Occult espionage
Jul. 7th, 2007 10:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeregenestFrom intrigue-filled fiction spurred by the Cold War to glamorous movies with twisting plots, the business of spying -- espionage, surveillance and sabotage -- has captured imaginations for decades. Occult fiction, especially occult detectives, have probably an even longer pedigree. And for me, as many already know, these are two great tastes that go great together.
Spies have in common with occultists is an uncanny ability to connect the seemingly unconnected, to notice what goes on behind the scenes and to see through misdirection. Both often use collaborators or confederates, and mentors. Each have their rules of engagement. Even some of the elements of tradecraft are the same. Both are cryptic, using encryptions and codes. Each has its own arcane language, symbols veiled from the profane. Remote Viewing is virtually identical with clairvoyance. Both are masters of disguise, the hidden environment, intelligence, espionage, and covert action. Both are Inside Outsiders, working at the fringes of the system. And both work sub rosa.
I’m working on a biography and I find it easier to think of more rpg entries than fiction.
To qualify a book has to involve both espionage and the occult. And frankly I have trouble finding nearly as many as I do occult detectives (like spy novels the sub genre demarcations can of course be difficult).
It’s much easier for roleplaying. There’s Delta Green and Conspiracy X, half a dozen books from GURPS, Dark Conspiracy and who knows what else I’m forgetting.
For television I'd place Alias pretty strongly here.
So what am I forgetting, from both lists?
Spies have in common with occultists is an uncanny ability to connect the seemingly unconnected, to notice what goes on behind the scenes and to see through misdirection. Both often use collaborators or confederates, and mentors. Each have their rules of engagement. Even some of the elements of tradecraft are the same. Both are cryptic, using encryptions and codes. Each has its own arcane language, symbols veiled from the profane. Remote Viewing is virtually identical with clairvoyance. Both are masters of disguise, the hidden environment, intelligence, espionage, and covert action. Both are Inside Outsiders, working at the fringes of the system. And both work sub rosa.
I’m working on a biography and I find it easier to think of more rpg entries than fiction.
To qualify a book has to involve both espionage and the occult. And frankly I have trouble finding nearly as many as I do occult detectives (like spy novels the sub genre demarcations can of course be difficult).
- Tim Powers gives us Declare and Three Days to Never
- Charles Stross, Atrocity Archives and Jennifer Morgue
- Kim Newman’s Diogene Club cycle
- Alexander Irvine’s The Narrows
- There’s all of the Brian Lumley stuff (I’m afraid to read him again, I figure if my teenage self found him awful he can only have gotten worse)
It’s much easier for roleplaying. There’s Delta Green and Conspiracy X, half a dozen books from GURPS, Dark Conspiracy and who knows what else I’m forgetting.
For television I'd place Alias pretty strongly here.
So what am I forgetting, from both lists?
