Under the Volcano

[Simon Bryquer]

Taken a look at the book:
The Private Labyrinth of Malcolm Lowry: Under the Volcano & the Cabbala' by 
Perle Epstein

This is a very well done book/study. She examines Lowry's Kabbalistic 
influences in detail (following the story almost page by page) with 
interesting and, I must say, correct reference to both genuine influences 
ranging from true Kabbalist as well as individual such as Agrippa von 
Nettenshein and Bombastus von Hohenheim (better known as Paracelsus) and the 
obscure Frater Achad. aka  Charles Stansfeld Jones who Lowry regarded as a 
Magus of genuine talent.

As to Gershom Scholem, probably Kabbalah's greatest scholar who 
singlehandedly brought back the study of Kabbalah from obscure superstitions 
of the Dark Ages of false magical powers to it's rightful place as the 
ancient and legitimate tradition of transmission that is Jewish Mysticism. 
But Malcolm Lowry as was Joyce,  for literary was drawn to the dramatic and 
flamboyant  aspects of kabbalah of which Perle Epstein speaks of and also 
she is a descendant of the Baal Shem Tov the 18th century Kabbalist. Lowry 
knew Kabbalah,  Joyce did not.

As for Scholom, he  was once interviewed in Jerusalem where he was the first 
professor  as well as holding the Chair of Jewish Mysticism at Hebrew 
University., about his method of study and his answer was that he locks 
himself in his study, takes off all his clothes and approaches the Kabbalah 
completely naked.

KBLH


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Thomas Eckhardt" <thomas.eckhardt at uni-bonn.de>
To: "alice malice" <alicewmalice at gmail.com>
Cc: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2014 2:15 PM
Subject: Re: Under the Volcano


>A great novel.
>
> The Kabbalah plays an important role in it. Not the Madonna kind of 
> Kabbalah, I suspect, but certainly the Gershom Sholem kind.
>
> Thomas
>
> Am 19.02.2014 14:45, schrieb alice malice:
>> There the bird was still, a long-winged dark furious shape, a little
>> world of fierce despairs and dreams, and memories of floating high above
>> Popocatepetl, mile on mile, to drop through the wilderness and alight,
>> watching, in the timberline ghosts of ravaged mountain trees. With
>> hurried quivering hands Yvonne began to unfasten the cage. The bird
>> fluttered out of it and alighted at her feet, hesitated, took flight to
>> the roof of El Petate, then abruptly flew off through the dusk. . . up
>> soaring, with a sudden cleaving of pinions into the deep dark blue pure
>> sky above, in which at that moment appeared one star.
>>
>> On this day in 1947 Malcolm Lowry's /Under the Volcano/ was published.
>>
>> http://val.fm/everything-merges-with-the-night-brian-eno-mp3/
>>
>
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l 

-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l