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charles williams wheeee!
Mar. 22nd, 2006 06:52 pmRooting around on amazon I found that CHARLES WILLIAMS IS BACK IN PRINT! I can't tell you how much I love this guy. He is weird, weird, weird as heck, and has some somewhat strange theological ideas, and tends to write stuff assuming you know a whole lot about dante and theology in general, and if you aren't fairly familiar with the Bible you are just going to have to resign yourself to only understanding about half of what he says. And (maybe partially because I adore esoteric writers-- this is the same thing with john m. ford, who by the way is Directly Responsible for this love affair-- and partially because williams writes *luminously*) I love love love him and have read just about every word he;s ever written that i can lay my hands on.
I was sufficiently excited to post a review on amazon of the collected plays:
I can't say how pleased I am to discover this back in print (I have a rather expensive used copy). I am a huge fan of Charles Williams, and this book is one of my favorites of his, along with the Taliessin poems and All Hallows' Eve-- with the added benefit that it isn't as impenetrable as the Taliessin poems often are. Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury alone is worth (to me) getting the book for, with its sympathetic yet unsparing (even harsh at times-- Cranmer's last scene, ooh) picture of Cranmer mixed with haunting cascading language. Seed of Adam is kind of cool with its young captain Joseph and Adam-as-emperor; The House by the Stable and its sequel are just fun. Terror of Light is perhaps my favorite after Cranmer; the portrayal is just so... right, for example Thomas's rejoicing in rationality and Saul's misplaced (but understood and forgiven) judgmentalism, and Judas's (possibly heretical?) authority even in damnation. The only play I don't love is Judgement at Chelmsford, which is a bit too formal for my taste, with not enough plot, although I'm sure that actually seeing it probably works better than reading it.
If you like plays, and you like Williams' other work, then I recommend this. Of course, there are lots of people out there who don't like his erudite and casually-theological/supernatural style, which I do quite understand, and those probably wouldn't like this either. I would also have to say don't read them all at once, as he has some language tricks he *really likes*, and reading them three times in a row is a bit tiresome.
I was sufficiently excited to post a review on amazon of the collected plays:
I can't say how pleased I am to discover this back in print (I have a rather expensive used copy). I am a huge fan of Charles Williams, and this book is one of my favorites of his, along with the Taliessin poems and All Hallows' Eve-- with the added benefit that it isn't as impenetrable as the Taliessin poems often are. Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury alone is worth (to me) getting the book for, with its sympathetic yet unsparing (even harsh at times-- Cranmer's last scene, ooh) picture of Cranmer mixed with haunting cascading language. Seed of Adam is kind of cool with its young captain Joseph and Adam-as-emperor; The House by the Stable and its sequel are just fun. Terror of Light is perhaps my favorite after Cranmer; the portrayal is just so... right, for example Thomas's rejoicing in rationality and Saul's misplaced (but understood and forgiven) judgmentalism, and Judas's (possibly heretical?) authority even in damnation. The only play I don't love is Judgement at Chelmsford, which is a bit too formal for my taste, with not enough plot, although I'm sure that actually seeing it probably works better than reading it.
If you like plays, and you like Williams' other work, then I recommend this. Of course, there are lots of people out there who don't like his erudite and casually-theological/supernatural style, which I do quite understand, and those probably wouldn't like this either. I would also have to say don't read them all at once, as he has some language tricks he *really likes*, and reading them three times in a row is a bit tiresome.
