Product Description

Including pieces on Gregory Bateson, William Faulkner, Philip Pullman, Sir Oswald Mosley's politics, religion and stammering, this diverse collection gathers essays written by Nicholas Mosley over the past forty years. Resembling the behaviour of slime mould - a strange organism made up of separate amoebae that temporarily form a single pillar which then bursts in order to scatter its seeds across the forest floor - the ideas found in these essays converge and disperse, crossing over into other disciplines, and creating a unique way of looking at the world, one echoed in Mosley's fictional writings.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1679512 in Books
• Published on: 2010-02-23
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .69" h x 5.52" w x 8.50" l, .63 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 222 pages

From Publishers Weekly
This collection largely comprises book reviews and also features personal and philosophical essays published here for the first time. British experimental novelist Mosley (Hopeful Monsters) writes trenchantly on Nietzsche, Russell, Keynes, Trotsky, Andrei Sakharov, Freud and R.D. Laing in reviews of biographical studies that display his characteristically quirky and independent thought. Demonstrating his interest in formalism and his openness to international literature, Mosley shows acute appreciation of Faulkner, Patrick White, Calvino and Nabokov. Mosley's engagement with overcoming his legacy as the son of the British fascist Sir Oswald Mosley is well known. In a section of reviews entitled "Pathology and Sanity," he displays striking analytical seriousness on such topics as anti-Semitism, Israel, Himmler, Bruno Bettelheim and apartheid. In a fascinating essay describing his emotional confrontation with his father, who twice attached himself to nationalistic movements that relied heavily on racism, Mosley draws a razor sharp portrait of the "trap" of his father's political idealism. Similarly, when writing about his own stammering, Mosley brings thoughtfulness and a bristling intellect to bear. His writing about his Christian faith is similarly alert and persuasive. A keen advocate of reading the Bible straight through, Mosley is alive to its metaphorical complexity as a work of art. Six previously unpublished essays grapple critically and mystically with a modern age intent on bringing all mystery to light. This collection will satisfy admirers of Mosley's work and will greatly enhance readers' understanding of his formally daring and deeply metaphysical art.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"Mosley is that rare bird: an English writer whose imagination is genuinely inspired by intellectual conundrums." - Robert Nye, Guardian; "Mosley is the most serious and brilliant of Britain's novelists of ideas." - Robert McFarlane, Times"

About the Author
Nicholas Mosley is the highly-acclaimed, award-winning author of numerous works of fiction including Hopeful Monsters, Accident, Imago Bird and Children of Darkness and Light, as well as the autobiographical Efforts at Truth.