Colin Wilson

[tylenol4000]

I just picked up The Philophers Stone by Colin Wilson. Ive heard he's an amazing writer who often includes themes such as the occult. This interests me greatly. I had actually read a non-fiction book by him called "Alien Dawn" about the UFO and abduction phenomenon. I've read a lot of books on the subject and this is definitely one of the best and most interesting I've read. When I heard about the fiction writer Colin Wilson i didn't expect they were the same guy, but turns out he is.

I don't known much about the man. Can any Colin Wilson fans share they're thoughts on him and your favorites of his?

 

[HareBrain]

He's one of my favourite writers, mostly because of his positive stance on the evolution of consciousness and so on, though a fault with his non-fiction is that he's not critical enough of assertions or "evidence" picked up from books written by others. But almost anything by him, or about him, is worth reading, in my opinion, though I didn't get on much with his Spider World sci-fi series. I haven't read any of his earlier novels, and would be interested in how you get on with The Philosopher's Stone.

I really like his autobiography, Dreaming to Some Purpose (he seemed to know almost everyone in the literary or philosophy world in the 50s/60s). From Atlantis to the Sphinx I found very exciting when I read it twenty-odd years ago (much like Alien Dawn), though I now think most of its conclusions are highly suspect. His first book, The Outsider, is still worth a look, and he wrote very readable short biographies of figures such as Rudolph Steiner, David Lindsay and Carl Jung. I think he's a very readable, breezy author, and though the same themes tend to come through in all his books, I don't mind that because I find them interesting and positive.

 

[dask]

His A Criminal History Of Mankind is worth checking out.

 

[Toby Frost]

I've only read an essay of his about the writing of Spider World called "Fantasy and Faculty X" in a compliation of how-to-write articles edited by J.N. Williamson. It's very interesting, if a bit esoteric.

 

[J Riff]

The Outsider created a stir when it appeared as a serious work, then he went into fiction mode and pretty much everything he wrote was pretty good.

 

[pambaddeley]

He also wrote The Occult:A History, and other books on various figures in the occult world.

Bibliography Colin Wilson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Extollager]

I've been revisiting Wilson, whom I first read in high school over forty years ago, and am impressed by the slipshod quality of what I'm reading. But I appreciated this, where a character goes for a walk on a grey Christmas morning in the English countryside: "Even the greyness of the sky seemed inexpressibly beautiful, as if it were a benediction. I was cottages across the fields with smoke rising from their chimneys, and heard the distant hoot of a train. Then I was suddenly aware that all over England, at this moment, kitchens were full of the smell of baked potatoes and stuffing and turkey, and pubs were full of men drinking unaccustomed spirits and feeling glad that life occasionally declares a truce. [Then he thinks of the barrenness of the other planets] And here we have trees and grass and rivers, and frost on cold mornings and dew on hots ones. And meanwhile, we live in a dirty, narrow claustrophobic life-world, arguing about politics and sexual freedom and the race problem."

And that was in a novel (The Philosopher's Stone) written 1967-1968. It sounds even more like the milieu of today.

I am about ready to go into "inner emigration" mode, like people living in Russia during the Soviet period.

 

[Toby Frost]

That sounds a lot like the end of "Some Thoughts on the Common Toad", which I've always thought would make a much better religious text than any other holy writ that I've heard of.

Like Tylenol, I had always assumed that Colin Wilson was at least two people. He is mentioned in the nigel molesworth books, during the discussion of philosophy that the schoolboys have whilst forced to play in defence in a tedious football match. molesworth describes him as "advanced, forthright, signifficant", and then the ball flies past them and they lose.

 

[Extollager]

I've been revisiting Wilson, whom I first read in high school over forty years ago, and am impressed by the slipshod quality of what I'm reading. But I appreciated this, where a character goes for a walk on a grey Christmas morning in the English countryside: "Even the greyness of the sky seemed inexpressibly beautiful, as if it were a benediction. I was cottages across the fields with smoke rising from their chimneys, and heard the distant hoot of a train. Then I was suddenly aware that all over England, at this moment, kitchens were full of the smell of baked potatoes and stuffing and turkey, and pubs were full of men drinking unaccustomed spirits and feeling glad that life occasionally declares a truce. [Then he thinks of the barrenness of the other planets] And here we have trees and grass and rivers, and frost on cold mornings and dew on hots ones. And meanwhile, we live in a dirty, narrow claustrophobic life-world, arguing about politics and sexual freedom and the race problem."

Sorry: "I was cottages" should be "I saw cottages...." and it should be "dew on hot ones."

I'll look up the Orwell essay again.

 

[Zendexor]

I've been revisiting Wilson, whom I first read in high school over forty years ago, and am impressed by the slipshod quality of what I'm reading. But I appreciated this, where a character goes for a walk on a grey Christmas morning in the English countryside: "Even the greyness of the sky seemed inexpressibly beautiful, as if it were a benediction. I was cottages across the fields with smoke rising from their chimneys, and heard the distant hoot of a train. Then I was suddenly aware that all over England, at this moment, kitchens were full of the smell of baked potatoes and stuffing and turkey, and pubs were full of men drinking unaccustomed spirits and feeling glad that life occasionally declares a truce. [Then he thinks of the barrenness of the other planets] And here we have trees and grass and rivers, and frost on cold mornings and dew on hots ones. And meanwhile, we live in a dirty, narrow claustrophobic life-world, arguing about politics and sexual freedom and the race problem."

And that was in a novel (The Philosopher's Stone) written 1967-1968. It sounds even more like the milieu of today.

I am about ready to go into "inner emigration" mode, like people living in Russia during the Soviet period.

Slipshod but bracing - that might sum it up. His obsession with the insufficiency of everyday consciousness - his insistence that we can and should do better in the realm of awareness - is quite inspiring. His excessive credulity (Swedenborg etc) doesn't matter much if you treat all his books as fiction of a kind...

 

[galanx]

Was very impressed by The Outsider when I first read it in my teens, though later I mostly valued it as an introduction to the people he talked about.