Jem’s Comments (group member since Oct 27, 2016)

Jem’s comments from the Erewash Press group.

An intriguing suggestion, thanks Willow! Morgenstern's works would be a wonderful addition to our lists. If only we could find who holds the manuscripts... Rest assured we shall keep our ears alert for any whisper of where we could acquire them.

Another Charles Williams classic - his history of Christianity, under the title "The Descent of the Dove". Its has also been out of circulation for a long time, and we've priced it at £2.99, to allow a wide readership. He wrote the book as the Second World War was beginning, and part of the book's fascination is in watching a great poet and thinker grapple with the shifts in the history of the world which are taking place around him, and doing so by delving right back into history.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Descent-Dove...





He's as provocative and erudite as ever, and here's a sample of how he writes about the topic:

"Historically, its beginning was clear enough. There had appeared in Palestine, during the government of the Princeps Augustus and his successor Tiberius, a certain being. This being was in the form of a man, a peripatetic teacher, a thaumaturgical orator. There were plenty of the sort about, springing up in the newly-established peace of the Empire, but this particular one had a higher potential of power, and a much more distracting method. It had a very effective verbal style, notably in imprecation, together with a recurrent ambiguity of statement. It continually scored debating points over its interlocutors. It agreed with everything on the one hand, and denounced everything on the other. For example, it said nothing against the Roman occupation: it urged obedience to the Jewish hierarchy; it proclaimed holiness to the Lord. But it was present at doubtfully holy feasts; it associated with rich men and loose women; it commented acerbly on the habits of the hierarchy; and while encouraging everyone to pay their debts, it radiated a general disapproval, or at least doubt, of every kind of property. It talked of love in terms of hell, and of hell in terms of perfection. And finally it talked at the top of its piercing voice about itself and its own unequalled importance. It said that it was the best and worst thing that ever had happened or ever could happen to man. It said it could control anything and yet had to submit to everything. It said its Father in Heaven would do anything it wished, but that for itself it would do nothing but what its Father in Heaven wished. And it promised that when it had disappeared, it would cause some other Power to illumine, confirm, and direct that small group of stupefied and helpless followers whom it deigned, with the sound of the rush of a sublime tenderness, to call its friends."

Thanks Laura - I'm so pleased you're excited about it, we're thrilled as well. Glad you'll be following along, and please do chip in on any of the other threads that catch your fancy.

Charles Williams' "Witchcraft" is a fascinating and provocative book. He wrote it in the early years of the Second World War, just after his history of the holy spirit, and it is suffused with his esoteric philosophy. It's a study of what he regards as the "lower" form of magic, its historical appearances in the Classical, medieval and later eras, the repressions it received, and the theological implications of it.

Williams is always very readable, and the book roars along, fuelled by his pointed (and sometimes deliberately outrageous) theological statements and his fantastic style. It takes an attitude to witchcraft which diverges wildly from the later lenses through which the subject is usually considered: he doesn't see it as a religion or a gender issue, for example.

This edition contains a brief introductory essay by me, exploring Williams' attitude to the subject, and sketching out some of his ideas.

The book hasn't been generally available for years, and this edition has been priced deliberately affordably at £4.99 - we hope it will cause lots of discussion.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M4MTWB2

First up - George MacDonald's "The Princess and the Goblin & The Princess and Curdie". It's a pair of short (50,000 words each) Victoria fantasy novels, dealing with miners, royalty, goblins, magic ad mysterious women who change shape and provide surprising revelations.

MacDonald was a huge influence on Lewis, Tolkien, Carrol, Garner, Chesterton, and others, and you can really see the elements of his books they took and reworked. We've included a couple of essays by me in which I explore this issue of literary influence, as well as the books' style of fantasy, their philosophy and their theological elements.

And all for two pounds and fifty pence...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M31B7D5

This is the thread where we'll post what we're publishing as it comes out, so do check back to keep in touch with the latest volumes!

This is a thread for everyone to suggest ideas for who they'd like to see appear in glorious Erewash editions! Part of the point of this press was to swap reading suggestions and make good books more available, as well as chatting about them.

Who do you like? Who fits with the motley collection of half-obscure and half-remembered writers on our list? Who're we missing?

We brought out the Curdie novels - or should that be the princess novels - this month, and we've got a few potential MacDonald volumes in the pipeline - his realist fiction, his theology, etc.

One of the things I most noticed when talking about MacDonald is how many already know and love his work - when did you lot first come across him? And what do you like about his books?

So, we've published his treatise on witchcraft, and we're preparing an annotated edition of his history of the holy spirit, and his arthurian poetry. Charles Williams: autodidact, friend of Tolkien and Lewis, esoteric writer, mystic, and the man whom Geoffrey Hill refused to regard as "the other Inkling" - what do people think of his work?

(I may also use this thread to post excerpts from his work, because I love how he writes...)