Alchemy discussion forum > News - Meetings - Events > News - Meeting - Events > From Lyra's Oxford (Pullman)
Alchemy discussion forum > News - Meetings - Events > News - Meeting - Events > From Lyra's Oxford (Pullman) |
|
| Moderated by: alchemyd | ||
| Author | Post | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Alan Pritchard Guest
|
I haven't seen this book mentioned in alchemical circles, although it is mentioned on Bridgetothestars.net Polymathestatos: a festschrift in honour of Joscelyn Godwin edited by Athanasius Kircher. The first word comes from Libris Grammaticis, by M. Terentius Varro. Interesting to speculate what papers might appear in it. I suspect that many of the other books on the list may also be very subtle in-jokes. Alan |
|||||||||
|
adammclean Member 
|
Lyra's Oxford is a fantasy novel by Phillip Pullman which features an alchemist. Joscelyn Godwin has written two books on Kircher, the Thames and Hudson A Renaissance man and the quest for lost knowledge, 1979 and the Athanasius Kircher and the Occult, 1988. Joscelyn Godwin was brought up and educated in Oxford. He edited a festschrift in honour of his friend Antoine Faivre in 2001. It seems whoever referred to "Polymathestatos: a festschrift in honour of Joscelyn Godwin edited by Athanasius Kircher" has conflated these three facts. |
|||||||||
|
Leigh Penman Member
|
Joscelyn Godwin also recently wrote an article "Esotericism without Religion: Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials" which features in the collection 'Esotericism, Art & Imagination (Michigan State University Press, 0-87013-819-7 978-0-87013-819-5 ). This might be where Godwin came to Pullmann's attention, or they might be friends, which is indeed the origin of the joke. Otherwise, Godwin also has a new, full length book on Kircher that should be appearing soon, if it hasn't already. |
|||||||||
|
Alan Pritchard Guest
|
I haven't time to look at all the books in that list, but I am sure they will be analysed in detail in a PhD in the future: Pullman's full name is Philip Nicholas Outram Pullman Beaumont Street is where the publisher is based. Marisa Coulter is a character in The Dark Materials The name Karel Powers has been used to write some fanfiction on the 'net. Giovanni Battista Kremer: conflation of Piranesi's forenames & Cremer the alchemist?? In the course of checking out some of the names, whilst writing this, I came across an article by Pullman himself The making and faking of Lyra's Oxford http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/lion_and_the_unicorn/v029/29.1pullman.html (3 page .pdf available at http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/lion_and_the_unicorn/v029/29.1pullman.pdf) I'll stop there. This is probably getting a bit OT |
|||||||||