john gray: empty space: hermetic doubt
by uzwi
…the Kefahuchi Tract is outside time; if it enters the world it does so in a perpetual present tense. Rather than projecting human meaning into the scheme of things as Kurzweil’s Singularity does – by promising deliverance from decay and death in the manner of monotheistic religion – Harrison’s Tract appears in the form of unsettling epiphanies, which act to disrupt any meaning that human beings may have found or made. Yet the Tract is far from being only a symbol of senselessness, for it suggests the possibility that humans may find a way of living by falling away from the meanings to which they cling.
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- –John Gray on Empty Space, Climbers and Viriconium,
Just want to say that I’m impressed and you must be very elated by these comments from John Gray in the Statesman. I mean, how venerable can you get?
Indeed. It’s a long walk from savaging the tiny peril that was Lin Carter in the very center of his stronghold deep in the woods of New Worlds to MJH’s present status as an Officially Safe Outsider. His nimbus now penetrates all the most sanitary dimensions.
I am also impressed. Gray gets it, the uncertainty and the possibility at the core of the Kefahuchi Tract trilogy. Since reading the trilogy back in September, I’ve found it difficult to finish reading any other book. I will start a book and shortly thereafter stop, EMPTY SPACE still lingering in my mind. I may have to go back to do a re-read of it or try CLIMBERS which I have not read yet.
I agree. I’ll read two, maybe three or four words. Stop and scratch myself and consider giving the remainder of my library over to arson. Son, I buy the guy’s merch with every enthusiastic consumer molecule in my person but I don’t feel the need to gently finger myself as I post. Possibly you need time to refresh your supply of bedside Kleenex.