NEW ARRIVALS
[EDWARDS, Ian C.] Being & Non Being in Occult Experience Vol. 2: The Chiasmata of Austin Osman Spare. Towards a Participatory Epistemology of the Flesh
[EDWARDS, Ian C.] Being & Non Being in Occult Experience Vol. 2: The Chiasmata of Austin Osman Spare. Towards a Participatory Epistemology of the Flesh
[UK]: Atramentous Press, 2022. First Edition. Hardcover (glossy pictorial boards). Octavo. Limited to 333 copies. 172pp. Purple page-marker ribbon. A fine copy.
This volume provides an opportunity to experience the writings and art of Austin Osman Spare, in particular, The Book of Pleasure: The Psychology of Ecstasy, through the lens of thinkers such as; Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Georges Bataille, Pierre Klossowski, Jacques Lacan, and Jacques Derrida. In the contemplative traditions, Spare’s text is compared to Taoism, the writings of Zen Buddhist Master Hui-neng, and the mystical poetry of St. John of the Cross. Whereas one of the major objectives of Being and Non-Being in Occult Experience Volume I was to push the written word to its limits, the second volume has a simpler style but is more conceptually complex. Here, readers will be introduced to what is being called an "occult grammatology" and the notion of a “Hekatian Self,” congruent with Spare’s notion of Kia or the “Inner Woman,” focusing on Hekate’s aspect as Goddess of the Crossroads, which paves the way for a unique "Hekatian Phenomenology" that includes an exploration of betweenness found in Spare’s work.
