Well, as I have gotten past the first two parts of Joseph and His Brothers, I have come to discover the influence of Gnosticism (and its place in literature) on Thomas Mann and his work. So now I'm having to read more on the history of Gnosticism and the way Mann deals with it as first he presents one view of the process in Joseph and then inverts it in Doctor Faustus, which I will read next.
This is also taking me down the road of theosophy and Theosophy (yes there's a crazy distinction here), the occult, the I Ching, the Tarot, hermeticism, etc. It's also moved me towards the poetry of Yeats, Eliot, and Auden. Looking more deeply into Eliot and Auden has been very rewarding. I hadn't quite realized what a great poet Auden was, though I always appreciated some of his work to some extent. As for Ezra Pound, I can't get past his rather unpoetic and oppressive system of poetics which takes what I consider the poetry out of poetry, although I can appreciate his emphasis on imagery and the concrete as opposed to the abstract. The power of the language really is in the image, though for poetry it's also in the metrical numbers and other devices as well. Much of this has been lost due to Pound's influence, and obviously not for the better.
I'm also looking into Mythopoesis in regard to Mann's work.
Anyway, I am open to suggestions on where to go for more on Gnosticism and its place in literature.
Thanks in advance,
ananda
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