Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Book Review: Aleister Crowley's "The Book of Lies"

The Book of Lies represents a step out of the zeitgeist of poet Aleister Crowley’s times and an attempt towards transcendental illumination of those who read the book. The book is composed of 93 chapters, although some of the poems are composed of single words or single punctuations. The book itself is very idiosyncratic and its name is very true to its purpose. In fact, the publishing information at the beginning of the book is in fact a lie in and of itself. The actual publishing date of the book is off by five years and the publishing house does not and has not existed. The poems themselves, in the majority, are allegorical pieces about certain philosophical issues or sexual items. The poem entitled 69 is based on the expected subject matter; however it is done so in an artful and much concealed matter. Honestly, trying to establish the subject matter in most of the poems is very difficult due to the ambiguity created by Crowley’s purposeful use of words that have double meanings, or actively contradicting himself in order to “lie” to the reader. The poetic form is very consistent; it is constructed in free verse with an almost narrative feel. There is very little rhyming within the poem, however there is a great deal of rhythm in the syllabic aspect of the poems. The lines are very short, containing only a few words per line, but because of the density of the topics discussed within the poems, these short lines serve to break up the intellectual density of the poem. The poetry itself certainly does not fall into specific categories or traditions and in fact has very little resemblance to anything in poetic traditions in general. It seems that the book is very true to its purpose because it attempts to change the mind of the reader via its outlandish and downright absurdist overtones. The poems work very well in and of themselves, but I would be reluctant to suggest that any poetry following in this tradition would be very successful at all. This book is essentially based around its novelty. Constant surprises are a norm within the work, however any imitation could not have the same effect if one had read prior Crowley’s work. In essence, The Book of Lies is an outlier in the poetic tradition and represents a novelty act which pieces together Crowley’s philosophies and sexual liberties in a tome of free thought... but of course, I could just be lying.

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