Gurdjieff
https://gurdjieff.hsites.harvard.edu/speakers
Jon Woodson
Objective Art: Gurdjieff’s Influence on Esoteric Aesthetics in American Literature
Gurdjieff introduced “objective” art to the West. Beginning in 1924, the influence of Gurdjieff’s Beelzebub’s Tales led to a vast underground literary movement that pervaded American literature, and also influenced theatre and film. The movement took shape after the split between A. R. Orage and Gurdjieff in 1931. Works of “objective” literature in America number in the thousands and include canonical works, best sellers, and writings in all of the pulp genres. Major authors include Ralph Ellison, William Faulkner, John O’Hara, Djuna Barnes, Thornton Wilder, John Dos Passos, Raymond Chandler, Nathaniel West, and James Agee. These writings were connected to the creation of an “objective” historical drama centered on a third (secular) messiah to follow Osiris and Jesus. Works related to the drama include novels about Egypt, novels about Jesus, fragmentary and allusive depictions of the esoteric historical drama, and novels, stories, and poems with a coded, esoteric subtext.
00:00 Introduction
03:12 Suppression of the paranormal in academia
13:49 The Nietzschean superman
23:27 Rudolf Steiner, G. I. Gurdjieff, & the Harlem Renaissance
Woodson's discovery of the connection of the philosophies of Gurdjieff and the writers of the Harlem Renaissance is discussed.
30:20 Inner nature versus society
35:04 The dominance of science
41:38 The ridiculous and the sublime
51:20 Entelechy
53:54 Eternal recurrence
58:26 Conclusion