Name: Earthly Powers
ISBN: 9781609450847

What Hacker News says

osullishOct 2026

Earthly Powers was one of the books that really impacted me in my late teens, the structure, language, the incredible opening line - still my favourite opening line in any book. It was one of those books that made me fall in love with reading.

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defrostMar 2025

It was deliberate choice in a sub thread that's literally about literary metaphors.

As a native english reader, writer and speaker of some six decades I grasp the tension in the use of ' literally "airquoted" ' and embrace it.

I also enjoy Riddley Walker, the first edition of Clockwork Orange (sans lexicographic annexure), and the outrageously provocative shock value of the opening sentence of Burgess's panoramic saga Earthly Powers.

Your opinion is noted and respected.

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defrostApr 2024

Brunei .. and that was an odd story.

Might have been heat stroke, might have been slipped a mickey .. but he was, reportedly, diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour or some such and advised to leave the country by the best physician in the country who worked directly for the Sultan.

The odd part was this being shortly after Devil of a State was published .. nominally about a fictious African country, transparently dishing dirt on society and rule in Brunei.

Clockwork Orange gets all the recognition but I still applaud his opening sentence in Earthly Powers, his parodic mockumentary of a (specific?) stereotyped British author.

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tenfourwookieAug 2021

I read A Confederacy of Dunces every few years. It's a fun book.

I also love Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess. Epic saga beautifully written.

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gPphXJan 2016

by author:

Beano (comic, ’50s)

Private Eye (satirical magazine, ’60s – ’80s)

Raw (comic, ’80s)

Viz (comic, early ’80s)

Paris Review, The - Writers At Work: The Paris Review Interviews edited by Malcolm Cowley

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Alighieri, Dante - Inferno

Amis, Martin - Money

Baldwin, James - Fire Next Time, The

Barnes, Julian - Flaubert’s Parrot

Bellow, Saul - Herzog

Braine, John - Room At The Top

Broyard, Anatole - Kafka Was The Rage

Bulgakov, Mikhail - Master And Margarita, The

Bulwer-Lytton, Edward - Zanoni

Burgess, Anthony - A Clockwork Orange

Burgess, Anthony - Earthly Powers

Cage, John - Silence: Lectures And Writing

Camus, Albert - Stranger, The

Capote, Truman - In Cold Blood

Carter, Angela - Nights At The Circus

Chabon, Michael - Wonder Boys

Chatwin, Bruce - Songlines, The

Cohn, Nik - Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock

Cork, Richard - David Bomberg

Crane, Hart - Bridge, The

Danto, Arthur C. - Beyond The Brillo Box

DeLillo, Don - White Noise

Diaz, Junot - Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, The

Döblin, Alfred - Berlin Alexanderplatz

Dos Passos, John - 42nd Parallel, The

Edwards, Frank - Strange People

Elliot, T.S. - Waste Land, The

Faulkner, William - As I Lay Dying

Figes, Orlando - A People’s Tragedy

Fitzgerald, F. Scott - Great Gatsby, The

Flaubert, Gustave - Madame Bovary

Friedrich, Otto - Before The Deluge

Gillete, Charlie - Sound Of The City: The Rise Of Rock And Roll, The

Ginzburg, Eugenia - Journey Into The Whirlwind

Guralnick, Peter - Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm And Blues And The Southern Dream Of Freedom

Hall, James A. - Halls Dictionary Of Subjects And Symbols In Art

Harding, Douglass - On Having No Head

Hirshey, Gerri - Nowhere To Run The Story Of Soul Music

Hitchens, Christopher - Trial Of Henry Kissinger, The

Homer - Iliad

Isherwood, Christopher - Mr. Norris Changes Trains

Jacoby, Susan - Age Of American Unreason, The

Jaynes, Julian - Origin Of Consciousness In The Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mind, The

Kerouac, Jack - On The Road

Kidd, David - All The Emperor’s Horses

Koestler, Arthur - Darkness At Noon

Laing, R. D. - Divided Self, The

Di Lampedusa, Giusseppe - Leopard, The

Larson, Nella - Passing

Lautréamont, Comte de - Maldodor

Lawrence, D.H. - Lady Chatterly’s Lover

Lebowitz, Fran - Metropolitan Life

Lévi, Eliphas - Transcendental Magic, Its Doctine and Ritual

Lewis, Wyndham - Blast

Marcus, Greil - Mystery Train

McEwan, Ian - In Between The Sheets

Milligan, Spike - Puckoon

Mishima, Yukio - Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, The

Mitford, Jessica - American Way Of Death, The

Nabokov, Vladimir - Lolita

Norman, Howard - Bird Artist, The

Norris, Frank - McTeague

O’Hara, Frank - Selected Poems

Orwell, George - 1984

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Packard, Vance - Hidden Persuaders, The

Pagels, Elaine - Gnostic Gospels, The

Paglia, Camille - Sexual Personae: Art And Decadence From Nefertiti To Emily Dickinson

Petry, Ann - Street, The

di Pirajno, Alberto Denti - A Grave For A Dolphin

Priestley, J.B. - English Journey

Rechy, John - City Of Night

Sadecky, Peter - Octobriana And The Russian Underground

Saunders, Ed - Tales Of Beatnik Glory

Savage, Jon - Teenage

Selby, Hubert Jr. - Last Exit To Brooklyn

Spark, Muriel - Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, The

Steiner, George - In Bluebeard’s Castle

Stoppard, Tom - Coast Of Utopia, The

Sylvester, David - Interviews With Francis Bacon

Thomson, Rupert - Insult, The

Thurman, Wallace - Infants Of The Spring

Toole, John Kennedy - A Confederacy Of Dunces

Waterhouse, Keith - Billy Liar

Waters, Sarah - Fingersmith

Waugh, Evelyn - Vile Bodies

Weschler, Lawrence - Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonders

West, Nathanael - Day Of The Locust, The

White, Charles - Life And Times Of Little Richard, The

Wilson, Colin - Outsider, The

Wolf, Christa - Quest For Christa T, The

Wright, Richard - Black Boy

Yokoo, Tadanori - Tadanori Yokoo

Zinn, Howard - A People’s History Of The United States

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mambamambaDec 2009

>>But I've not found any primary or objective secondary sources on how this went

It's definitely true. Progressivism is the memetic leftover of north-eastern US Mainline Protestantism. The poster above you makes the mistake of comparing it to actual religions, when progressivism has evolved to drop the religious components, which still makes its followers the cultural descendants of creepy religious maniacs even though they don't believe in a God (also, as a side note, consider that this makes progressives not "anti-American" as right wingers make them about to be, but "ultra-American" in the sense of trying to make the US progress into a more 'pure' and ethical state, as the Puritans wanted it to be. Edit: also consider that this might make the right/left 'culture war' more of a religious war between two protestant-influenced sects). This was mainly done for political power. Think about it, there is supposed to be a disconnect in the US between the state and religion, what better way for a memeplex to adapt to its environment then to drop the supernatural bits, and focus on propagating the values, mores, and aspirations of its believers through political power.

You asked for evidence, here is a number of excellent sources:

The main book you should read is "The Puritan Origins of AMerican Patriotism." That pretty much lays out the argument.

Also check out "The Making of An American Thinking Class: Intellectuals and Intelligentsia in Puritan Massachusetts." It makes the case that Puritans are the forefathers of American radicalism.

I also recommend these:

God's New Israel: Religious Interpretation of American Destiny.

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Authoritarianism.

Hellfire Nation: The politics of sin in America.

Also check out Michael Burleigh's two books on political religions (Earthly Powers and Sacred Causes). This isn't an aberration of history. Religious movements often drop their supernatural components under the guise of 'reason' and 'rationality' so as to adapt to the culture and politics.

And if you are still not convinced, here is a large list by an American urban historian: http://www.amazon.com/A-History-of-American-Radicalism/lm/R2...

Edit: I also forgot to mention there is a blogger that writes about this topic often. I generally disagree with a lot of what he says, but he comes up with a number of primary and secondary sources for this historical hypothesis.

Here is one post that sums it up: http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/2007/07/univers...

And the multi-part Open letter series is also good: http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/2008/04/open-le...

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