Fossil Angels
October 24, 2010 6:19 PM Subscribe
Fossil Angels - written by Alan Moore in December 2002 to appear in KAOS #15, which never appeared. Published here for the first time.
I loves me some Crowley contemplatin' and Magic musin'
posted by Balisong at 7:19 PM on October 24, 2010
posted by Balisong at 7:19 PM on October 24, 2010
Background: Unearthing Alan Moore’s Fossil Angels
posted by MetaMonkey at 7:20 PM on October 24, 2010
posted by MetaMonkey at 7:20 PM on October 24, 2010
Reading that first paragraph is like sipping whiskey.
posted by boo_radley at 7:28 PM on October 24, 2010
posted by boo_radley at 7:28 PM on October 24, 2010
It's a meditation on magic from Alan Moore. Call it an editorial about financial reform written for people with a fourth grader's understanding of the material. It's a call to action for those who style themselves occultists. The specific action it's calling them to take is calling magic an Art and restyling themselves as performers, as a way of getting out of the competition with Religion and Science. It argues for making magic a subset of Art.
Or actually and more accurately it calls for making Art a subset of Magic. For stealing that third space that isn't Science or Religion away from Art and making it Magic. It's a call for more sides in the battle between Logic and Everthing we don't understand.
posted by Peztopiary at 7:28 PM on October 24, 2010 [2 favorites]
Or actually and more accurately it calls for making Art a subset of Magic. For stealing that third space that isn't Science or Religion away from Art and making it Magic. It's a call for more sides in the battle between Logic and Everthing we don't understand.
posted by Peztopiary at 7:28 PM on October 24, 2010 [2 favorites]
Perhaps someone could do a better job to explain WTF this is...
It's something like the Imagists' "Make it New!" propounded for the occult instead of poetry, and with John Dee and the Renaissance wizards stepping in for Arnaut Daniel and the Troubadours as the exemplars of a more vital moment.
Imagism popped up around a century ago in response to the increasingly lapidary, turgid work of the late Victorian period, and it succeeded in bringing about a new era in the art. Nothing really arose to challenge the tacky, threadbare forms of the late Victorian occult, and one of Moore's points (he has rather too many points; this is a pincushion of an essay) is that we're living in a poorer reality because of it.
posted by Iridic at 7:53 PM on October 24, 2010
It's something like the Imagists' "Make it New!" propounded for the occult instead of poetry, and with John Dee and the Renaissance wizards stepping in for Arnaut Daniel and the Troubadours as the exemplars of a more vital moment.
Imagism popped up around a century ago in response to the increasingly lapidary, turgid work of the late Victorian period, and it succeeded in bringing about a new era in the art. Nothing really arose to challenge the tacky, threadbare forms of the late Victorian occult, and one of Moore's points (he has rather too many points; this is a pincushion of an essay) is that we're living in a poorer reality because of it.
posted by Iridic at 7:53 PM on October 24, 2010
It's well worth the effort to buckle down and parse that dense prose. Do try, won't you?
posted by limeonaire at 7:54 PM on October 24, 2010
posted by limeonaire at 7:54 PM on October 24, 2010
Well, at least it's not written in ugg-speak.
posted by Artw at 8:17 PM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Artw at 8:17 PM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]
It would have not killed the OP to use MetaMonkey's link to frame what the post was supposed to be about. As it currently stands, it's a random bookmark with no context.
limeonaire: I did give it a try and gave up. It makes no sense at all. Discovering that the subject matter is supposed to be about "Art of Occult" was a surprise, I thought it was just random ramblings about brillig amongst the slithy toves that were gyre and gimbling in the wabe.
posted by Old'n'Busted at 8:25 PM on October 24, 2010
limeonaire: I did give it a try and gave up. It makes no sense at all. Discovering that the subject matter is supposed to be about "Art of Occult" was a surprise, I thought it was just random ramblings about brillig amongst the slithy toves that were gyre and gimbling in the wabe.
posted by Old'n'Busted at 8:25 PM on October 24, 2010
I'd love to hear Lev Grossman's take on this. Some of what's being expressed here feels like familiar territory after reading and reflecting on The Magicians.
posted by weston at 9:07 PM on October 24, 2010
posted by weston at 9:07 PM on October 24, 2010
Art is an intentional act to evoke an emotional response.
Magic is an emotional act to evoke an intention.
posted by Balisong at 9:45 PM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]
Magic is an emotional act to evoke an intention.
posted by Balisong at 9:45 PM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]
"Fossil Angels"? That's not a REAL Alan Moore script.
THIS (PDF, 224k is a real Alan Moore script.
Note the consistent use of CAPSLOCK.
posted by vhsiv at 11:51 PM on October 24, 2010
THIS (PDF, 224k is a real Alan Moore script.
Note the consistent use of CAPSLOCK.
posted by vhsiv at 11:51 PM on October 24, 2010
If only more of Alan Moore's work went unpublished...
posted by Yakuman at 1:18 AM on October 25, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Yakuman at 1:18 AM on October 25, 2010 [1 favorite]
Faskinatin'. See also: Art is Magic. I've always got time for Moore.
posted by Drexen at 3:02 AM on October 25, 2010
posted by Drexen at 3:02 AM on October 25, 2010
Like magic is supposed to be easy or understanable
(I just wish Dodgem Logic had been better and more mental)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:25 AM on October 25, 2010
(I just wish Dodgem Logic had been better and more mental)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:25 AM on October 25, 2010
Well, the Kevin O'Neill bits are nice... Some of the stuff they run seems like Big Issue back in the day when they were kind of random and not so corporate.
posted by Artw at 11:42 AM on October 25, 2010
posted by Artw at 11:42 AM on October 25, 2010
Note the consistent use of CAPSLOCK.
I've seen that convention used in scripts before, where the scene description is in all caps and the dialogue is written in the normal fashion (as Moore does here). There's just more CAPSLOCK in Moore's scripts because he's notoriously precise in his scene descriptions.
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:05 PM on October 25, 2010
I've seen that convention used in scripts before, where the scene description is in all caps and the dialogue is written in the normal fashion (as Moore does here). There's just more CAPSLOCK in Moore's scripts because he's notoriously precise in his scene descriptions.
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:05 PM on October 25, 2010
I did give it a try and gave up. It makes no sense at all. Discovering that the subject matter is supposed to be about "Art of Occult" was a surprise, I thought it was just random ramblings about brillig amongst the slithy toves that were gyre and gimbling in the wabe.
Yes, it is definitely part of Moore's style that demands annotation. However, be well aware that every thing that you don't understand in that opening paragraph is actually a rather deft and specific reference to certain aspects of the hermetic traditions, and is really quite funny if you have a broad understanding of what's being evoked.
The 'game of Aiwaz Says' and 'Temple uv Psychic Forty-Somethings' in particular really cracked me up - 'Aiwaz' was the spirit that supposedly dictated large portions of mystical learning to Alaister Crowley, which was then transcribed into the various Libers; Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth is a modernest mystical tradition that arose some 20-25 years ago amongst the post-Burroughs-ian circuit of noise and avante-self-destruction following Genesis P-Orridge's works with COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle.
Basically, Moore is writing on very specific and almost technical details in a very alliterative and free-flowing style. Think of this as poetry using the lingo of nuclear chemistry for an understanding of why you don't understand it.
posted by FatherDagon at 1:15 PM on October 25, 2010 [3 favorites]
Yes, it is definitely part of Moore's style that demands annotation. However, be well aware that every thing that you don't understand in that opening paragraph is actually a rather deft and specific reference to certain aspects of the hermetic traditions, and is really quite funny if you have a broad understanding of what's being evoked.
The 'game of Aiwaz Says' and 'Temple uv Psychic Forty-Somethings' in particular really cracked me up - 'Aiwaz' was the spirit that supposedly dictated large portions of mystical learning to Alaister Crowley, which was then transcribed into the various Libers; Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth is a modernest mystical tradition that arose some 20-25 years ago amongst the post-Burroughs-ian circuit of noise and avante-self-destruction following Genesis P-Orridge's works with COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle.
Basically, Moore is writing on very specific and almost technical details in a very alliterative and free-flowing style. Think of this as poetry using the lingo of nuclear chemistry for an understanding of why you don't understand it.
posted by FatherDagon at 1:15 PM on October 25, 2010 [3 favorites]
This piece is an almost fractal snapshot of a whole subculture - Hell, just take the title and run with it: Fossil Angel was painted by the scarlet woman, summoned by a mystical ritual performed by a mad rocket scientist and a....
Oh, forget it. Like magic, you're not going to get any more out of it than what you put in.
posted by Orb2069 at 5:19 AM on October 26, 2010
Oh, forget it. Like magic, you're not going to get any more out of it than what you put in.
posted by Orb2069 at 5:19 AM on October 26, 2010
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Perhaps someone could do a better job to explain WTF this is and why anyone should bother reading it?
posted by Old'n'Busted at 6:46 PM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]