OW Disclaimer: Let's not take anything, including REALITY too seriously.....
I want this review to be interesting, and I would also like for people to read it. For people to find themselves lost in turns of phrase and amazed by my comparisons and directions. I want people to read a line and then go back and read it again, as though they had not gathered what I meant the first time. I want you to base your future reviews on this one, in an attempt to top it, or even destroy, or discredit it. I have just finished reading That Hideous Strength, by C.S Lewis. But who might he be? One of a long line of authors who seem to register instantly. Despite myself not having previously read one word of his, I knew he was good. And oh my yes, how he contained fine mystery and an acute surreal knowledge all within the pages of this book. How history came to life and formed a medley with language enough to make the sky dance. Did time bend? Were my dreams altered and my footsteps sharpened? Yes they were. Now here, a story of how I came to be in possession of the book itself.
Why did I buy this book?
I bought this book because it came up during a Google search of 'Macrobes'. If you are familiar with my writings you will find them referenced in one or two pieces that have become. I first heard about the Macrobes through one man, none other that Michael Tsarion. A leading alternative historian. A man who has been firmly convinced by his research in an alien involvement in the history of mankind and mankind itself, unable to as of yet awaken from the psychic and psychological tyranny that has plagued them for some centuries. An occult teacher and also a student of Jordon Maxwell, he has within his prerequisites the type of interesting things to say that are quite capable of turning perspectives on their head, and inside out. Unlike anything I had heard before, perhaps. I became increasingly interested in the Macrobes, as someone my age might who viewed themselves as somewhat of a misfit and a rebel. Not in the sense that I am a leader do I find myself pursuing these 'funny in their own way' subjects, but in the way that a person may become lost in Mozart's “The Magic Flute” or perhaps as a youngster reading, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe maybe for sometime after, unable to view a wardrobe in quite the same way. I may wish for similar experiences with these beings. I may wish to encounter other life. I may already have. Said that John Dee himself invoked these creatures for knowledge of a certain kind. And so to this day we see effects of their conversations. Some may know John Dee as the man who was consultant to Queen Elizabeth, a man who signed his letters with the numbers 007.
There wasn't much speak of the Macrobes in That Hideous Strength, however in it were the very reasons why I love British culture the way I do. Let me say that the book was, in its own way, a conspiracy against the world. A secret organization had recently risen to the ranks of power, controlling popular opinion through the newspapers of the times. Having themselves an institutional police and various key figures in positions of power, they we're able to manipulate events to their favor. They were opposed by certain laws 'of the universe' said not to be breached, a resurrect wizard and a strange man who claimed to have been taken to other planets and visited by alien beings. This book also used elements of clairvoyance and the role of a seer was an important one. So far as I'm concerned, alien visitation, psychic powers, wizards, secret police, Macrobes and things of the like can only make for a good book. A great book. And they did.
At this point one shall add. I am finding myself uncertain of the whole review. What shall become of it? Will I stop writing? Can I sustain the dialogue?? How much should I divulge about the book?? Was it even good??
Yes, the book was good in my opinion. After some fighting through the first one hundred pages, it became riddled with twists and turns, great ideas met with exciting imagination and went dancing in a reign of brilliance. I was laughing, in the most subtle of ways, at the characters you see. I find them almost dead to this day. Yet not quite. I find them almost longing to survive, these folk. They each had a certain “Britishness”. A certain uniqueness. Or perhaps there can be no such thing as “Britishness” today. What I find ironic can be how children of the times idolize all types of people, from 50 Cent to RZA in this country, kids are almost throwing their identity away. Never mind those who haven't had an identity to continue, I mean the ones who have. I can find my humor, if need be, in a world alien to me. A world that I had not much say in creating. These walls everyday. The street names. If I want to turn alien, I can. I have. I find it almost necessary. All I am honestly trying to say?? There are great characters in this book who represent a time of great humor and ideas. Things like that. Now if you would kindly regard my talk of “Britishness” an assault on your mind, it was. I might even omit it altogether apart from my stubbornness and the direction my speaking of something I have just spoken of, I find enjoyable. I'm trying to communicate a non existent theory of culture that may only be humerus to the most insane folk. Over all I enjoy our relationship.
Perhaps I should break.
(side note) I can't help but feel Jesus was mocking us. In a holy, unfathomable way. I would like to deliver the message to you that his book was for it's duration, a clever and witty balance of ideas and characters as one might expect from someone with a name like C.S Lewis. As for the Macrobes, well, they might stay where they are, as an eerily exciting idea that perhaps has no foundation in common thought. Indeed, my pursuit of more information of them beyond pure fiction may exist as the type of blasphemous activity which my mother might say would, 'damn me straight to hell'. All the more alluring, yes, you can imagine. OM. Left for me now are parts one and two of this trilogy. I look forward to them.
~One can only hope that others find in he, what he finds in others of inspiration. Ice oppose.
Jaie Miller @ Myspace
Last update : 05-06-2008 23:45
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