая линия оказывается совсем неинтересной , а вот как этнографическая поездка в Уэльс - это можно читать с удовольствием.
Mostly of interest for real Cthulhu heads, this is a mythos tale of above average quality. I decided to revisit this because I’m planning to run a classic tabletop role playing scenario that is inspired by this story. I’m glad I did: Wilson has a solid grasp on the art of building a web of real and fictional references to build a sense of cosmic dread, and the Lloigor remain one of the most menacing mythos horrors created because they never appear on the scene directly. I also appreciated the Welsh setting, and the suitably indefinite ending. Fun stuff.
It begins well enough by introducing the Voynich manuscript and the following investigation. Then the tension and plot gets lost. Events occur to no conclusion. For me too much is revealed and then how do you continue to hold the attention on the unknowable?
Easily one of the best Cthulhu Mythos stories written by anyone, much less Lovecraft or his Circle. Interesting, propulsive, and written in that engaging Wilson style that just grabs and doesn't let go. Fantastic.