108. (March 2022) The Mind Parasites, by Colin Wilson — The Tabletop Roleplayers' Book Club

The Mind Parasites Q8 - The Lovecraft connection

RichardAbbott — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 10:31:10 +0000

Wilson says he wrote this in response to the work of HP Lovecraft. I haven't personally read any Lovecraft so can't comment... but if you have, do you feel Wilson succeeded in the attempt?

The Mind Parasites Q9 - Gaming

RichardAbbott — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 10:32:06 +0000

What facets - if any - of this story might make a good basis for a game. Have you taken part in any games which were broadly similar in storyline and intention?

The Mind Parasites Q3 - Characters and settings

RichardAbbott — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 10:27:18 +0000

Did you find Austin convincing as an archaeologist? Reich as a scientist? Any others? How about the locations described?

The Mind Parasites Q1 - The pace and feel of the book

RichardAbbott — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 10:25:45 +0000

How did you find it as a read? Quick and easy? Stodgy? Thought provoking or dull? Frightening?
Were you convinced by the rate of development of psychic powers within the span of the book?

The Mind Parasites Q2 - Historical foundations

RichardAbbott — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 10:26:44 +0000

Leaving aside the hugely ancient and clearly fictional underground ruins, Wilson spends a fair time trying to build a historically rooted case for a qualitative change in human progress and optimism around the start of the 19th century. Did you find this convincing? (I don't mean the fictional explanation in terms of parasites, but simply the idea that something got derailed at that point in history)

The Mind Parasites Q4 - Elite vs everyman

RichardAbbott — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 10:28:22 +0000

Wilson argues for some of the time that the parasites affect everyone, and that their defeat will therefore benefit everyone. But he also argues that only a small minority of adults would be able to take advantage of this new liberation (though a higher success rate was expected with young people). Did you find this credible? Simplistic? Insulting?

The Mind Parasites Q6 - Reading a book whose era has gone past

RichardAbbott — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 10:30:06 +0000

The Mind Parasites is set ahead of the time of its writing, but before our own time - this is also true of 1984, Bladerunner, Back to the Future, and a whole host of other books. Do you feel Wilson was more or less successful than other authors in predicting a future 40 or 50 years ahead of his own time?

The Mind Parasites Q7 - Describing inner life and conflict

RichardAbbott — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 10:30:39 +0000

Wilson is trying to write about conflicts happening within a person's psyche, and mentions that he tried to do so without drawing heavily on tropes of physical fighting. Do you think he was successful? What authors have you read, who have in your view convincingly described inner conflict?

The Mind Parasites Q5 - Bias and diversity

RichardAbbott — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 10:28:57 +0000

Almost all of Colin Wilson's "adepts" are male Europeans or Americans. The only woman in the first group was killed (along with a whole bunch of men) when the parasites first counterattacked, and women were hugely in the minority in the second lot who disappeared mysteriously (but apparently positively) at the end. I can't recall any African or Asian adepts, let alone minority indigenous groups. Did you get the impression this was deliberate or unconscious?

The Mind Parasites: Description and back cover blurb

RichardAbbott — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 19:11:17 +0000

Wilson has blended H.P. Lovecraft's dark vision with his own revolutionary philosophy and unique narrative powers to produce a stunning, high-tension story of vaulting imagination. A professor makes a horrifying discovery while excavating a sinister archaeological site. For over 200 years, mind parasites have been lurking in the deepest layers of human consciousness, feeding on human life force and steadily gaining a foothold on the planet. Now they threaten humanity's extinction. They can be fought with one weapon only: the mind, pushed to--and beyond--its limits. Pushed so far that humans can read each other's thoughts, that the moon can be shifted from its orbit by thought alone. Pushed so that man can at last join battle with the loathsome parasites on equal terms.