In Other Words

by John Crowley

John Crowley's masterful novels (Aegypt, Little, Big, The Translator) are marked by an uncommon combination of imaginative power and intellectual rigor. That same intellectual rigor is on full display in this, Crowley's first, long-overdue collection of non-fiction. In Other Words brings together more than forty pieces on a wide variety of subjects, and offers a fascinating glimpse into the inner workings of a subtle, insatiably curious mind. In Other Words contains, among other delights, long, thoughtful musings on the late Renaissance scholar Ioan Culianu ("A Modern Magic, Imagination, and Power"), on Utopian fiction ("The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart"), and on the nature of narrative itself ("Tips and Tricks for Successful Lying"). In other pieces, Crowley takes an in-depth look at five writers whose work he finds especially significant (T.H. White, Anthony Burgess, Robert Louis Stevenson, Thomas Disch, and Vladimir Nabokov), and offers shorter, equally incisive takes on writers such as John Updike, Italo Calvino, Thomas Berger, Kathryn Davis, and John Banville. In the closing section (entitled, simply, "Comix"), Crowley reveals a (perhaps) surprising affinity for the world of comic strips. His reflections on Walt Kelley, George Herriman, Ben Katchor, and Edward Gorey are informed and affectionate, and contain some of Crowley's most memorable critical writing. In Other Words is one of those all-too-rare volumes that readers will return to again and again, finding new and valuable perceptions on each encounter. Incisive, sympathetic, and unfailingly erudite, it enhances our understanding of a major American writer, and serves as a welcome -- and necessary -- addition to a remarkable body of work.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays

206 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

John Crowley (1942-2026) was an American author of fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, and non-fiction. Crowley studied at Indiana University and has a second career as a documentary film writer.

Crowley is best known as the author of Little, Big (1981), a work which received World Fantasy Award for Best Novel and has been called "a neglected masterpiece" by Harold Bloom, and his Ægypt series of novels which revolve around the same themes of Hermeticism, memory, families and religion. His novel Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr (2017) won the Mythopoeic Award in 2018 and was nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, while critics compared it in scope and ambition to Crowley's earlier works Little, Big and the Aegypt cycle.

Note: The John Crowley who wrote Sans épines, la rose: Tony Blair, un modèle pour l'Europe? is a different author with the same name. (website)

Reviews

[Mark]

I read Crowley's masterful Little, Big and then Engine Summer in my youth and loved them. Recently I grabbed this collection of his non-fiction writing at random from the library shelves. The book is a mixed bag of offerings, it's true; but as another reviewer said I put it down with a new list of books I wanted to read for myself, a gift in itself.

But three remarkable essays in this book are of a different stature: ranking among the best-written and most thought-provoking I've read. I wish they were available as individual monographs one could purchase (since this is a pricey hard-cover book to own as far as I can tell). But however you get your hands on them they are well worth the read...

"Tips and Tricks for Successful Lying" - in its understated and compact way, is simply one of the best essays about the challenges of teaching creative writing, or creative arts in general, I've ever come across. I teach songwriting at a college of contemporary music, and try to read "writing about teaching writing" when I can, especially from fiction writers I admire. Since my day job is teaching songwriting, not fiction writing, I am always on the hunt for ideas and techniques that will carry over across genre and medium.

This essay makes a case for the relevance of Bhaktinian post-structuralist theory—usually the province only of academics and critics—as a tool for working writers, and those helping them learn and refine their craft. I believe it should be required reading for anyone teaching creative arts in any genre or medium. It concisely delineates the elusive dilemma teachers face in approaching a pedagogy for creative work: do you simply hand-wave and encourage, or focus on minutiae of detail and technique—the pavement under the streetlight when the spectacles were dropped at the other end of the street? Or do you hold up classic exemplars of the form for admiration and study? Crowley opens another world of possibility, grounded in the post-structuralists' laying out of the layered "dialogic" nature of contemporary fiction. If this is how Crowley teaches fiction writing at Yale, I wish I could be in his classroom. And I think these insights can transfer to many other creative forms.

The two essays that follow in the book are "A Modern Instance: Magic, Imagination, and Power" and "The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart." I can't begin to do them justice here. But taken with the first-mentioned essay, they form a potent triptych that lays out, not just an approach to craft and the teaching of craft, but a deeper exploration of the moral and—dare we say magical?—foundations that can redeem such craft from descending to mere technical display and rhetorical effect. Along the way, you will learn about Giordano Bruno, utopias and dystopias, the sociology of SF fandom, and many things besides.

Crowley has been "typecast" as a genre author and perhaps therefore has not received his due at the critical level. But rather than simply disputing that association, these essays cast an ironic light on that very identity that raises far deeper questions that will engage any admiring reader of Crowley's fiction, and any working artist.

[Sienna]

A bit of a mixed bag, as you'd expect — some pieces interested me more than others, but all were well worth reading. What surprised me more than anything were the number of books I came out of this wanting to read, and the fact that they were mostly non-fiction. Crowley is always a pleasure.

[Bob]

I've read a few of the essays. In particular the essays on magic ("A Modern Instance") serve as a sort of skeleton key to understanding something of Crowley's approach and intent in the Aegypt sequence. Beyond that - it's an enthralling tour of Crowley's vision as a writer of fiction.

[Nick]

Absolutely fantastic surreal book with some gorgeous artwork! Highly recommended to anyone who likes these surrealistic books or needs artistic references for humanoid animals.