I discovered "The Outsider" about a year and a half ago, and I've since read about a half dozen of his books (although literally dozens of his now line the walls of my apartment). But he is clearly a unique and fascinating thinker. He's clearly avoided the bullshit that has been encroaching upon all of the arts over the last few decades. And his work is so wide- ranging! What brought me to him more than anything was the fact that he was interested in all of the same areas that I am interested in, and he also saw them as being interrelated.
Last night I was reading more of "Beyond The Outsider" and its amazing! Of course, all of his work is great, but like you said, "his work is so wide ranging" that sometimes it's hard to grasp what he's saying. He's so well read in so many disciplines!
Anyway, I don't know if you've read it yet, but "Beyond' is much clearer than "Outsider", as a lot of the open ended questions the first volume left you with have been tied together here.
You ask, "What aspects of his work do you find most appealing?" There's a lot, but if I had to generalize it, it's his insistence that mankind is caught up in illusions and trivialities of everyday existence, and somehow we're "missing" what life is all about. In other words, that the only important thing is to raise our mental capacity. Have you read "Mind Parasites?" In that book, he compares Man to a car that is lost somewhere in the jungle. The car is found by a tribe, and soon the tribe realizes that they can put their things in the car and push it around. Life is suddenly easy for the tribe, yet they don't realize how easier it would be if they would unlock the emergency brake! Of course, they don't know about it. They don't know it exists! Wilson compares this to our ignorance of our untapped mental capacity.
I recently got a message from an author who has corresponded with Wilson a few times and even met him once. This is what he said to me, among other things:
"Jim, the most important thing I learned from meeting Colin Wilson is that he doesn't believe the Mind Parasites are real; they are his metaphor for the weight of daily life on the creative process"
Like I tell people, Wilson is(excuse the expression) fuckin amazing. I like his idea of evolution and how man as we presently know it is not truly "man"; it is simply a creature existing between animal and "true man". Now that's intense. I thouroughly agree with you in that Wilson is intersted in all the same things I am; it's as if he's speaking to me. And yes, all those topics are inter-related as you mentioned.
Yes, my favorite Wilson allegory for consciousness is from (I think) MYSTERIES, where he says something like "A man's mind is like a mansion, filled with rooms and riches, and yet so far he seems content to live in a tiny room at the back of the basement." I think that the state of our civilization makes it clear, however, that humanity is on the verge of a great breakthrough in consciousness. On the other hand, I think we also live in a time which, if things get fucked up, could plunge us back into a new Dark Ages. That's why work like Wilson's is so important...it's forward-looking, not backwardness as so much of contemporary cultural thinking is.
> "Jim, the most important thing I learned from meeting Colin Wilson > is that he doesn't believe the Mind Parasites are real; they are > his metaphor for the weight of daily life on the creative process"
Yes, I thought this was the case. People are obsessed with straight- forwardness nowadays, and as a result few writers are capable of writing allegorically or metaphorically. Everyone wants it straight, not realizing that it is ambiguity that generates real meaning.Fortunately Wilson is too good of a writer to fall into his trap.
> Like I tell people, Wilson is(excuse the expression) fuckin amazing. I like > his idea of evolution and how man as we presently know it is not truly "man"; > it is simply a creature existing between animal and "true man". Now that's > intense. I thouroughly agree with you in that Wilson is intersted in all the same things I am; it's as if he's speaking to me. And yes, all those topics > are inter-related as you mentioned.
Yes, as Nietzsche said "man is something to be overcome" and is "an arrow of longing for the other shore." While many opportunities are open to our civilization at present this trend toward extreme specialization is troublesome. People just want to worry about their own little corner of reality and that's it. People like Wilson try to shatter the boundaries of such confining thinking.
I first read "The Outsider" in about 1972, when it was required reading for disillusioned undergraduates (are all undergraduates still disillusioned?). I followed with reading everything I could find by Wilson, admittedly not as much as is now available. His admission that life was about a search for meaning was something I had not come across in any understandable form, and his honesty and commitment in his writings since I still think are admirable. Whether he has actually got anywhere is another question. I admit I did not follow him through his tangential explorations of murder and the occult. Throughout, however, you can see a fairly straightforward development of his thought, albeit sometimes buried in his considerations of other (to him) related areas. In the early works, I recall "the St Neot's margin", later to be followed by "Faculty X", both sources of great amusement to those with whom I had discussions in those early years. I suppose what I find refreshing about Wilson is his continued optimism, so that even now he is looking, and finding, sources of meaning and methods by which they can be expressed. I would be hard pressed to comment on every book of his I have read. As an indication of the rewards still available to the reader, I have just finished reading "Starseekers", (1980's), well up to his usual standards of research and thought-provoking theories. In this book, he suggests that man's exploration of astronomy pre-dates science, to a time around the foundation of Stonehenge, when man possessed an intuitive sense (now lost to us) which allowed "scientific" results to be arrived at without scientific tools. Well worth reading, if only for the comprehensive summary (and startling conclusion) concerning the building of the pyramids. I admit to a period during the 1980's when I thought Wilson had lost his way (the time of the occult books). Looking back, I see he has been more consistent than I thought: he was only exploring in different areas, but still looking for the same things. I will comment further as my recollection improves. You may gather that I have not been able to find many Wilson enthusiasts to discuss him with recently.
Congratulations on the Wilson Web Page! I think youve done an amazing job; it's quite magnificent!
Listen, I'll try to keep this short, but I simply wanted to introduce myself to you and any other Wilson fans who may be reading this sometime. I am a writer and also a bookdealer and I specialise in Colin Wilson's new, out-of-print, and rare books. Ive been reading his works since 1984 when, at the age of 17, I discovered The Outsider. As the years went by I grew more and more obsessed with the man and his ideas, eventually got into correspondence with him, and have now visited him at his home in Cornwall on two occassions. In essence, Ive devoted a large part of my life to reading and understanding -- and putting into practice! -- what he is saying.
My current research projects are (believe it or not) The Selected Letters of Colin Wilson -- due for publication in two more years -- and Completing the Partial Mind: The Letters of Abraham H. Maslow and Colin Wilson. (More details available on request.) Aside from writing articles, I am doing research for a book on Optimism and am abt to play around with some fiction for Abraxas, the British magazine dedicated to Colin's work. Thus far, Ive brought one major project, An Extraordinary Man in the Age of Pigmies: Colin Wilson on Henry Miller, to fruition, and am pleased to say that I have paperback copies for sale at $15 each, postpaid. The book was published in September of 1996, is abt 80 pages altogether, includes a preface I wrote, a long introduction by Colin Wilson, and some very funny pen and ink drawings (and also a watercolor reproduced in color) by the South African artist, Joanne Taylor. Please understand that this is a book by Colin Wilson on Henry Miller, but it is also, to a large extent, autobiographical in the sense that Colin discusses his own development and influences. (Send orders to Maurice Bassett, Box 11115, Burke, VA 22009.)
Before signing off, I'll simply mention that I have a massive catalogue of books, tapes, and magazines by and abt Colin Wilson which is available to anyone who wants it, free of charge. Contact me by e-mail at positivity@earthlink.net or at the address above. (NOTE: For more information on Maurice and his catalog, see his entry on the links page.)
Keep up the good work!
best wishes, Maurice Bassett
I'm a professor with interdisciplinary research interests & have been reading Colin for quite a spell. I'm interested in his philosophy and fiction. I'm writing some books on the philosopher-author Gerald Heard, who I believe is a fascinatingly brilliant writer-thinker who delivers on what Colin is suggesting in THE CRAFT OF THE NOVEL.
I first wrote to Colin in August of 1995 and spoke with him by phone. I believe that Colin's evolutionary trajectory is recapitulating many of Gerald's own ideas of transformational philosophy.
Since you love Colin's mind and heart, you will probably also become deeply moved by Gerald's. On this hunch, I'm taking the liberty of providing you the following information:
I'm a professor at the Jesuit University of San Francisco and have been doing extensive research for a few books and articles that center on Gerald Heard (1889-1971), a close friend of Aldous Huxley and a gifted historian, philosopher, religious thinker (who shares several of your interests), and fiction writer. I believe Gerald is still one of the most advanced thinker of the 20th century and provides a creative, inspiring framework for entering the next millennium.
Gerald powerfully influenced not only Aldous but also people like Huston Smith, the comparative religionist; Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi; Mike Murphy (Gerald inspired Murphy and Price to found Esalen); Ray Bradbury; Bill Wilson (of AA); Christopher Isherwood; and so many more. Gerald has brilliant things to say about Vedanta, Buddism, and all the other major world religions, AND he was fashioning a new contemporary approach and training for a life of growth. His creativity formulated his characteristic notions of Metacomedy (a Shiva's eye view of the world and the parallel feeling tone state of ecstasy and "panaesthesia" --for mind, body, soul, and emotions.
You might be interested in some of my stuff about Gerald and some of my Web links. I don't yet have my own Web Page, but will be putting one up in the next two months or so.
I've published a couple of preliminary essays on Gerald.
(1) An article, "Gerald Heard: Soul Guide to the Beyond Within which appeared in GNOSIS (Winter 1993)
(2) The "Afterword" (entitled "Gerald Heard, Postmodern 'Magic Mythmaker'" to Jean Houston's 1993 edition of LIFE FORCE.
You might enjoy browsing an extremely condensed version of the GNOSIS piece on Bruce Eisner's ISLAND VIEWS WWW page (it appeared in Island Views issue #2, as "Gerald Heard: Postmodern Soul Guide"). You can see it at the following address: http://www.i sland.org/ISLANDVIEWS/VIEWS2/heard2.html
But the Gnosis essay is much better, and if you like Jean Houston you might also like my Gerald essay in her LIFE FORCE new edition.
On another topic relating to the TV series, "Northern Exposure," which is one of the most enlightened TV series (in reruns): you might enjoy a couple of my WWW pieces:
(1) a whimsical piece: "Northern Exposure: Finale/Exclusive Interview: Finale/Exclusive Interview: Chris, Joel, Maggie, Maurice, & Ed. http://www.nets pace.org/~moose/fun/interview-cody.html
and
(2) a more serious piece: Northern Exposure Finale: Metacomedy vs. Tragedy Northern Exposure Finale: Metacomedy vs. Tragedy. Copyright http://www.netspace .org/~moose/fun/essay-cody.html
This is a message from an old norwegian (62) who has recently gone Internet, and have done a search on Colin Wilson. I have had a long-lasting relationship with Colin Wilson's books - his ideas I have sort of outgrown, but by all means. I was very pleased to find your homepage. Congratulations on that by the way!
I read "The Outsider" already in 1957 - yes, I'm that old. At that time it was his only book - I believe, well perhaps "Ritual in the Dark" was around, but only the former had been translated to norwegian. Anyway I became completely hooked, and for the decades to follow he was my literary and philosophical guru. Yes, in the first capacity I still have a place for him and buy his books whenever I come across a new one. The CW shelf in my bookcase is pretty long and among other contains a signed copy of his autobiography "Voyage to a Beginning" - I also have a private letter from him dated december 1963.
My favourite is his small "Adrift in Soho" which I still read from time to time to whip up my nostalgia. There are other books og his that once meant a lot to me, and also reflects CW's various philosophical phases. The last and still pending is the Split Brain (bicameral mind) one I believe.
Im my opinion Wilson is a superb mediator and has a gift of picking up what's in the air and presenting it in a popular form. He may even be said to be a philosopher in his own right. His "ladder of minds" idea was a very promising start and on the brink of a real breakout. The american writer/philosopher Robert Pirsig has however developed a somewhat similar system he calls "The Metaphysics of Quality". In it he takes complete leave of the Subject/Object tenet that has plagued western mind for millennias. Well worth looking into for those who have a tendency to think".
This is no critisism of Colin Wilson he has a special place in both my heart and my bookshelf. I hope you will have plenty traffic on your site. Please put my letter up on the discussion forum along with my e-mail address. There in one book of CW's earlier production that I have not been able to obtain, namely "The Glass Cage". If anyone has a copy for sale I would be much obliged.
Hello
I'm writing this after finding your Colin Wilson web page. Like others in your discussion list, I think the best thing to do is just to introduce myself and talk about what I get from his writing.
I've read Colin for about six years now and in my mind he is one of the most important writers/thinkers working. His reputation isn't great amongst those 'who know' (academics, journalists etc.) at least in this country (UK) isn't great, and hasn't been for some time, so it's often difficult to find things out about both Colin's work and others who like him. (Although if you walk into any public library and check their records you find that he's one of the most widely read. The library here - in Nottingham - has about 130 books, and most often, they're out.)
I've read a number of his books (around 40) and his ideas never fail to inspire and influence me, reminding me how much we waste in terms of our creative and intellectual potential. And after reading one of his books I also go back to others and reread and try to absorb the optimism and confidence that come from Colin's writing on man's latent talents. But as he often says, it's a matter of constantly reminding yourself and understanding what we're capable of rather than forgetting and getting stuck in the day to day grind.
And that's why something like the web page of yours and the discussions that are getting started can only be good.
Greetings,
I am sending you a short commentary on Colin Wilson's work which I hope could be included in the discussion section of your web page.
Colin Wilson is a great synthesizer. He has a talent for bringing together ideas from various disciplines in a highly interesting way. However, he is dissapointing in that he is content to be _meerly_ a synthesizer of ideas. His central tenets are an eclectic combination of Gurdjieff's and Maslow's, to name but two central figures, ideas applied towards existential questions.
Colin Wilson, while ackgnowleding his influences, claims the contrary. His "An Essay on the 'New' Existentialism" is a case in point.
I felt the same dissapointment towards Terrance McKenna and Robert Anton Wilson, who also, at first sight, appear to be highly original; but, upon closer inspection turn out to be highly derrivative.
I am very grateful for all of these writers for shedding light on new vistas on the intellectual horizon in an entertaining way. However, I doubt whether their contributions extend beyond that.