BUILDING A FORTEAN LIBRARY
It’s 50 years since Random House first published Colin Wilson’s The Occult: A History, and it’s still in print. Time for a re-assessment, then? Wilson believed himself to be a genius, and notoriously had no qualms about saying as much to all and sundry: some might say that this was proof that he was nothing of the kind. Oscar Wilde at least made his declaration of his own genius as a wisecrack. As for this book, some 700-plus pages heavy, there’s also the temptation to echo the Duke of Gloucester on clapping eyes on the first volume of Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: “Another damn’d thick, square book! Always, scribble, scribble, scribble! Eh! Mr. Gibbon?” (History sadly does not record the Duke’s reaction when the final, sixth fat volume appeared. Perhaps he was dead by then.) So, one approaches The Occult with some wariness, although confident that while it may not be the work of a genius, neither will it be a collection of mere scribbles.
In his preface to the 1979 revised edition, Wilson lets us know precisely where he stands. “Writing The Occult made me aware that the paranormal is as real as quantum physics (and, in fact, has a great deal in common with it), and that anyone who refuses to take it into account is simply shutting his eyes to half the Universe.” Leaving aside the problematic equation of paranormality and quantum mechanics – a controversy for another time – we’re reminded here of a remark (or revelation) that Wilson once – in other words, he wouldn’t burrow critically into any sceptical enquiries, opinions, or research. So, you have been warned.
