Thread by @corruptNovelist

A thread about the excellent Ægypt books by American novelist John Crowley, which I read recently.

[Mild spoilers ahead]

#JohnCrowley #Aegypt

1/17

The hook of the series is:

What if the world was once not as it has since become, & worked differently from how it does now?

That is to say, what if magic was possible in the past but not anymore?

Or said differently: why is the world how it is, & not some other way?

2/17

Our protagonist, Pierce Moffat, a would-be historian, sets out to write a book on this question. The story thus alternates between the past (~1600) and the present (~1978).

And as he untangles his own past the question becomes: why am I the way I am, & not some other way?

3/17

Four books in the series: a tetralogy, though Crowley calls it a cycle. Certainly you could cycle through them more than once and find new layers of interpretation each time. Crowley revised the books in later editions - no doubt massaging details for the observant reader.

4/17

(Actually, the tetralogy structurally resembles the movements of a symphony.

The Solitudes - striking opening
Love & Sleep - gentle andante
Daemonomania - tense scherzo
Endless Things - triumphant close

Like a symphony, each book introduces themes which subtly interact.)

5/17

The historical portions of the books are epic, fantastical. They follow the trials & tribulations of two polymaths: Italian philosopher-monk Giordano Bruno, and Englishman John Dee, advisor to Elizabeth I. They pursue knowledge of God, science and alchemy, finding trouble.

6/17

Historical fact blends with historical fiction. The fiction is woven around the carefully researched actual events of the characters' lives, drawing from their diaries and other surviving records. All framed through the works of a fictitious author, Fellowes Kraft.

7/17

The present-age chapters are personal, intimate, but delicately connected to the past age, imbuing everyday struggles with a mystic aura. Pierce, entering a personal crisis ('his madness'), asks "why have I come to nothing?" Why is he the way he is, and not some other way?

8/17

As Dee and Bruno clash with Popes and Kings, Pierce and his friends struggle with the more commonplace drama of unemployment, divorce, child custody, inheritance, caretaking, and so on. Meanwhile, Pierce attempts edit a final, unpublished manuscript left by Kraft (deceased).
9/17

Objects and superstitions connect the historical setting to the present-age setting. Fellowes Kraft toured the Old World, searching for inspiration and artifacts, and Pierce follows in his footsteps decades later. Thus historical epic collapses into the familiar present.

10/17

At the start of the series Pierce lives in Manhattan, having spent his childhood in Brooklyn, where his father lives, and Kentucky. He soon moves to a fictional New England location: Blackbury Jambs in the Faraway Hills. Geographic reality collapsing to geographic fiction.

11/17

The themes IMO fall into two broad categories.

Time:
Memory. Misremembering. Aging. Records. History. Interpretation. Irreversibility. Counterfactual history.

Relationships:
Friendship, kinship, worship, romantic relationships, sexual relationships.

12/17

A broad cast of characters lets Crowley explore a rich tapestry of human relationships. The character Val constructs natal charts for the other residents of Blackbury Jambs. Your personality and destiny are shaped by the 'houses' of the Zodiac & alignment of stars at birth.
13/17

But more literally the characters are shaped by the houses they grew up in.

Pierce who was separated from his father and raised in his uncle's house. Rosie whose parents were unhappily married. Bobby, raised by her adopted grandfather. Kelly, whose mother ran out.

14/17

The books are brimming with detail. The various ailments, physical & mental, of the characters (eg. Pierce's terrible sense of direction, Rose's terrible memory). The vehicles, named after animals. Literary allusions. Beautiful prose. Virtuoso flourishes of fantasy writing.
15/17

In the end it shows one character 'making something' of his life, in an uplifting, thoughtful, 'everyman' fashion. Pierce's father sums it up in his theatrical tragi-comic manner in the closing scene, a warming pastoral: "Pierce. I wasn't sure what had become of you."

16/17

I thoroughly recommend these books to anyone who enjoys literature.

I discovered them via the Read Books PPIF podcast run by @Logo_Daedalus . The last episode featured an interview with Crowley himself (!), plus other erudite discussion with @afieldoflight and @PYeerk. 👍

17/17