3 ms·
I'm curious, what causes you to be interested in John Dee's work as opposed to say the output of any modern 'spirit channeler' or 'UFO contactee' ? Is Dee's wo
by hackercomplex 11y ago
I'm curious, what causes you to be interested in John Dee's work as opposed to say the output of any modern 'spirit channeler' or 'UFO contactee' ?
Is Dee's work academically interesting to you simply because of how it's embedded historically with the British empire or is there some other factor ?
- benbreen 11y agoOne of the things I find so fascinating about him is that he was also one of the leading English mathematicians of his generation (his "Mathematical Preface" to the first English edition of Euclid would've made him important even without any of the magic/occult stuff) and according to one book historian he also had one of the largest private libraries in all of Europe. So he's important as a Renaissance polymath and not just as someone who thought they were channelling sprits. Which in turn sheds light on why someone like Newton would have a similar range of interests. The British imperial stuff was going to be my focus though, because of the fact that he was an original partner with Sir Walter Raleigh in his attempts to settle colonies in the New World. Plus (along with Merlin) he's essentially the archetype of the wizard in pop culture!
- hackercomplex 11y agooh yea I almost forgot about pop culture. There's the Bond connection to boot. Hell sometimes I theorize that maybe somehow almost the entire artifice of western pop culture was conjured up by Dee and associates in some kind of.. well I dare not speculate too far.