Something about Project Gutenberg

Many articles on here say that a particular book is available on Project Gutenberg. This post contains some basic information that someone who is unfamiliar with the enterprise may find useful. 

Project Gutenberg websites host thousands of free-to-read books that are in the public domain. Their copyrights have expired. They can be read online in various languages, formats and editions. Books can even be downloaded from the digital library.

There is a lot of general information about Project Gutenberg in Wikipedia and on the Project websites themselves. It is best for interested people to go direct to the sources and look at the rules, the catalogues and the search and other options, but I want to say a few things about my experiences of using this wonderful resource. 

I prefer paper books, preferably with the original illustrations, but have little space for a library of my own. Project Gutenberg is an ideal place to find the classics, some old friends and books whose printed versions are very expensive or unavailable. Some of the eBooks even have illustrations.

I may want to refer to certain books from time to time; going to Project Gutenberg saves me from having to keep getting them from the public library or storing my own copies. It is often much easier to search the digital copies for remembered topics or phrases than it is to try to find something in a printed book.

Strindberg’s string of misfortunes: Part I

The Swedish playwright and essayist August Strindberg endured much bad luck and a long string of misfortunes, some serious, in 1896. Everything went wrong; his life became one long nightmare. It was as if he had been cursed. There were some strange events and uncanny coincidences in the case too.

I first learned about this episode in Strindberg’s life from The Occult by Colin Wilson, who got his information from Strindberg’s autobiographical novel Inferno. This bizarre book, which can be found on Project Gutenberg, is based on the diary that Strindberg kept at the time. 

Strindberg believed that he had brought all his troubles on himself and attracted evil influences into his life by deliberately using his special powers in an attempt to practise psychological black magic.

There is much material of interest and some familiar features in this case. It will take more than one article to summarise even the most relevant and significant details of the nightmare episode, provide a commentary and make some connections.

We begin with some information about when and why the trouble started.

An obvious starting point

As described in many articles, there have been occasions in my life when, after going for days, weeks, months, even years without anything unusual to report, I suddenly experience a string of minor misfortunes. There is an obvious starting point to the incidents; they stand out in comparison with the preceding uneventful days.

It seems to me very significant that Strindberg was going through a good patch in his life just before it all went wrong. In his own words:

“The summer and autumn of the year 1895 I count, on the whole, among the happiest stages of my eventful life. All my attempts succeed; unknown friends bring me food as the ravens did to Elijah. Money flows in; I can buy books and scientific instruments...”

Then he did something that caused it all to go into reverse. There is an obvious starting point to his misfortunes, which stand out in comparison with his prior easy existence.

Stella Benson and the sponging Russian count

Stella Benson’s life and works are inspiring many articles, and still the end is nowhere near in sight.

This article is about her involvement with a sponging expatriate Russian count; it involves a familiar personality type and associated scripted scenario.

Stella Benson generously helped this poor old man and made great efforts on his behalf, only to be met with insults, lies, delusions and ingratitude followed by yet more demands and hard-luck stories.

Stella Benson meets Count Nicolas

Stella Benson first met the frail, pathetic, penniless old man who called himself Count Nicolas de Toulouse Lautrec De Savine in April 1931. He was in a free bed in a charity hospital in Hong Kong at the time.

She felt very sorry for him even though he immediately started lying to her. He may have been confused and delusional rather that deliberately deceitful though. He told her that he had no money at all, then some fell out of his pocket. He showed her a picture of someone he said was a princess who had been crazy about him - it was an advertisement!

Stella Benson helps Count Nicolas

Count Nicolas was a mess of a person. Stella saw him as a free spirit broken by adversity. She decided to transcribe some of his ‘memoirs’ in the hope of selling them and getting some money for him.

She started to produce a book that consisted of both his reminiscences - or fantasies - and her commentaries on them. It was later published as Pull Devil, Pull Baker (1933). She gave him a very generous advance payment, but after Count Nicolas moved on he started sending her very frequent begging letters.

Then he appeared on her doorstep, ill and destitute. She gave the ‘silly old cadger’ some more money.

Lucy M. Boston, her birthday and her memoirs

The English novelist Lucy M. Boston, who is often known as L. M. Boston, was born on December 10th 1892. She was over 60 when her first book was published, and she lived to the age of 97.

She is of interest to me mainly because of her book An Enemy at Green Knowe. The enemy in the title is the scholar, black magician and demon-possessed witch Dr. Melanie Powers, who has been mentioned in passing in a few articles. This is the only book in which Lucy M. Boston writes at length about the battle between good and evil.

There is little in Lucy M. Boston’s life to explain where Melanie Powers and her very familiar characteristics and behaviour came from; unlike Nicholas Stuart Gray’s and Diana Wynne Jones’s witches, she was not based on the author’s mother: Lucy M. Boston’s mother was unhappy and neglectful, but not cruel and evil.

However, the magical house Green Knowe, whose name appears in the titles of her series of children’s fantasy books, is taken directly from Manor House, which was built by the Normans around the year 1130 and was her home for almost 50 years.

Manor House is still in the Boston family and is now open to the public. Maybe I will go to see it some time.

Upton Sinclair and the difficulty in getting through to people

The starting point for this article is the well-known proposition from the American novelist Upton Sinclair:

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!"

While true up to a point, this seems both incomplete and partly off the mark.

In some cases there is a lot more than a salary at stake, and it may be less a matter of a man’s not understanding something than of his understanding it only too well but refusing to accept it or admit that he knows it.

If someone did accept or admit that they know and understand an inconvenient truth, they might be expected or forced to do something about it. This might entail taking a stand; it might mean the loss of their existing role and plan of action; it might mean the loss of acceptance, credibility, any chance of promotion and even their professional reputation.

Ignorance really is bliss in many cases.

Cult leaders and Call No Man Master

Author and journalist Joyce Collin-Smith’s autobiographical book Call No Man Master is a good source of information about some specific cult leaders.

It may be seen as rather superficial and subjective, but it is still useful for both educating people and confirming what they already suspect or know.

Although her main interests and involvements were in the areas of consciousness raising practices, spiritual development movements, esoteric sects and Eastern religions, much of what she has to say can be applied to cults and cult leaders of any kind.

I am particularly interested in Joyce Collin-Smith’s account of her dealings with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Transcendental Meditation man who was spiritual guru to the Beatles. I can see some very familiar syndromes and connections in this case.

Before we get to the Maharishi, here are some commentaries and ideas inspired by other material of interest in this book:

Call No Man Master

Joyce Collin-Smith chose this title after having spent much of her very long life investigating groups and cults and in the company of various messiahs, spiritual teachers and gurus.

She became disillusioned with most of them, and with good reason. 

Many were found to be hypocritical, self-indulgent and a danger to their followers.

A few thoughts about cult leaders

As I have said before, there is a huge amount of information available both online and in books about cults, cult members and cult leaders. Although I can’t add very much to it, I can certainly confirm some of it from personal experience; I can also give my take on some aspects, provide supporting material and make some connections.

After producing some articles about cult members, I now have a few things to say about cult leaders.

The godlike cult leader

No matter what type or size of cult is being investigated, religious, political, lifestyle or other, it will have many features in common with other cults.

Similarly, the leader will have attributes in common with most other cult leaders, no matter what their nationality or ideology is.

The most significant of these is the messiah complex.

Only they can save us all; they must be worshipped and obeyed without question. They expect to be treated with respect and even reverence as great spiritual masters, heroes who are going to save the world or model examples of what highly-evolved people should be, depending on what sort of cult they are leaders of.

They may claim a direct connection to and do everything using the authority of some god.