Tuesday, 05. December 2006
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~~~ Find Your Inspiration ~~~
Category: Poetry & Inspirations |




The Fantastic in Art and Fiction

Magic The Black Arts and the Occult: The basis of many a fantastic tale involves an invisible world of secrets, accessible with a particular kind of knowledge.

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Austin De Croze - Calendrier Magique
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Magic, alchemy and the occult are thus keys that allow entry into certain zones of the Fantastic. More important, they drive the intellectual engine of the Fantastic; even as they wane, they preside over the gestation of science fiction. The grimoire of the Magus becomes the mad-scientist’s user’s manual. Our selections include depictions of witches and sorcerers, instruction pages from the classic work of secret sciences entitled The Magus, illustrations of alchemical workshops, cabalistic mappings of biblical passages, and cover illustrations from the first issues of Amazing Stories, Hugo Gernsbach’s celebrated pulp journal devoted to science and fantastic fiction.

Weird Science



The religious supernatural recognizes\zed a self torn between transcendent forces that fought for its possession. The Devil and his minions, the Demons, engaged in a struggle for the soul with the angels and guardian spirits. When the religious supernatural expresses the search for salvation in terms of conflict and terror it anticipates the universe of Fantastic anxiety.

A particular interest in this cluster of images is the material drawn from Cornell's extensive Witchcraft collection.

Devil or Angel? Please say you'll be mine


Picture:
Stanislas de Guaita
Le Serpent de la Genèse: Le Temple de Satan

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Johannes Ionstonus - Historiæ Natura
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An extraordinary compilation where the paradigmatic struggle between observation and vision so crucial to the Fantastic is constantly played out. By the time of the early Enlightenment, the Bestiary, like its more recnent relative the Encyclopedia, participates in the totalizing intent of a catalogue whose purpose is the scientific understanding of the world. Empirical observation banishes from these increasingly imposing tomes any creatures that have not been observed in their environment. So the unicorn and the dragon, the griffon and the sea serpent, and all their relations take refuge in the annals of folklore, until the fantastic and its adjudant, surrealism, release them once more into literary discourse from the prisons where rational inquiry had consigned them.

The Bestiary



This and more: The Fantastic in Art and Fiction by Cornell University Library.
Category: Art & Visions | Demons & Devils | Magick & Witchcraft |


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