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Post by Michael Connolly on Apr 22, 2015 12:31:10 GMT
The following is from the Radio 4 website. Black Aquarius is being transmitted at 8.00 pm on Saturday 25th April. The Radio Times mentions that the programme is covering "cheap paperbacks".
Matthew Sweet explores the dawning of the age of Black Aquarius - the rise (and sudden end) of the weirdly great wave of occultism in British popular culture in the 1960s-70s.
From underground journals like the Aquarian Arrow and specialist bookshops appearing in cities all over Britain to the bestselling novels of Dennis Wheatley, moral panics about upper-crust Satanic cults in the tabloid press and the glut of illustrated books, magazines and TV drama. It was a wildly exuberant seam of British pop culture, but where did it come from, and why did it all take off then?
Flowering from the more arcane parts of the hippy movement perhaps, but mutating into something quite different - why was there such a huge mainstream, crossover appeal for the British public? At one point, Dennis Wheatley had five books in the bestseller list simultaneously. Was this a continuation of the Sixties cultural battleground of restrictive morality being secretly titillated, or was it something darker?
This era matched the first, late Victorian craze for the occult in its intensity and popularity, and certainly drew from some of that era's obsessions - astral planes, dark dimensions, unearthly energies - but the second wave was filtered through 'the permissive society', through a hugely eclectic counterculture, swinging sexual liberation and (for this was all about Chelsea mansions, exotica and sports cars too) new kinds of consumption and lifestyle.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 22, 2015 18:57:50 GMT
This looks promising. More even than the paperbacks and films, its the reportage in the days scandal sheets - News Of The World & Sunday People primary among them - captured my imagination. It all seemed so glamorous and exciting. A book of facsimile copies of the juiciest articles would be a must-have. Thanks for the tip off, Codex. |
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Post by pulphack on Apr 23, 2015 4:56:47 GMT
This does look good. I'll miss it of course, and have to iplayer it, but eventually...
There was something in the air back then, and Satanism and Black Magic and the Occult were all big things with capital letters as part of pop culture. Was it partly the hippies opening the box that let it out? Maybe. I trust Mr Sweet to do a good job on this, as I love his work on British films (which I suppose just means I agree with him).
I remember the film posters, the book covers in Woolies, and my mum's Sunday People and News Of the World feeding this fascination. Especially the papers. Dodgy vicars and swinging suburban housewife dabblers a-go-go: they were all at it, and by the time I'd grown up the eighties had washed it all away. For a while. When it came back it didn't have the odd air of innocence that seems to surround those times. Or was I just older and already cynical?
Thanks for the tip - I'm not a big radio listener, and would have missed this otherwise.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Apr 23, 2015 6:41:40 GMT
This does look good. I'll miss it of course, and have to iplayer it, but eventually... There was something in the air back then, and Satanism and Black Magic and the Occult were all big things with capital letters as part of pop culture. Was it partly the hippies opening the box that let it out? Maybe. I trust Mr Sweet to do a good job on this, as I love his work on British films (which I suppose just means I agree with him). I remember the film posters, the book covers in Woolies, and my mum's Sunday People and News Of the World feeding this fascination. Especially the papers. Dodgy vicars and swinging suburban housewife dabblers a-go-go: they were all at it, and by the time I'd grown up the eighties had washed it all away. For a while. When it came back it didn't have the odd air of innocence that seems to surround those times. Or was I just older and already cynical? Thanks for the tip - I'm not a big radio listener, and would have missed this otherwise. Until 1951 English law strictly forbade witchcraft. Gerald Gardner went public with Witchcraft Today in 1954. Witchcraft was illegal in the UK and initially punished by death( Law Circa 1500's) and, prior to the repeal of the English Witchcraft Laws, British witches had to practice in secret to avoid prosecution. I'm guessing the Brave New World that emerged from the second world war saw a relaxation of social attitudes. Couple this with the general British reserve about nudity and sex (think 'Carry On Camping' here) and you have the ultimate recipe: Something forbidden now allowed, involving sex. The absolutely topping thing is that by the time I'd hit my early teens secondhand book shops were just stuffed with this kind of stuff and the gravy train rolled on until the advent of Charity shops. |
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Post by andydecker on Apr 23, 2015 18:29:20 GMT
You got to love these covers.
And still Dennis is a topic. Good for him.  |
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gloomy sundae
Crab On The Rampage
dem in disguise; looking for something to suck
Posts: 25
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Post by gloomy sundae on Apr 24, 2015 9:11:36 GMT
You got to love these covers.
And still Dennis is a topic. Good for him. Peter Haining & A. V. Sellwood's Devil Worship In Britain remains a personal all-time favourite. Have said it before, but it really does read like an extended covert News Of The World "investigation." Could never get to grips with the dry, serious stuff like Francis King's Ritual Magic and the crushingly disappointing Sexuality, Magic & Perversion, but, as with the youth cult stuff, Haining knew exactly how to market them. We'll never know how many sales the covers accounted for, but I reckon they played a big part in the Nel success story. |
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Post by Michael Connolly on Apr 27, 2015 12:07:40 GMT
While Black Aquarius was good, it covered too much material. The "cheap paperbacks", the main reason I listened to the programme, were only touched upon when Mark Gatiss mentioned THE PAN BOOK OF HORROR STORIES. The material on Dennis Wheatley was interesting, but in that he virtually disappeared after being a household name, he deserves an entire programme to himself. So does the story of the H***g*te "Vampire", which made a big media impact at the time.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Apr 27, 2015 12:14:44 GMT
This is weird. When I typed "The H***g*te "Vampire"" in full, the text came up as in my earlier post.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Apr 27, 2015 12:17:18 GMT
And it's still wrong. Still, you know what I mean.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 27, 2015 12:33:42 GMT
This is weird. When I typed "The H***g*te "Vampire"" in full, the text came up as in my earlier post. Apologies for that, Codex, but it's on the censored words list. Having had some experience of the parties involved, I don't want them anywhere near this forum .... |
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Post by Michael Connolly on Apr 27, 2015 12:42:00 GMT
Okay. I thought it was the man himself.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Apr 27, 2015 12:45:27 GMT
I'm using my real name from now own.
Codex is a daft name.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 27, 2015 12:51:36 GMT
While Black Aquarius was good, it covered too much material. The "cheap paperbacks", the main reason I listened to the programme, were only touched upon when Mark Gatiss mentioned THE PAN BOOK OF HORROR STORIES. The main reason why I wanted to catch it was for the "cheap paperbacks" content, so I don't feel quite so bad about missing it now. It's always the same. Make a note, then forget note exists .... |
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Post by Dr Strange on Apr 27, 2015 15:29:21 GMT
Until 1951 English law strictly forbade witchcraft. Gerald Gardner went public with Witchcraft Today in 1954. Witchcraft was illegal in the UK and initially punished by death( Law Circa 1500's) and, prior to the repeal of the English Witchcraft Laws, British witches had to practice in secret to avoid prosecution. In fact, the medieval Witchcraft Acts (both Scottish and English) were all wiped off the books by the Witchcraft Act of 1735 - and, contrary to what most people seem to believe, the 1735 Act actually made it a criminal offence to accuse anyone of being "a witch" (but it also made it a crime to claim to have supernatural powers). This was all done on the basis of Enlightenment thinking - witches simply didn't exist, and either claiming to be one or accusing someone else of being one was seen as mischievous. The 1735 Witchcraft Act was in force until the Fraudulent Mediums Act came along in 1951 (this was only repealed in 2008). Of course, all of this may have had very little impact on popular beliefs about witches - there is a very good book on all this by Owen Davies, called Witchcraft, Magic & Culture 1736-1951. |
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Apr 27, 2015 16:46:40 GMT
Until 1951 English law strictly forbade witchcraft. Gerald Gardner went public with Witchcraft Today in 1954. Witchcraft was illegal in the UK and initially punished by death( Law Circa 1500's) and, prior to the repeal of the English Witchcraft Laws, British witches had to practice in secret to avoid prosecution. In fact, the medieval Witchcraft Acts (both Scottish and English) were all wiped off the books by the Witchcraft Act of 1735 - and, contrary to what most people seem to believe, the 1735 Act actually made it a criminal offence to accuse anyone of being "a witch" (but it also made it a crime to claim to have supernatural powers). This was all done on the basis of Enlightenment thinking - witches simply didn't exist, and either claiming to be one or accusing someone else of being one was seen as mischievous. The 1735 Witchcraft Act was in force until the Fraudulent Mediums Act came along in 1951 (this was only repealed in 2008). Of course, all of this may have had very little impact on popular beliefs about witches - there is a very good book on all this by Owen Davies, called Witchcraft, Magic & Culture 1736-1951. I stand corrected. I knew it was repealed but hadn't made that link with the enlightenment. |
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