Yesterday, I came across a passage in a book by Alan Watts that reignited an old passion for what I have referred to in the past as “the autumn longing.” In a kind of “deep cut” vein for this blog, longtime readers — by which I mean really longtime readers, those who have been with…
Tag: sehnsucht
Huston Smith and H. P. Lovecraft on transcendent longing and humanity’s fundamental dis-ease
From Why Religion Matters: The Fate of the Human Spirit in an Age of Disbelief by Huston Smith: The traditional worldview is preferable to the one that now encloses us because it allows for the fulfillment of the basic longing that lies in the depth of the human heart. . . . There is within…
C. S. Lewis and H. P. Lovecraft on loathing and longing for alien worlds
Several years ago — almost seven, in fact (he said with a sense of temporal vertigo) — I published a series of posts here about what I then termed the “autumn longing,” that exquisite, fleeting, piercing experience of being tantalized by a vision of ultimate beauty and fulfillment that trembles just beyond the edge of…
To escape into twilight realms
(The above music was retitled “Escape” when used in the soundtrack for the film The Hours.) “They had chained him down to things that are, and had then explained the workings of those things till mystery had gone out of the world. When he complained, and longed to escape into twilight realms where magic moulded…
Cosmic Horror and Cosmic Wonder: Revisioning Our Vision of H.P. Lovecraft
H.P. Lovecraft, the recognized master of cosmic horror, was actually moved as much by a sense of cosmic wonder.
My new column about religion and philosophy in fantasy, SF, and horror
This month I started writing a new column for SF Signal, the massively popular blog about fantasy, horror, and science fiction. The title is Stained Glass Gothic, and the column is devoted to exploring the mutual meanings and implications of fantasy, horror, science fiction, religion, philosophy, and spirituality. I think it’ll be of considerable interest…
Lovecraft’s Longing – Part Two (final)
My two-part article “Lovecraft’s Longing,” which I wrote for Art Throb, and whose first part I announced in a previous post, is now finished and published. In Part Two I explain how, in the words of the introduction, Lovecraft was “about” more than just the horrors of bodily corruption and cosmic monstrosity that cling so…
Lovecraft’s Longing: Article for Art Throb
A few months ago I wrote a post about the launch of Art Throb, a Web-based arts initiative headed by my Salem-based sister that chronicles the creative life of the Massachusetts North Shore. Now I have become one of the writers for this venture. Dinah, my sister, invited me a couple of months ago to…
Autumn Longing: Peter Shaffer and AMADEUS
First, my standard proviso: If you haven’t already read the first installment in this series of posts, then please do so before reading this one, since the first one lays the groundwork for what I’m going on about. But for now, to reiterate briefly: Since childhood I have been overcome from time to time by…
Autumn Longing: Edgar Allan Poe
First, my standard proviso: If you haven’t already read the first installment in this series of posts, then please do so before reading this one, since the first one lays the groundwork for what I’m going on about. I assume Poe needs no introduction to most readers, seeing as he — or at least a…