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John Cowper Powys

Geburtstag: 8. Oktober 1872
Todesdatum: 17. Juni 1963

John Cowper Powys [dʒɒn ˌkuːpɚ ˈpoʊɪs] war ein walisischer Dichter und Schriftsteller. Er verfasste Lyrik, Essays, umfangreiche Romane sowie philosophische Schriften. Zwischen 1915 und 1957 veröffentlichte er beinahe jedes Jahr eines seiner umfangreichen Bücher. Er gab sich in seinen Werken als ironischer Skeptiker, der selbst die eigene Weltanschauung immer wieder in Frage stellt. Powys war bekennender Polytheist und zugleich überzeugter Agnostiker auf der Suche nach poetischem und nicht spirituellem Sinn. Elke Heinemann nennt ihn einen „englische[n] Dostojewski“ und das „unbekannteste Genie des 20. Jahrhunderts“.

Zitate John Cowper Powys

„Wenn ich mich des Lebens, so dachte er, nicht mit absolut kindlichem Versinken in seine einfachsten Elemente freuen kann, wäre es ebensogut, wenn ich nicht geboren wäre.“

— John Cowper Powys, Wolf Solent
Wolf Solent, 1929, aus dem Englischen übersetzt von Richard Hoffmann, Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-499-40091 X, S. 693 "If I can't enjoy life," he thought, "with absolute childish absorption in its simplest elements, I might as well never have been born!" - p. 963 archive.org http://archive.org/stream/wolfsolentanovel030662mbp#page/n481/mode/2up

Über Leben

„Tod und Liebe! In diesen beiden allein lag die letzte Würde des Lebens.“

— John Cowper Powys, Wolf Solent
Wolf Solent, 1929, aus dem Englischen übersetzt von Richard Hoffmann, Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-499-40091 X, S. 684 "Death and Love! In those two alone lay the ultimate dignity of life." - p. 950 archive.org http://archive.org/stream/wolfsolentanovel030662mbp#page/n469/mode/2up

Über Liebe, Über Leben, Über Tod, Über Liebe

„Die ergreifenden Szenen in fast jedermanns Leben sind meist solche, die von niemand bemerkt und von der fraglichen Person völlig außer acht gelassen werden.“

— John Cowper Powys, Glastonbury Romance
A Glastonbury Romance, London 1933, Carl Hanser Verlag München, Wien für Zweitausendeins, 1995, aus dem Englischen von Klaus Pemsel, ISBN 3-86150-258-5, S. 925

Über Leben

„Die ganze astronomische Welt ist nur ein Phantom, verglichen mit den Kreisen in Kreisen, den Träumen in Träumen der unbekannten Realität.“

— John Cowper Powys, Wolf Solent
Zitate, John Cowper Powys, Wolf Solent, 1929, aus dem Englischen übersetzt von Richard Hoffmann, Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-499-40091 X, S. 686

Über die Welt, Über Träume

„One needs no strange spiritual faith to worship the earth.“

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— John Cowper Powys

„Even the most purely rational minds who find the universe in "pure thought" are driven against their rational will to visualize this "pure thought" and to give it body and form and shape and movement.“

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— John Cowper Powys
The Complex Vision (1920), Context: One of the curious psychological facts, in connection with the various ways in which various minds function, is the fact that when in these days we seek to visualize, in some pictorial manner, our ultimate view of life, the images which are called up are geometrical or chemical rather than anthropomorphic. It is probable that even the most rational and logical among us as soon as he begins to philosophize at all is compelled by the necessity of things to form in the mind some vague pictorial representation answering to his conception of the universe. Most minds see the universe of their mental conception as something quite different from the actual stellar universe upon which we all gaze. Even the most purely rational minds who find the universe in "pure thought" are driven against their rational will to visualize this "pure thought" and to give it body and form and shape and movement. Chapter I

„Love, in spite of all rational knowledge to the contrary, is always in the mood of believing in miracles.“

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— John Cowper Powys
The Meaning of Culture (1929), Context: The influence of friendship upon culture differs from that of love, in that it assumes the basic idiosyncrasies of personal taste to be unalterable. Love, in spite of all rational knowledge to the contrary, is always in the mood of believing in miracles. p. 170

„The eternal conflict between love and malice is the eternal contest between life and death. And this contest is what the complex vision reveals, as it moves from darkness to darkness.“

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— John Cowper Powys
The Complex Vision (1920), Context: This swallowing up of life in nothingness, this obliteration of life by nothingness is what the emotion of malice ultimately desires. The eternal conflict between love and malice is the eternal contest between life and death. And this contest is what the complex vision reveals, as it moves from darkness to darkness. Chapter I

„We are all creators. We all create a mythological world of our own out of certain shapeless materials.“

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— John Cowper Powys
The Meaning of Culture (1929), Context: Not the wretchedest man or woman but has a deep secretive mythology with which to wrestle with the material world and to overcome it and pass beyond it. Not the wretchedest human being but has his share in the creative energy that builds the world. We are all creators. We all create a mythological world of our own out of certain shapeless materials. p. 222

„We philosophize for the same reason that we move and speak and laugh and eat and love. In other words, we philosophize because man is a philosophical animal.… We may be as sceptical as we please. Our very scepticism is the confession of an implicit philosophy.“

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— John Cowper Powys
The Complex Vision (1920), Context: My answer to the question "Why do we philosophize?" is as follows. We philosophize for the same reason that we move and speak and laugh and eat and love. In other words, we philosophize because man is a philosophical animal.… We may be as sceptical as we please. Our very scepticism is the confession of an implicit philosophy. Chapter I

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„It is strange how few people make more than a casual cult of enjoying Nature.“

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— John Cowper Powys, A Glastonbury Romance, A Glastonbury Romance
The Meaning of Culture (1929), Context: It is strange how few people make more than a casual cult of enjoying Nature. And yet the earth is actually and literally the mother of us all. One needs no strange spiritual faith to worship the earth. p. 178

„I have been reading of late, most carefully, oh such an exciting mass of Anarchist Literature sent to me by old Emma Goldman who is my Prime Minister & chief Political Philosopher! and every week I get the anarchist paper from Avenue A New York City and also the ‘Bulletin of Information’ from the Anarchists of Barcelona. This latter pamphlet I am carefully keeping; because it is not so much concerned with the war as with their experiment in Catalonia of organizing their life on Anarchist lines and getting rid of all Dictatorship & of the ‘Sovereign State’.“

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— John Cowper Powys
Letter to his sister (24 September 1938), published in The Letters of John Cowper Powys to Philippa Powys (1996), edited by Anthony Head p. 106