Playing the Villian

Up before the sun, heading to a 'seminar:' the 'Archetype of The Fool,' at Invision ('a psychic meditation class'). Should be a brain-twisting experience.

I'm really impressed with 'A Dead Man in Deptford,' Anthony Burgess' take on the life and death of Christopher Marlowe. He 'supposes,' details of Marlowe's life, and he puts flesh on the bone.

We 'witness' the little circle (the Durham Circle) of intellectuals, the 'magicians' that surround Sir Walter Raleigh: Marlowe, the Earl of Northumberland (the Wizard Earl), the mathematician James Herriot. They smoke an exotic weed (tobacco) that Raliegh has brought back from the New World (Virginia). They discuss science, faith, politics.

Durham Circle Speculations: Does God exist? Is the new religion (Protestantism) any less backward than the old (Catholicism)? Giordano Bruno tells us that God is the Sun (the earth circles the sun). Is God a simple force, unattached to the human? If there is a God (the unmoved mover), it's opposite must exist (this is nature's way). God/Devil (like yin/yang) are natural forces, two sides of the same coin. Mathematics: the secret language of the universe.

We immediately identify with the Durham Circle; they are 'modern,' in that they are not 'men of faith,' but men looking to 'discover,' the ways of the world.

Raleigh has his rivals, his enemies, and this 'speculation,' is dangerous territory. Marlowe has a very public face, plays such as 'Tamburlaine,' and 'Dr. Faustus,' are causing a stir in London (Robert Greene: Marlowe is of Merlin's race). Marlowe's characters play the athiest, they conjure the devil. The man who conjures words for these villians, risks becoming a villian himself.

Marlowe plays an exquisitely dangerous game, and we play right along with him.