In fact, in "The Apes of God" (and elsewhere), Lewis parodies and
satirizes fascination with what is here being called "the occult" --
possibly "western mystical philosophy" or "western non-rational
philosophy" would be more accurate that "occult".

On the other hand, the above mentioned satire/parody might itself be an
indication of a fairly widespread fascination with the "occult" among
modernists, especially in re the Bloomsbury crowd -- or don't we want to
include Bloomsbury in Modernism?.

Tim Romano wrote:

> Again, I haven't read the book and request more detail from the impromptu
> reviewer. Does Surette "equate Modernism with the Occult"? Is that a fair
> summary of his position? That the modernists were occultists with
> artistic
> talent? Or does he say that certain authors affixed with the "modernist"
> label were to varying degrees devotees of the occult? Does he offer a
> working definition of "the occult"? FWIW, I don't see how Wyndham Lewis,
> for example, could ever be considered an occultist.   Does L.S.
> exclude any
> authors?
> Tim Romano
>
>
> At 06:38 AM 1/29/03 -0500, charles moyer responded to Tim Bray:
>
>>   Again, I did not write that. It is from Leon Surette's book on
>> Modernism
>> and the Occult. p.285. I agree with you Tim [Bray]. Furthermore I
>> think it
>> smacks
>> of witch-hunting taken to absurd lengths which was my point about
>> equating
>> Modernism with the Occult and the negative connotations of the resulting
>> violence to existing "order" implied.
>>     Since we are on the subject of Modernism here is what I read in
>> yesterday's Cleveland Plain Dealer concerning our poet laureate's
>> appearance
>> at John Carroll University tonight.
>>     "There's a waiting audience out there that was frightened away by
>> Modernist poetry in school. You feel alienated from your own
>> language, which
>> is unpleasant," Collins says in phone call from his home in Somers, N.Y.
>> "There's a syllogism at work here. The syllogism goes like this: I
>> can read
>> and understand English; this poem was written in English; I can't
>> understand
>> this poem."
>>     Any comments?
>>
>> Charles
>>
>> ----------
>> >From: Tim Bray <[log in to unmask]>
>> >To: [log in to unmask]
>> >Subject: Re: Pound and the Occult (was not
>> >Date: Tue, Jan 28, 2003, 11:54 PM
>> >
>>
>> > Carrol Cox wrote:
>> >> charles moyer wrote:
>> >>
>> >> "apparent immateriality of quantum physics and the apparent
>> >> irrationality of relativity theory"
>> >
>> > I missed that, but I object.  Nothing is more material than quantum
>> > physics, a hodgepodge of mathematics which seems to do a good job of
>> > predicting the observed material results of experiments; the violently
>> > counterintuitive nature of what the math seems to be telling us is a
>> > symptom of materiality - the world is what it is, not what we think it
>> > is, and if what it is seems weird, well that's just the way it is.
>> > Similarly for relativity theory, it's weird all right but there's
>> > nothing irrational about it.  And we lack alternatives.  And it is a
>> > good thing to try to understand the world. -Tim
>
>

--

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