people ask me for reading recommendations for learning occulty shit and i always give them fantasy and science fiction novels tbh i trust induction from fiction for this way better than straight explication, the fictional metaphor has to at least work inside some world model
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and figuring it out is inherently a heavy lift induction task, straight explication tends rather strongly to conceal that and make people think they can just, like, internalize the words using the meanings they're used to assigning to them
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anyway, read Walter Jon Williams's ARISTOI and Roger Zelazny's LORD OF LIGHT and Greg Bear's BLOOD MUSIC and Neal Stephenson's SNOW CRASH and sure what the fuck the Illuminatus! trilogy
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Replying to @chaosprime
Ugh. There are at least two of those that i think need heavy caveats on the recommendation. (I'm fond of four of the five, myself, but even so i wouldn't recommend Lord of Light without a lot of caveats about the racism and misogyny. And i wouldn't recommend Snow Crash at all.)
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Replying to @adrienneleigh @chaosprime
(I love Zelazny -- love love love -- but he was definitely ... who he was, for good and for ill. I'm careful inflicting him on people.)
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Replying to @adrienneleigh @chaosprime
This is definitely one of the best first paragraphs in all of SFF, though.pic.twitter.com/V7qWypTWVH
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Replying to @adrienneleigh @chaosprime
Also, for learning about occulty shit, FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM by Eco is a must, and i'd also say read basically anything by Patricia McKillip.
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Replying to @adrienneleigh
i couldn't say whether the Eco is good for learning anything, i came by it late so reading it was just this delightfully cozy exercise in "hahaha i have literally met all of these fucking people, what a bunch of jackasses, i miss them"
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Replying to @chaosprime
McKillip won't teach you anything formal about magick or the occult, but for my money there is literally no better author in the entire fucking world who is better at conveying how the true numinous should FEEL.
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ooh that sounds pleasing. i don't thiiiink i've read any of her
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Replying to @chaosprime
She is in some sense a one-trick pony as an author, but it's a REALLY GOOD TRICK. Her novels are all about the power of stories and they are amazing.
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Replying to @adrienneleigh @chaosprime
Start with ALPHABET OF THORN or THE BOOK OF ATRIX WOLFE, probably.
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