There are two kinds of devilry in this world: the kind that froths and foams in the convent, and the kind that wears a signet ring and drafts policy. Huxley’s The Devils of Loudun is about both — a tale where hysteria kneels before power and calls it holy. I’ve long thought that if Lucifer … Continue reading The Devils of Loudun: Possession in the Age of Reasonable Madness
Tag: reading
Imagine: A Hymn to Nothingness
For years I tried to learn and perfect this song on my guitar, and then my piano. That is, until I realised just how useless this song is. It’s become something of a secular hymn, hasn’t it? Imagine — that soft, self-satisfied lullaby for the spiritually sedated. A song so sanctified by sentimentality that to … Continue reading Imagine: A Hymn to Nothingness
The Woman in the Wall: Madness, Marriage, and the Myth of Care
‘I’ve got out at last,’ said the woman behind the wallpaper. ‘And you can’t put me back.’ It begins, as all good horrors do, with a husband who means well. John is a physician, a man of reason and gentle authority, and therefore utterly unfit to understand his wife’s soul. He prescribes what men have … Continue reading The Woman in the Wall: Madness, Marriage, and the Myth of Care
The Virus: A Parable of Power and Pathogens
Never thought I’d find myself reading this, but, curiosity got the better of me. It’s one of history’s tidier ironies that a man once wrote a novel about an incompetent government facing a deadly plague - only for his son to later preside over one. The Virus (originally The Marburg Virus, 1982) is Stanley Johnson’s … Continue reading The Virus: A Parable of Power and Pathogens
The Orcs of Academia: On the Fall of Myth and the Rise of the Moron
I woke this morning to read that The Lord of the Rings ‘demonises people of colour.’ For a moment I thought I’d stumbled into a parody site, or perhaps Mordor had opened a diversity department. But no - this was genuine academic commentary, the sort of thing one now finds oozing from the lecture halls … Continue reading The Orcs of Academia: On the Fall of Myth and the Rise of the Moron
Wording 