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A review by rhys_thomas_sparey
The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
Huxley longed to be a scientist but felt relegated to creative non-fiction by the constrictions of his blindness. Thank God! Not because his scholarship is at all amateurish, but because a lack of stylistic constraints imposed by academic publishers meant that his storytelling genius was not prevented from running wild.
The Devils of Loudun is a product both of this brilliant wildness and a cool trend in 50s and 60s sociology wherein profound points were ascertained from fun and whacky subjects (Becker's ethnography of stoners in LA is another example).
Becker, like most writers of his generation put the story second to the fact and theory but, here, from the imagination and freedom afforded to Huxley, the story of possession in seventeenth-century France emerges front and centre.
It is beautiful, terrifying, comical, and tragical in equal measure, but somewhat compromised by long and quite dry tangents about the history of the church, the theology of various denominations, rich biographies of the characters, Freudian rationalisations of their behaviour, and so the list goes on.
Nevertheless, these tangents amount to an interesting philosophy: Huxley defines human nature as a libidinal desire to reach beyond the self, he sees groups as a necessary effect of human nature, he sees mob mentality as intrinsic to groups, he sees the church and state as inevitable manifestations of mob mentality, and he sees their interaction as complex, absurd, amusing, and an indication of the worst of mankind.
Brave New World and The Island demonstrate that Huxley's keen critical insight and powers of description need not be separate. Here, they unfortunately are, which makes for a jarring to and fro between fun and informative.
Anyone who can get over this duality should read this book immediately because, between dated and rigorous explanations, is the Monty Python of the mid-twentieth-century; a light-hearted jaunt through dark-hearted men and women whose tales are at once hilarious and harrowing.
The Devils of Loudun is a product both of this brilliant wildness and a cool trend in 50s and 60s sociology wherein profound points were ascertained from fun and whacky subjects (Becker's ethnography of stoners in LA is another example).
Becker, like most writers of his generation put the story second to the fact and theory but, here, from the imagination and freedom afforded to Huxley, the story of possession in seventeenth-century France emerges front and centre.
It is beautiful, terrifying, comical, and tragical in equal measure, but somewhat compromised by long and quite dry tangents about the history of the church, the theology of various denominations, rich biographies of the characters, Freudian rationalisations of their behaviour, and so the list goes on.
Nevertheless, these tangents amount to an interesting philosophy: Huxley defines human nature as a libidinal desire to reach beyond the self, he sees groups as a necessary effect of human nature, he sees mob mentality as intrinsic to groups, he sees the church and state as inevitable manifestations of mob mentality, and he sees their interaction as complex, absurd, amusing, and an indication of the worst of mankind.
Brave New World and The Island demonstrate that Huxley's keen critical insight and powers of description need not be separate. Here, they unfortunately are, which makes for a jarring to and fro between fun and informative.
Anyone who can get over this duality should read this book immediately because, between dated and rigorous explanations, is the Monty Python of the mid-twentieth-century; a light-hearted jaunt through dark-hearted men and women whose tales are at once hilarious and harrowing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Sexual harassment