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Dion Fortune
Sep. 4th, 2011 01:51 amI've now re-read four of her five novels in the unhacked editions, and enjoyed them very much.
The barebones summary of plot is pretty much the same in all of them; a man at the end of his tether for one reason or another encounters an enlightened individual of some kind, is induced to take part in some kind of magical working, and finds his life renewed and cleansed as a result. (The novels tend to stop rather suddenly with the culmination of the working, so one has to assume that the cleansing works, because otherwise the story would be pointless. I could have done with an Epilogue or two.) The characters, however, are different each time and nicely rounded, and the relationships play out in very different and psychologically subtle ways.
The books now come with a somewhat nervous prefatory paragraph from the Society Of The Inner Light (which Ms Fortune founded) informing us that she "lived a long time ago" and that some of her ideas are no longer acceptable. As far as I'm concerned it's not her ideas that present a problem, but the usual cultural baggage that you find in much writing from the twenties and thirties--references to "mongrel Levantines of the worst type" and such like. Personally I think it's important to remember that the twenties and thirties were not by any means "a long time ago" and that attitudes like that have never entirely gone away and are ever poised to make a comeback. The more we put them behind us and pretend we're better than that, the more likely they are to sneak in when we're not looking.
(Some bloody imbecilic religious nutcase in America said he thought atheists should be on a list like sex offenders and members of the KKK. A great many of the outraged comments I saw were to the effect that no, Christians ("sheep," "weak-minded throwbacks," "f*cking inbreds") should be on a list like sex offenders and members of the KKK. Very few seemed to think that it was the idea of having a list that was problematic. Plus ça change.)
The dialogue, again, is of the period, with lots of "I say"'s and "good Lord"'s, but that doesn't bother me. There are some nice comic touches, which makes me wonder what the author was like to talk to--I have a feeling she might have been rather fun on a good day. She was another Sagittarian (pause for disgusted tongue-clickings and snortage from the anti-astrology brigade) so probably put her hoof in it at least as often as I do. I wish she'd lived longer, been happier, and written more.
And this has been partly prompted by the fact that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mevennen gave a talk on her in Glastonbury today and I missed it.
The barebones summary of plot is pretty much the same in all of them; a man at the end of his tether for one reason or another encounters an enlightened individual of some kind, is induced to take part in some kind of magical working, and finds his life renewed and cleansed as a result. (The novels tend to stop rather suddenly with the culmination of the working, so one has to assume that the cleansing works, because otherwise the story would be pointless. I could have done with an Epilogue or two.) The characters, however, are different each time and nicely rounded, and the relationships play out in very different and psychologically subtle ways.
The books now come with a somewhat nervous prefatory paragraph from the Society Of The Inner Light (which Ms Fortune founded) informing us that she "lived a long time ago" and that some of her ideas are no longer acceptable. As far as I'm concerned it's not her ideas that present a problem, but the usual cultural baggage that you find in much writing from the twenties and thirties--references to "mongrel Levantines of the worst type" and such like. Personally I think it's important to remember that the twenties and thirties were not by any means "a long time ago" and that attitudes like that have never entirely gone away and are ever poised to make a comeback. The more we put them behind us and pretend we're better than that, the more likely they are to sneak in when we're not looking.
(Some bloody imbecilic religious nutcase in America said he thought atheists should be on a list like sex offenders and members of the KKK. A great many of the outraged comments I saw were to the effect that no, Christians ("sheep," "weak-minded throwbacks," "f*cking inbreds") should be on a list like sex offenders and members of the KKK. Very few seemed to think that it was the idea of having a list that was problematic. Plus ça change.)
The dialogue, again, is of the period, with lots of "I say"'s and "good Lord"'s, but that doesn't bother me. There are some nice comic touches, which makes me wonder what the author was like to talk to--I have a feeling she might have been rather fun on a good day. She was another Sagittarian (pause for disgusted tongue-clickings and snortage from the anti-astrology brigade) so probably put her hoof in it at least as often as I do. I wish she'd lived longer, been happier, and written more.
And this has been partly prompted by the fact that
mevennen gave a talk on her in Glastonbury today and I missed it.