The Staircase Shuffle, Jon Woodson, Wild Pineapple Press, Providence R.I., 2024 (268pp.) I have already favourably commented on some of Prof Woodson’s work (see the links at the bottom of […]
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Category: Reviews
Jon Woodson: “The Emblematic Novel” (Part 2)
Professor Woodson states that his “unveiling of the emblematic novel” arose when he attempted to study the novels of Carl Van Vechten, using stylometry (19). Van Vechten had written a […]
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Jon Woodson: “The Emblematic Novel” (Part 1)
The Emblematic Novel, Jon Woodson, Wild Pineapple Press, Providence RI, 2023 I have already noted the value of Jon Woodson’s research: http://www.josephazize.com/2024/04/26/review-yuval-taylor-zora-and-langston/ This volume, The Emblematic Novel: Esoteric Realism in […]
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Intentional Transformative Experiences
I have already mentioned the contribution which Steven Sutcliffe and I made to the volume Intentional Transformative Experiences, edited by Sarah Perez, Bastiaan van Rijn, and Jens Schlieter: https://www.josephazize.com/2024/10/06/only-this-will-bring-results/ I will now […]
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“Maurice Nicoll: Forgotten Teacher of the Fourth Way,” Gary Lachman
I am unable to recommend this book. My understanding is that Lachman was invited to write this book by a Swedenborg organisation, but that at some point their relations were […]
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Nyland and the Gurdjieff Exercises
Mr Nyland’s Talks on Gurdjieff: The Draining, Sensing, “I Am,” Unrolling the Film, and Day of Austerity Exercises, Presidio Press, Tucson, Arizona. 338 pp plus index. Available from By the […]
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Review, Yuval Taylor: “Zora and Langston”
Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) wrote the striking novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937). I am perhaps even more impressed by her autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road (1942). She strikes me […]
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“The Plan Is Good: Selected Writings by Annie Lou Staveley, A Student of Gurdjieff”
“The divine plan is the never-ending wish of the Creator for the evolution of being.” (54) With this volume of posthumously collected ideas, we may follow Mrs Staveley as she […]
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R.H. Benson, “The Sentimentalists,” 2
When Fr Yolland first glimpses the shadowy figure of Christopher Dell, the latter is striking a pose, and his mouth and chin “seemed tilted in a kind of tragic appeal.” […]
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Trompf, “On the Origins of the Western Meditation Movement”
A very interesting study of meditation and contemplation in the Christian tradition was published by my colleague Professor Garry W. Trompf, one of the world’s leading scholars of religion. This […]
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