Reviews for The World's Tragedy

The average rating for The World's Tragedy based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-10-21 00:00:00 William Estes The drama critic James Evershed Agate is supposed to have noted that "Shaw's plays are the price we pay for Shaw�s prefaces." We know from Liber 888 and elsewhere that Crowley was not just as familiar with George Bernard Shaw as any literate Englishman of his generation, but also at least a sometime admirer. It may perhaps be speculated, then, that this represents an homage to the general form of a marginal (and likely unstageable) poetic drama on which to hang a somewhat more cogent polemic. And polemic it is: "That religion they call Christianity; the devil they honour they call God. I accept these definitions[�] and it is their God and their religion that I hate and will destroy." That destruction is, of course, unsurprisingly beyond the reach of the doggerel that follows, despite a small handful of gems. The story is not even up to the level of Behold the Man. If, on the other hand, what you seek is an extended screed of howling rage against literalism, and particularly of the Bible, then this is the preface for you, along with the newer introductory material by the editor and publishers, suitable to satisfy bitter bellies, if not as sweet on the tongue as honey.

Review # 2 was written on 2021-02-09 00:00:00 Philip Tyran Crowley's play/poem is an indictment on the Judeo-Christian religions for their part in establishing global "dominator" culture. We are stolen from the garden of love by a plot to put a martyr in place to bring "order." This work is blasphemous, in that blasphemy perverts an established structure in order to showcase its flaws while also allowing those who suffered under it a catharsis. Some of the language is very dated expressing prejudices of the time, but it's Crowley and offense was his game so you know what you are getting into.