Bright Young Things discussion

Aleister Crowley is a name that comes up with regularity in my BYT era reading and so I am considering a little personal challenge around Aleister Crowley in 2016.

A mix of fiction about him and a biog or two and possibly one of his own books. Anyone else tempted?



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleiste...

I'd be up for a mini-challenge of 3-4 books. I know that Maugham's The Magician is supposed to be based on Crowley and I've been wanting to read more Maugham this year anyway...I'm sure there are some good bios out, as well as Crowley's own work. Looks like some of it is available free online.

Shall I chuck in the first title? Somerset Maugham's The Magician, an earlyish novel which was apparently inspired by Crowley. It's now available as a free Kindle download, I believe.

Maugham wrote an intro to a much later reprint in which he rather dissembled as to whether he based the book on Crowley, but he seems to have done. However, the protagonist is a great deal more evil than Crowley ever was. Warning: The Magician is nicely-paced and an entertaining read, but very creepy. Not for the nightmare-prone.

I have wanted to read The Magician.

I don't know much/anything about Crowley, myself (other than that the "demon" in Good Omens is named for him, if I remember correctly). Depending on the books chosen, I might be up for it. :)

This one's available on kindle (and at my local library!). It has some great reviews, as well as some that say it's boring, so who knows....Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley

Great stuff. Thanks all.


Aleister Crowley also appears as Dr Trelawney in Anthony Powell's A Dance To The Music Of Time. A thoroughly enjoyable appearance it is too....

The self-styled 'Great Beast 666' (aka Aleister Crowley) died in penury after a career not dissimilar to Dr Trelawney's, including many unspeakable ceremonies, one at least of which resulted in the mysterious death of a disciple.

By the by, the other source for Dr Trelawney is identified as a Dr Oyler who used to lead a mob of children in Grecian costume in runs across Grayshott Common just before the WW1.

I'm also intrigued by Aleister Crowley's appearance in "The Devil's Paintbrush" by Jake Arnott...



"The Devil's Paintbrush" by Jake Arnott

How good does this sound....?

One of Scotland's saddest heroes, Hector Macdonald was a man of humble birth who enlisted as a private in the Gordon Highlanders and rose swiftly through the ranks to become Major-General Sir Hector Macdonald. A paragon of Victorian military virtue, "Fighting Mac" saved the day in battle after battle, distinguishing himself in Afghanistan, Egypt, South Africa and wherever else the empire needed him. Then in 1903 there were allegations of homosexuality, and Macdonald did the honourable thing: he blew his brains out in a Paris hotel room.

He is commemorated by a monument that rises over the town of Dingwall, and - less gloriously - he is said to be the model for the man in the kilt on the Camp coffee bottle. Now he has the even more dubious honour of being the central figure in Jake Arnott's flamboyantly assured new novel, where he ends up having a memorable night on the town with none other than Edwardian occultist Aleister Crowley, the self-styled Great Beast.

Crowley and Macdonald did meet briefly in Paris, if Crowley's Confessions can be trusted, but hardly for the magical mystery tour that Arnott writes them into here. Crowley is caught up in feuding with a rival occultist, Macgregor Mathers, and it is Sir Hector, with his nerves of steel, who coolly disarms Mathers when he threatens them with a gun. After Crowley gives him a sugared almond laced with mescaline, Hector finds himself tripping back to his days in Africa - a remarkably handy plot device - and reaches a completely new understanding of his colonial and sexual identity. By the end of the night they are deep into the occult underworld of Paris, as depicted in JK Huysmans's novel Là-Bas, and attending a black mass.

As you would expect from Arnott, The Devil's Paintbrush is a consummate performance. Like his London crime novels, featuring the Ronnie Kray-style figure of queer gangster Harry Starks, this is a virtuoso work of near history, with the occasional in-joke tossed in for good measure. Down there, says the old crone who shows them down a flight of chapel steps to the Satanic rites: "Là bas!" The book takes its title from the Maxim machine gun, known as the devil's paintbrush because of the remarkable way it seemed to splosh red everywhere. We are also told it fired 666 rounds per minute - the number of the beast - which feels almost too neat to be true, but is. Elsewhere the book slides around at the aesthetic and ethical limits of what can be done with fictive faction using real names, bending the memory of historical figures and further fudging the truth of already murky areas.

There are people who think Macdonald was framed; they, presumably, would be happier not reading Arnott's completely made-up description of what he gets up to in a London park. When it comes to magical history, Arnott seems to have taken the scissors to an occult encyclopedia. Soror Dominatibur Astris, or Fraulein Anna Sprengel, of the Order of the Golden Dawn, is reincarnated as an emissary from a later magical order, the Order of the Temple of the Orient. Perhaps only a purist nitpicker would object that this never happened, particularly since she proceeds to sodomise Crowley with a candle after the mass.

Arnott never loses sight of the genuinely tragic nature of Macdonald, and The Devil's Paintbrush has its serious themes - social class, sexuality, colonialism - but compared to the menacingly authentic atmosphere of his London crime books this is a bit of a romp, if an immensely enjoyable one. The criminal underworld is only part of Arnott's larger interest in queer social history. And whether it is a 60s gangster, or a bit of Edwardian beastliness, his appetite for the sordid underside remains constant; for Arnott, sleaze is a moveable feast.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009...

My library has a copy of this, which looks interesting...





"The Aleister Crowley Scrapbook" by Sandy Robertson

Claimed as spiritual forefather of magic societies, Crowley is a key figure in occult areas, profoundly influencing twentieth-century rock, film and fiction. This scrapbook includes press coverage from the time, memoirs of Crowley's life and works.

And, as nominated for March 2016, albeit our man only appears in passing....






Tiger Woman by Betty May

The incredible life story that inspired the forthcoming new musical, Tiger Woman Versus The Beast Dancer, singer, gang member, cocaine addict and sometime confectionist, Betty May's autobiography Tiger Woman thrilled and appalled the public when her story first appeared at the end of the roaring twenties. 'I have often lived only for pleasure and excitement but you will see that I came to it by unexpected ways' Born into abject squalor in London's Limehouse area, May used her steely-eyed, striking looks and street nous to become an unlikely bohemian celebrity sensation, a fixture at the Cafe Royal, London, marrying four times along the way alongside numerous affairs. 'I wondered why men would not leave me alone. They were alright at first when they offered to show one life, and then at once they became a nuisance' She elbowed her way to the top of London's social scene in a series of outrageous and dramatic fights, flights, marriages and misadventures that also took her to France, Italy, Canada and the USA. 'I learnt one thing on my honeymoon - to take drugs'

Her most fateful adversary was occultist and self-proclaimed 'Great Beast' Aleister Crowley, who intended her to be a sacrificial victim of his Thelemite cult in Sicily, but it was her husband - Oxford undergraduate Raoul Loveday - who died, after conducting a blood sacrifice ritual.

Betty May's vitality and ferocious charisma enchanted numerous artistic figures including Jacob Epstein and Jacob Kramer. A heroine like no other, this is her incredible story in her own words, as fresh and extraordinary as the day it was first told.

JUICEY !!! I am all for this one !!! Nye , I will vote this one in right away ! I need excitement in my boring little life !

Tiger Woman ~ Dawn

The Magician was a group read a while back. I'm still reading it. Haven't given up yet. Interesting that it was based on someone. Maybe that will pique my interest to get back to it.

I'm not sure I'd ever heard of Aleister Crowley before.

Mike wrote: "Shall I chuck in the first title? Somerset Maugham's The Magician, an earlyish novel which was apparently inspired by Crowley. It's now available as a free Kindle download, I believe."

The Magician sounds like a great suggestion. Not free for Kindle in the UK but some cheap editions available. It's only c250 pages too so perhaps a suitable book to nominate for the BYT April 2016 fiction read....?

Maugham’s enchanting tale of secrets and fatal attraction The Magician is one of Somerset Maugham’s most complex and perceptive novels. Running through it is the theme of evil, deftly woven into a story as memorable for its action as for its astonishingly vivid characters. In fin de siecle Paris, Arthur and Margaret are engaged to be married. Everyone approves and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves—until the sinister and repulsive Oliver Haddo appears.

Jan C wrote: "The Magician was a group read a while back."

Thanks Jan. Yes, The Magician was indeed a BYT Group Read back in March 2011. Not much of a discussion though...

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

..however there are also other threads about specific chapters, as was the norm back then, but those are also somewhat fitful.

Jan C wrote: "I'm still reading The Magician. Haven't given up yet. Interesting that it was based on someone. Maybe that will pique my interest to get back to it."

After five years I expect you might need to start from the beginning again? Either way it might be good for you to feel inspired to finish it - but, that said, and unlike you, I dislike leaving things unfinished.

It gets mixed reviews but most people seem to like it. I notice BYT's own Val gave it four stars and a favourable write up...

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Nigeyb wrote: "Mike wrote: "Shall I chuck in the first title? Somerset Maugham's The Magician, an earlyish novel which was apparently inspired by Crowley. It's now available as a free Kindle downloa..."

I have some books that I have been reading since I was in college - for the most part they are very big books.

My library also has...


The Monster's Lament: A Novel / Robert Edric

An extraordinary imagining of the dark arts in war-torn London from one of the most brilliant literary talents around.

April 1945. While the Allied Forces administer the killing blow to Nazi Germany, at home London's teeming underworld of black marketeers, pimps, prostitutes, conmen and thieves prepare for the coming peace. But the man the newspapers call the English Monster, the self-procaimed Antichrist, Aleister Crowley, is making preparations for the future too: for his immortality.

For Crowley's plan to work, he has to depend upon one of London's Most Wanted, ambitious gangland boss Tommy Fowler, who, presiding over a crumbling empire, can still get you anything you want -- for a price.

And what Crowley wants is a young man, Peter Tait, in Pentonville Prison under sentence of death for murder. Convinced of his innocence but unable to prove it, his only chance of survival lies in the hands of one detective struggling against the odds to win a desperate appeal that has little chance of success.

Aleister Crowley - The Biography: Spiritual Revolutionary, Romantic Explorer, Occult Master and Spy / Tobias Churton

This definitive biography of Aleister Crowley, the most notorious and controversial spiritual figure of the 20th century, brings together a life of world-shaking 'magick', sexual and psychological experimentation at the outer limits, world-record-beating mountaineering and startling prophetic power - as well as poetry, adventure, espionage, wisdom, excess, and intellectual brilliance.

This biography reveals the man behind the appalling reputation, demolishing a century of scandalmongering that persuaded the world that Crowley was a black magician, a traitor and a sexual wastrel, addicted to drugs and antisocial posing, rather than the mind-blowing truth that Crowley was a genius as significant as Jung, Freud or Einstein.

The Simon Iff Stories & Other Works / Aleister Crowley

This volume brings together two series of short fiction by the poet, writer and religious philosopher Aleister Crowley (1875–1947). It includes the first complete publication ofSimple Simon, the detective series featuring Crowley’s most memorable fictional creation, the mystic-magician-philosopher-psychoanalyst-detective Simon Iff. The idealised Crowley in old age, Simon Iff is wise, knowing and unfailingly humorous as he applied psychoanalysis, Taoism and his own religious philosophy of Thelema to divine the depths of human nature and solve a wide array of crimes and mysteries.

The six Scrutinies of Simon Iff stories are set in France and England, anchored by Iff’s beloved Hemlock Club. The twelve Simon Iff in America stories afford Crowley’s penetrating insights into America as he found it during his residence from 1914 to 1919. His three Simon Iff Abroad stories take the reader to tribal North Africa, inaccessible Central Africa and to the high seas. The two Simon Iff Psychoanalyststories were among the earliest tales to use the new science of psychoanalysis to solve mysteries. Also included is Crowley’s other major short fiction series, the eight stories of his legendary Golden Twigs, which were inspired by Sir J.G. Frazer’s encyclopedic study of myth and religion in history, The Golden Bough.


The King of the Shadow Realm: Aleister Crowley, His Life and Magic / John Symonds

This is John Symmonds' second biography of Aleister Crowley which - by his own admission - is simply 'The Great Beast' reprinted with added material: mostly extracts from some of Crowley's unpublished diaries. It's a 'must-have' only if you are a Crowley Nut with more money than sense (to which I unashamedly plead 'guilty' on both counts) and it is a fine piece of work. The only problem I have is with Symmonds himself, who dropped various hints in his first AC Biog. that he was by no means an ardent Crowley disciple. In this second outing, Symmonds' cynical, dismissive view of The Beast is far more pronounced - which necessarily tarnishes the entire project. My own cynicism regarding the motives of this author in cashing-in on his first AC biography by simply re-issuing it with added material was thoroughly compounded when I learned that 'King Of The Shadow Realm' had also been printed in a limited edition run, each copy containing 'never before seen' colour plates and bearing the signature of Symmonds himself.


The Magical Record Of The Beast 666 The Diaries Of Aleister Crowley, 1914 1920 / Aleister Crowley

Magick in Theory and Practice / Aleister Crowley

Crowley was such a controversial and reviled character. This book in his own words explores his understanding of Religion and Spirituality. What is clear is that this was a man standing very much at odds with the accepted culture of the time, a radical thinker and a free spirit. This book makes it clear that this was a man seeking spiritual enlightenment, in an age when mechanised warfare had dehumanised humanity through massive slaughter. He himself died in 1947. This is argued to be his best book, and draws on Gnosticism, Hinduism and Ancient Egyptian cosmology to formulate his own theory of Magic or 'Magick'. Numerous rituals are appended, and there are detailed explanations of incantations and devils encountered in these black rituals. It would be too simple to dismiss the whole book as black magic and occultism- it is such a very complex book drawing on philosophy, planetary relations, cosmogeny, mythology and genuine spiritual intelligence that it deserves an unprejudiced hearing. He was in the spiritual Avant Garde, whose affects are felt today. A flawed man- but with an astounding breadth of knowledge and experience of the 'occult' that it is hard to imagine is emulated today. There is integrity and soundness in a great deal of what he talks about as an ouspoken critic of ossified unexperiential religion as he clearly saw it at the time.

I've got hold of a copy of...


Aleister Crowley: Magick, Rock and Roll, and the Wickedest Man in the World

by Gary Lachman

This definitive work on the occult’s “great beast” traces the arc of his controversial life and influence on rock-and-roll giants, from the Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin to Black Sabbath.

When Aleister Crowley died in 1947, he was not an obvious contender for the most enduring pop-culture figure of the next century. But twenty years later, Crowley’s name and image were everywhere. The Beatles put him on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Rolling Stones were briefly serious devotees. Today, his visage hangs in goth clubs, occult temples, and college dorm rooms, and his methods of ceremonial magick animate the passions of myriad occultists and spiritual seekers.

Aleister Crowley is more than just a biography of this compelling, controversial, and divisive figure—it’s also a portrait of his unparalleled influence on modern pop culture.

Wow! Sounds great. I knew of him mainly through my studies of astrology many moons ago, back in my hippie days. I had no idea that the Beatles and Stones were into him. Interesting.

Nigyeb ~ this Crowley fellow sounds fascinating to me ! I think he was very influential over many during and after his time ! I would love to read any of the books you have in your library !

I do not believe I am in for Maugham 's The Magician, but I am really all interested in the bio of Crowley all mixed in with our Rock and Rollers and would love to read some of the earlier bios that are creepy about his philosophical , theological, and psychological views in comparison to my favorite Jung and Freud . Then add in the Occult and spies ; what was this fellow not involved ???

Let's just pick the most exciting and outrageous and read !

You have an incredible mind !
Dawn

Thanks Barbara and thanks Dawn

I'll keep you posted.

Perhaps we just update this thread with any books we come across the read? And if we can get a group read going too then all the better! Perhaps Tiger Woman by Betty May might ease us in?

The David Bowie / Aleister Crowley crossover explored....


In the wake of David Bowie’s death, his last album, “Blackstar”, is his swan song, an enigmatic conclusion to a career punctuated by otherworldly alter-egos and esoteric symbolism. We’ll look at the meaning of “Blackstar” in the context of David Bowie’s career.

http://vigilantcitizen.com/musicbusin...

If you are still looking for interesting reading material on Crowley, my brother gave me a Kindle edition of The Three Dangerous Magi: Osho, Gurdjieff, Crowley (my brother is a sannyasin who spent a great deal of time with Osho). I haven't read it yet, but it looks fascinating, and may add some balance to the skewed reputation Crowley has acquired.

I'm currently reading


Aleister Crowley: Magick, Rock and Roll, and the Wickedest Man in the World

by Gary Lachman

It's absolutely blimmin marvellous. A fantastic biography of a fascinating, albeit deeply flawed, human being. Lots of our old BYT era friends pop up.

Gary's perspective as an ex-obsessive and now more detached and dispassionate critic makes for a seemingly balanced viewpoint

Nigeyb wrote: "Aleister Crowley is a name that comes up with regularity in my BYT era reading and so I am considering a little personal challenge around Aleister Crowley in 2016.

A mix of fiction about him and a biog or two and possibly one of his own books. Anyone else tempted?"

So, I have just finished reading….





Aleister Crowley: Magick, Rock and Roll, and the Wickedest Man in the World by Gary Lachman

A great introduction to the life and legacy of controversial and divisive man.

I enjoyed it so much that, upon finishing, I immediately bought three more books by Gary Lachman.

Click here to read my review

4/5

Janice(JG) wrote: "If you are still looking for interesting reading material on Crowley, my brother gave me a Kindle edition of The Three Dangerous Magi: Osho, Gurdjieff, Crowley"

^ Do please let us know what you make of it Janice(JG), and the extent to which you'd recommend it