Atkinson's sources, and also the topic of how to present these ideas:
Mitch Horowitz writes:
"I should add a further word about the historically important 1906 translation [of the Hermetica] by G.R.S. Mead. If you read it, or parts of it, I think you’ll see that it is rendered in almost leaden Victorian prose, which seems to adopt the lang…
Atkinson's sources, and also the topic of how to present these ideas:
Mitch Horowitz writes:
"I should add a further word about the historically important 1906 translation [of the Hermetica] by G.R.S. Mead. If you read it, or parts of it, I think you’ll see that it is rendered in almost leaden Victorian prose, which seems to adopt the language of the King James Bible. I think Mead, a truly gifted scholar and translator, miscalculated that this literary device would bring gravity to the text. He was a great intellect but his translation proved impersonal, difficult to read, and somewhat violative of the spare language of the original. Mead was, I believe, among the sources Atkinson (himself an acolyte of Theosophy) drew upon—and from this turgid translation he mined certain gems, which he combined with his own interest in New Thought." From the chapter on Atkinson in his 2023 book Happy Warriors: The Lives and Ideas of the Positive-Mind Mystics
Atkinson's sources, and also the topic of how to present these ideas:
Mitch Horowitz writes:
"I should add a further word about the historically important 1906 translation [of the Hermetica] by G.R.S. Mead. If you read it, or parts of it, I think you’ll see that it is rendered in almost leaden Victorian prose, which seems to adopt the language of the King James Bible. I think Mead, a truly gifted scholar and translator, miscalculated that this literary device would bring gravity to the text. He was a great intellect but his translation proved impersonal, difficult to read, and somewhat violative of the spare language of the original. Mead was, I believe, among the sources Atkinson (himself an acolyte of Theosophy) drew upon—and from this turgid translation he mined certain gems, which he combined with his own interest in New Thought." From the chapter on Atkinson in his 2023 book Happy Warriors: The Lives and Ideas of the Positive-Mind Mystics