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Cults and Conspiracies - A Literary History (Paperback)
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Cults and Conspiracies - A Literary History (Paperback)
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Human beings have believed in conspiracies presumably as long as
there have been groups of at least three people in which one was
convinced that the other two were plotting against him or her. In
that sense one might look back as far as Eve and the serpent to
find the world's first conspiracy. Whereas recent generations have
tended to find their conspiracies in politics and government, the
past often sought its mysteries in religious cults or associations.
In ancient Rome, for example, the senate tried to prohibit the cult
of Isis lest its euphoric excesses undermine public morality and
political stability. And during the Middle Ages, many rulers feared
such powerful and mysterious religious orders as the Knights
Templar. Fascination with the arcane is a driving force in this
comprehensive survey of conspiracy fiction. Theodore Ziolkowski
traces the evolution of cults, orders, lodges, secret societies,
and conspiracies through various literary manifestations-drama,
romance, epic, novel, opera-down to the thrillers of the
twenty-first century. Arguing that the lure of the arcane
throughout the ages has remained a constant factor of human
fascination, Ziolkowski demonstrates that the content of conspiracy
has shifted from religion by way of philosophy and social theory to
politics. In the process, he reveals, the underlying mythic pattern
was gradually co-opted for the subversive ends of conspiracy. Cults
and Conspiracies considers Euripides's Bacchae, Andreae's Chymical
Wedding, Mozart's The Magic Flute, and Eco's Foucault's Pendulum,
among other seminal works. Mimicking the genre's quest-driven
narrative arc, the reader searches for the significance of
conspiracy fiction and is rewarded with the author's cogent
reflections in the final chapter. After much investigation,
Ziolkowski reinforces Umberto Eco's notion that the most powerful
secret, the magnetic center of conspiracy fiction, is in fact "a
secret without content."
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