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COLIN WILSON: THE RELIGION OF THE OUTSIDE
by •'
.WALTER ASA WINSETT, B.A.
A THESIS
IN
•ENGLISH
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Technological College
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
Approved
August, 1968
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Cop. CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENT iii
I. INTRODUCTION: THE OUTSIDER 1
II. THE FICTIONAL DEFINITION: RITUAL IN THE DARK 4
III. THE FICTIONAL APPROACH: NECESSARY DOUBT 14
IV. CONCLUSION: INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW
EXISTENTIALISM 27
BIBLIOGRAPHY 33
n
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I wish to express my gratitude to Professor W. D. Norwood, Jr,
for his helpful criticism in the direction of this thesis.
m
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION: THE OUTSIDER
Colin Wilson (1931- ) occupies a unique position in con
temporary British writing. At once critic, philosopher, historian
and novelist, Wilson has written twenty-two books in the last
twelve years. More significant than his prolificness, however,
is Wilson's adherence throughout most of his work to the steady
and logical development of a single idea: the formulation of a
"new existentialism." Because this "new existentialism," or
phenomenological existentialism, is a philosophy that is concerned
with the religious questions of the meaning of human existence,
freedom, and the existence of God, and because it represents a
new way of life for the "dominant minority," it is essentially
a Religion of the Outside.
To adequately develop this philosophy-religion, Wilson
utilizes both the philosophical essay and the novel. According
to Wilson, the use of the latter medium is important because
"there are things that can be said in fiction that are unsayable
2 in a work of philosophy."
^Colin Wilson, The Outsider (New York: Dell Publishing Co., Inc., 1967), p. 299.
^Ibid., p. 296.
The main philosophical works in which Wilson attempts to
outline his "new existentialism" include the six volumes of the
Outsider Cycle: The Outsider (1956), Religion and the Rebel
(1957), The Stature of Man^ (1959), The Strength to Dream (1962),
Origins of the Sexual Impulse (1963), and Beyond the Outsider
(1965). In addition to this sequence is his Introduction to the
New Existentialism (1966) in v;hich Wilson presents the basic
arguments of the Outsider Cycle in a "simple and non-technical
4 language for the ordinary intelligent reader."
In The Outsider, Wilson's first and perhaps most signifi
cant philosophical work, the author establishes the foundations
of the "new existentialism" through an analysis of the pessimism
of contemporary culture. Wilson defines the Outsider and the
problem he faces by critically tracing the Outsider's role in
literature and society. From Wilson's analysis of the Outsider
in this work, there begins to emerge the basis of an existence-
philosophy, or a religion, that reaches complete fruition in his
later Introduction to the New Existentialism.
Of Wilson's fictional works, several novels are concerned--
in varying degrees--with the fictional treatment of the concepts
expressed in the philosophical works. They are: Ritual in the
Dark (1960), Adrift in Soho (1961), The Violent World of Hugh
'^British title: The Age of Defeat (1959).
Colin Wilson, Introduction to the New Existentialism (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1966), p. 9.
5 6
Greene (1963), The Sex Diary of Gerard Sorme (1964), Necessary
Doubt (1964), The Glass Cage (1966), and The Mind Parasites (1967).
Wilson's first novel. Ritual in the Dark, and his fifth.
Necessary Doubt, offer the best fictional expressions of his
philosophical concepts. In Ritual, Wilson attempts to define
more clearly the Outsider's situation first developed in The Out
sider and to extend further his notion of existence-philosophy.
A study of Ritual reveals that its hero, Gerard Sorme, embodies
all of the many characteristics of the Outsider as well as the
incipience of a possible solution to the Outsider's problem. In
Necessary Doubt, however, Wilson is concerned primarily with an
approach to a solution as well as a definition of the problem.
The intention of this study, then, is to analyse these
two novels and their heroes in relation to their corresponding
philosophical works to determine the nature of Wilson's Religion
of the Outside. Thus, Ritual in the Dark and Gerard Sorme offer
a fictional definition of the Outsider and his problem correspond
ing to the philosophical presentation by The Outsider; while.
Necessary Doubt and Gustav Neumann offer a fictional approach to
the solution of the Outsider's problem corresponding generally to
Introduction to the New Existentialism.
^British title: The World of Violence (1963).
^British title: Man Without a Shadow (1963).
CHAPTER II
THE FICTIONAL DEFINITION: RITUAL IN THE DARK
Superficially, Wilson's Ritual in the Dark is the story of
Gerard Sorme's involvement with a sadistic murderer, Austin Nunne,
who commits Jack-the-Ripper-like sex murders in the streets of
London. Superimposed on this murder plot, however, is a portrait
of Sorme as the Outsider. Through his relations with the other
characters of the novel and with himself, Sorme emerges as the
artist on the threshold of discovering a higher form of life.
In Religion and the Rebel, the second volume of Wilson's
Outsider Cycle, the author states: "In the twentieth century,
the only serious form of literary art is the Bildungsroman."
Ritual in the Dark follows this form, i.e., it concerns the matur
ing of its central character, Gerard Sorme, through the impact of
his experience. Sorme's many experiences with the major and
minor characters in Ritual create a complex and, at times, ponder
ous labyrinth of plots and subplots.
The novel's central character, Gerard Sorme, is a young o
writer who describes himself as "stagnant, sullen and sex-starved."
Colin Wilson, Religion and the Rebel (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1957), p. 246.
o Colin Wilson, Ritual in the Dark (Boston: Houghton Mif
flin Company, 1960), p. 139. Subsequent references are to this edition and appear in the text.
He is interested in writing a novel about a sexual killer and the
modern sense of dispossession. Sorme meets the second major char
acter of the novel, Austin Nunne, at a ballet. Nunne is a wealthy
homosexual-playboy and the author of a book on the ballet dancer
Nijinsky. Their mutual interest in Nijinsky provides a basis for
their friendship. Through Nunne, Sorme is introduced to Gertrude
Quincey, Nunne's aunt. She is a lonely Jehovah's Witness fifteen
years Sorme's senior. One of Sorme's two affairs in the novel is
with Gertrude; the other is with her pretty, young niece, Caroline
Denbigh.
Shortly after meeting Nunne, Sorme becomes interested in
an investigation concerning the sadistic murders of four women in
the Whitechapel area of London. Initially, Sorme's interest is
purely professional; he hopes to gather material for his novel.
Later, however, his interest becomes personal when he learns that
Nunne is a sadist and a prime suspect in the case. Sorme's
suspicions of Nunne increase until he is certain of Nunne's guilt.
Sorme grows uncertain as to what action he should take. He does
not want the responsibility of condemning Nunne for acts which
can be construed as a means of expressing freedom, of escaping a
sense of futility.
After several lengthy discussions about murder with Father
Carruthers, a dying Catholic priest, and Oliver Glasp, a starving,
tormented artist, and after several more sadistic murders, Sorme
realizes that Nunne commits murders because he is insane rather
than out of a need to express his freedom, as Sorme believed
initially. In the end, however, even after Nunne's arrest, Sorme
refuses to help the police. He believes that the police inspec
tor's desire to convict Nunne for the good of the organization--
society--is as wrong as Nunne's crimes because the inspector
"doesn't give a damn about human freedom either" (Ritual, p. 439).
In tracing Sorme's evolution as an Outsider in Ritual,
certain recurring themes become readily apparent. An analysis of
these themes provides a clearer understanding of the basic char
acteristics of the Outsider and of the unique problem he faces.
In Ritual in the Dark, Gerard Sorme is an artist-philoso
pher who instinctively rejects the everyday world as boring and
unsatisfying. His rejection of the world results in a fundamental
condition of the Outsider: a sense of complete alienation.
Sorme's isolation is one of the most obvious themes and is empha
sized repeatedly in Ritual. Indeed, the opening scene of the
novel depicts Sorme surrounded by people on a busy London street,
yet he is alone in the crowd. His reaction typifies the Outsider's
contempt for society in general: "Too many people in this bloody
city; we need a massacre to thin their numbers. . . .the hatred
of the crowd was uncontrollable" (Ritual, p. 3). Sorme's constant
difficulty in communicating with other characters in the novel
further emphasizes his isolation. He is repeatedly frustrated by
the feeling of a lack of contact with others. Sorme is irritated,
disgusted, and frustrated by society because its members are
unable to see that which he sees all too clearly: the futility
of everyday life, the meaninglessness of his existence and of
theirs.
Sorme's sense of alienation, then, is no paranoid delusion.
Rather, it is a logical outcome of his awareness of the futility
of life: "There was a futility inherent in physical life that
frightened him" (Ritual, p. 130). Sorme repeatedly maintains
that the world is meaningless, that life is meaningless. This
theme of the futility of life is most evident in the many scenes
in which Sorme struggles to ascertain the nature of his own exis
tence. During one of his frequent conversations with Father
Carruthers, Sorme describes his feeling of non-existence:
Sometimes I wake up in the night with a sort of forbod-ing. Then I feel arbitrary. I feel somehow absurd. I feel, who am I? and what am I doing here? I feel we take life too much for granted. We take our own existences for granted. But perhaps it's not natural to exist. (Ritual, p. 67)
Here Sorme not only questions his own existence but suggests that
all existence is an illusion. This idea reflects another impor
tant theme of the novel: the ambiguity of reality.
In addition to feeling alienated and futile, Sorme feels
unreal. He is unable to distinguish the real world from an
unreal one. Sorme theorizes that this ambiguity of reality, or
sense of unreality, is caused by illusions--illusions which inter
fere with his perception of the real. In order to feel real one
must free himself of all illusions. The dilemma becomes obvious:
to be free of all illusions (and thus feel real) v/ould mean an
8
acute awareness of the complete meaninglessness of existence,
which, in turn, would mean a sense of unreality. Sorme wrestles
with the problem of reality in an attempt to feel, at once, real
and meaningful. To avoid this problem, the other characters in
Ritual impose meaning on their lives through self-delusions
designed to shield themselves from the meaninglessness of life.
These self-delusions vary in degree from Father Carruthers'
insight into human weakness, to Gertrude's simple belief in a
future heaven on earth--a belief which she is too intelligent to
accept completely. At one point in the novel, Sorme facetiously
says that he wants to write a book entitled "Methods and Tech
niques of Self-Deception." In this book he plans to catagorize
the various v/ays people unconsciously deceive themselves into
believing that their lives have meaning. Sorme's awareness of
these self-delusions in himself and in others is a primary fea
ture of the Outsider's situation.
However, if Sorme's only characteristics were a feeling of
alienation, a sense of the futility of life, and an awareness of
self-delusion, he would not qualify as an Outsider. He would be,
instead, merely an uncomfortable Insider whose blinders had
slipped temporarily. But such is not the case. Sorme proceeds
to the next logical phase in his evolution as an Outsider and
comes face to face with the Outsider's fundamental problem. The
feature which indicates that Sorme is an Outsider rather than a
careless Insider is his instinctive knowledge that man is capable
of some intense form of existence. Early in the novel Sorme
states: "I am convinced that life can be lived at twenty times
its present intensity. . .somehow. I spend all my life looking
for the way to it" (Ritual, pp. 13-14). Sorme's search for the
way to intensify existence is the search of the Outsider.
The numerous and complex implications of Sorme's problem--
like the basic characteristics of the Outsider--also appear in
Ritual as recurring themes. The use of the term "search" in
relation to Sorme's experiences is deliberate and wery apt.
Sorme's approach to the problem is comparable to the mystical
journey through the "dark night of the soul." Like the mystic,
Sorme is in search of the way to a unifying vision of God, man,
and the universe. This is his "ritual" in the darkness of the
Outsider's world.
This via mystica theme is immediately evident from the
novel's title. Ritual in the Dark. According to Sidney R.
Campion, Wilson's biographer, the title was taken from the
Egyptian Book of the Dead (also called the Ritual of the Dead,
which was at one time the title of Wilson's novel). The Book of
the Dead was compiled from funeral texts on the walls of the
pyramids. The Egyptians believed that the soul of a man traveled
the day of his death and all of the following night to reach his
underworld, Amentet. In the course of this journey, the soul
encountered various perils in the form of monsters, vampire worms,
and other creatures. The prayers of the Book of the Dead were
10
believed to be charms repeated by the soul to defend itself
against these perils. In addition, the soul would often identify
itself with the god Horus or Ra in order to summon the necessary
power to defeat the demons.^ The belief in the soul's ability to
identify itself with the gods suggests Sorme's concept of the man-
god. He maintains that when man frees himself from all illusions,
he becomes a god. If man can summon this energy or god power from
within himself, he can defeat the "demons" of illusion and achieve
the intensified existence.
Sorme's knowledge that man is capable of being god-like,
of intensifying his existence, is gained through occasional
"moments of insight." During these moments or "vastations,"
Sorme experiences a sudden, violent desire. He describes this
feeling as "a sudden longing for far more freedom than we pos
sess. . . .an insight into freedom" (Ritual, p. 221). Sorme's
explanation of these insights into freedom suggests the frustra
tion inherent in an objectless desire:
It's a sort of a vision of more life. It makes you feel as if you've been robbed of the powers of a god. It's as if we are gods, as if we're really free, but no one realizes it. (Ritual, p. 221)
The result of this desire is frustration, because it is a desire
with no real object. The fulfillment of this desire depends on
finding the still unknown way to increase the intensity of exis-
^Sidney R. Campion, The World of Colin Wilson (London: Frederick Muller Limited, 1962), pp. 180-181.
11
tence. The frustration caused by an objectless desire is an
important theme of Ritual which is reflected in Sorme's sexual
explorations and his understanding of Nunne's sex murders.
During his affairs with Caroline and Gertrude, Sorme real
izes that the desire to regain a god-like freedom manifests itself
in the sexual impulse, and that the experience of the sexual orgasm
is the nearest that most men ever come to a unifying vision of the
world, to the intensified existence v;hich the Outsider seeks.
Man's slavery to sex is a need to regain something that is naturally
his: an internal condition of tremendous intensity. The apparent
need for a woman and sex is only the need to regain that intensity
for a moment, to regain that overv;helming sense of power and
security which is the complete opposite of feeling unintended,
futile.
Sorme's formulation of these concepts leads to the feeling
that Nunne is a reflection of himself, with the courage to carry
his theorizing into action. At first Sorme can sympathize with
Nunne's sex murders because he believes that Nunne commits the
crimes out of a need to express his freedom. Sorme sees murder
as a possible means of escaping the sense of futility, a positive
affirmation of one's existence. He thinks that Nunne commits sex.
murders out of a desire to increase the intensity of the exper
ience. According to Sorme's impersonality theory of sex, the per
sonal nature of sexual intercourse lessens the violence of the
sexual orgasm and thus lessens the intensity of a unifying vision
12
of the world. A lust murder or necrophilia would be impersonal
and thus increase the intensity. Sorme finally realizes, however,
that Nunne is insane and that he killed not as a gesture of
defiance or as a means of intensifying existence, but rather "for
the same reason a dipsomaniac drinks--he couldn't stop" (Ritual,
p. 438).
As a result of his involvement with Nunne and his subse
quent realization of Nunne's insanity, Sorme achieves a new
maturity and begins to show signs of emerging from the Outsider
darkness. The maturity Sorme gains is the key to a possible
solution to the Outsider's problem: that the world is inscru
table and unchanging and only man's perception of it changes as
he matures. Sorme explains his insight this way:
It was a feeling of acceptance. . . .1 was thinking about all the lives and all the problems. . .and then suddenly I felt real. I saw other people's illusions, and my own illusions disappeared, and I felt real inside. I stopped wondering whether the world's ultimately good or evil. I felt that the world didn't matter a damn. What mattered was me, whether I saw it as good or evil. I suddenly felt as if I'd turned into a giant. (Ritual, p. 347)
Sorme's acceptance of his own existence is a first step toward a
way out of the Outsider's problem. His emphasis on his own con
sciousness rather than on the universe suggests the direction
which Wilson's later philosophy takes toward intensifying exis
tence: a discipline of the will to broaden the limits of man's
consciousness.
Ritual ends on a note of optimistic anticipation--antici-
13
pation of what Outsider Gerard Sorme will be able to achieve with
his newly acquired knowledge:
A curious elation stirred in him, an acceptance of complexity. He stared at his face in the mirror, saying aloud:
What do you do now, you stupid old bastard? He grinned at himself, and twitched his nose
like a rabbit. (Ritual, p. 442)
Thus, Sorme's evolution as an Outsider is complete. His
ritual journey through the "dark night of the soul" has reached
its upper stages. He has progressed from feelings of alienation,
futility, and unreality to an instinctive awareness that man is
capable of going beyond the limitations imposed upon him by an
illusory world, of intensifying his own existence and thus achiev
ing a sense of purpose. He has realized the Outsider's problem:
to find a way out of the darkness where man is victimized, help
less, and contingent into the day light where he can know a
single, unifying sense of purpose.
In Ritual in the Dark, then, Gerard Sorme possesses all of
the fundamental characteristics of the Outsider; the problem he
encounters is the Outsider's problem. However, the novel offers
only the slightest suggestion of a possible solution to the prob
lem. Sorme's ultimate realization that the world does not matter,
that man's perception of the world is all that matters reveals a
concept fundamental to Wilson's ultimate phenomenological Religion
of the Outside.
CHAPTER III
THE FICTIONAL APPROACH: NECESSARY DOUBT
In Necessary Doubt, Wilson's fifth novel, the author again
experiments with the possibilities of using fiction to express
his philosophical concepts. During the four year interim between
Ritual in the Dark and Necessary Doubt, Wilson completed four
additional volumes of philosophy, bringing the Outsider Cycle to
a total of five. The progress he made toward developing his
existence-philosophy during this period is evident in Necessary
Doubt. The emphasis in Ritual is on the characteristics of Out
sider Gerard Sorme and, more importantly, on the problem he
encounters; whereas, the emphasis in Necessary Doubt is on the
solution of the problem and the method by which Outsider Gustav
Neumann approaches this solution. Although the two novels are
similar in many aspects, it is this difference in emphasis which
makes these novels and their heroes appropriate subject matter
for a detailed analysis of Wilson's Outsider and his Religion of
the Outside.
Generally, Necessary Doubt is a detective story; however,
it is perhaps even more misleading to classify this novel a detec
tive story than it is to classify Ritual a crime novel. Both
labels refer only to the vehicle Wilson uses; the new directions
he takes and the philosophical heights for which he strives some-
14
15
times seem too great for such simple means of conveyance. Another
unusual aspect of Necessary Doubt as a detective story is Wilson's
method of characterization. Although Professor Karl Zweig, as the
"detective," is the central character of the novel, Gustav Neumann,
as the "criminal," is the hero. The distinction which clarifies
their respective positions in the novel is this: Zweig is the
central character in that the narrative is centered around his
actions throughout the novel as he gathers clues and attempts to
solve the mystery; however, Gustav is the hero in that he person
ifies Wilson's philosophical concepts and represents an approach
to the solution of the Outsider's problem. This approach is
revealed through an analysis of the unique detective-criminal
relationship of Zweig and Neumann in the novel.
The plot of Necessary Doubt is relatively free of the cum
bersome subplots which characterize the structure of Ritual.
Professor Karl Zweig is an aging German theologian who has achieved
prominence through his many volumes of theology and his occasional
appearances on a London television program. Wilson states in a pre
liminary note that Zweig is like theologian Paul Tillich in that
Zweig is an existentialist theologian with a university appointment,
In addition, Wilson states that the novel's title is borrowed from
the theology of Tillich. In the novel, one of Zweig's earlier
publications is entitled Necessary Doubt. Its argument is that
true religious faith must be built on doubt, rather than on blind
acceptance, that "'man's capacity to doubt is his greatest dignity.
16
and that even a saint should never discard his ability to doubt.'"^^
The mystery of the novel begins with the opening scene.
Returning from the television studio, Zweig recognizes a man get
ting into a cab with an older man. He believes that the younger
man is Gustav Neumann, an old pupil and friend whom he has not
seen in over thirty years. His glimpse of Neumann prompts Zweig
to confide in Sir Charles Grey, a good friend and retired Scotland
Yard Inspector. He tells Grey the involved and curious story of
Gustav Neumann, which Zweig calls "a kind of problem, a detective
problem" (Necessary Doubt, p. 14).
According to Zweig's account, Gustav is the son of Alois
Neumann, a renowned European brain surgeon and lifelong friend to
Zweig. When he was thirteen, Gustav tried to kill a schoolmate
who spread anti-Semitic insults about him. He made the attempt
appear an accident by adjusting the locker room shower to a scald
ing temperature and jamming the door. Later, Gustav proudly
admitted his attempted murder to Zweig during a heated discussion
about Hitler and anti-Semitism. He justified his act by the
belief that the Jews needed more hatred--"a healthy capacity for
resentment and revenge" (Necessary Doubt, p. 16) in order to
defend themselves. Zweig kept Gustav's crime a secret for Alois
Neumann's sake.
Colin Wilson, Necessary Doubt (New York: Trident Press, 1964), p. 23. Subsequent references are to this edition and appear in the text.
17
When Gustav was eighteen he became one of Zweig's most
brilliant pupils, possessing a remarkable depth of feeling about
philosophy. In Zweig's opinion, Neumann "seemed to be tortured
by the problem of why men are alive" (Necessary Doubt, p. 22).
Gustav read Zweig's articles on Nietzsche and Heidegger when he
was twenty and was completely carried away by them. He finally
decided to become a master criminal, to "take the side of the
gods against human beings" (Necessary Doubt, p. 28). Zweig feared
that Gustav was insane and told Gustav's father of his fears;
however, Alois Neumann assured Zweig that his son had been joking
about becoming a master criminal. After this incident, Gustav
stopped seeing Zweig.
In addition to the strange stories of Gustav's early life,
Zweig informs Grey of later incidents as evidence in his "detec
tive problem." The first incident occurred soon after Gustav's
last talk with Zweig. He became good friends with a wealthy old
man named Gerhardt Seyfert by curing his headaches with a mild
form of hypnotism. Gustav became Seyfert's secretary and they
went to Switzerland together. A short time later Seyfert was
found dead at the base of a cliff. His death was ruled suicide.
Gustav later inherited all of Seyfert's fortune.
The second incident occurred a few years later. Gustav's
father, Alois Neumann, committed suicide by shooting himself.
Gustav had been living in seclusion with his father for the four
years prior to Alois' death.
18
The third and final incident which Zweig offers as evidence
of Gustav's possible guilt occurred after Alois' suicide. A man
was using the name "Gerhardt Seyfert" and acting as a secretary to
a Belgian underwear manufacturer named Schmoll. While they were
sailing, their boat overturned and Schmoll was drowned. "Seyfert"
made it to the shore. Zv/eig later saw a photograph of the man
called "Seyfert" and thought that he recognized him as Gustav
Neumann.
Zweig's account of the bizare stories concerning Gustav is
repeated many times as he and Grey begin their investigation of
Neumann. After several false starts, they get their first real
clue in locating Neumann. Zweig learns that the older man with
Neumann in the cab was Sir Timothy Ferguson. Zweig and Q,rey are
joined by Joseph Atoll Gardner and his wife, Natasha, friends of
Ferguson who fear that if Neumann is a murderer, then Ferguson may
well be his next victim. As the evidence mounts against Neumann,
Zweig finds it more and more difficult to believe that his old
pupil is capable of murder.
While searching Gustav Neumann's cottage, Zweig discovers
that Neumann is administering some sort of drug to Ferguson and
that he has written several articles on crime and hypnosis. After
this discovery, Zweig begins rapidly to solve the mystery of
Neumann's suspicious actions. Zweig feels that there is something
about Neumann that he ought to see but cannot see. As the police
are about to converge on Neumann with their evidence and charge
19
him with murder, Zweig has a face to face confrontation with him
and finally learns the meaning of Gustav's strange activities.
According to Gustav, his father was working on neurocaine,
a drug to cure the smoking habit, and discovered, quite accident
ally, a drug that influenced the part of the brain concerned with
habit patterns. Gustav's father tried the drug on himself and
experienced an immense feeling of freedom, freedom from habit.
However, the secondary effect of the drug was an overwhelming
depression brought on by the tremendous effort of the will neces
sary to do things which had previously been done automatically.
It was in this state of depression that Alois Neumann killed
himself. Gustav continued experimenting with the drug believing
that he had '"stumbled on the answer to the oldest problem of all
the philosophers--why man is not a god'" (Necessary Doubt, p. 278)
His later involvements with the old men were direct results of
his experimentation. The men he was suspected of murdering were
suffering from terminal diseases, and Gustav supplied them with
the drug which eased their pain until their deaths were eminent.
After Zweig learns of Gustav's motives and of the facts
concerning his relationships with the old men, he agrees to take
a dosage of Gustav's neuromysin, a derivative of the neurocaine
discovered by his father. Zweig's experiences with the drug con
vince him of the value of Gustav's work. He realizes his error
in initiating the police investigation and the impossibility of
proving Gustav's innocence to them. The novel concludes with
20
Zweig promising to help Gustav escape to France where they can
continue Gustav's experiments with the drug.
From this synopsis of Necessary Doubt, it becomes obvious
that Gustav Neumann represents a definite approach to the solu
tion of the problem posed by Gerard Sorme in Ritual in the Dark.
However, this solution is not as simple as it initially appears.
Indeed, the complexities of this solution to the Outsider's
problem equal—and perhaps surpass--the complexities of the prob
lem itself.
In Necessary Doubt, the emphasis on the Outsider's problem
of intensifying existence is immediately apparent. Preceeding
the beginning of the novel, Wilson inserts an "extract from Pro
fessor Karl Zweig's Commentary on Heidegger's Sein und Zeit" in
which Zweig succinctly describes the Outsider's position:
The state in which human beings have lived for thousands of years has been analogous to sickness. It costs us a certain effort to live, and this effort is so consistant; is apparently so inescapable a part of the human condition, that we assume it is a feature of life itself. But in doing so, we are only reading our own state of sickness and exhaustion into our vision of the world. Man is capable of a state of freedom that would make his present condition appear in its true light: the exhaustion and distrust of a sick man. . . .It is habit alone that confines man to his two-dimensional world of sickness and fear.
Zweig's comment on man reading into his vision of the world his
own state of sickness and exhaustion suggests that point in the
evolution of the Outsider reached by Gerard Sorme in the conclu
sion of Ritual in the Dark. Indeed, the placement of this state-
21
ment as a preliminary to the novel indicates that Necessary Doubt
takes as its point of departure the conclusion of Ritual.
The importance of the extract from Zweig's "Commentary" is
its indication that Zweig, too, is an Outsider. Like Gustav, Zweig
is aware of the problem. Unlike Gustav, however, he is unaware of
the possible solution. Hence, the "mystery" which Zweig attempts
to solve in the novel becomes, at once, the mystery of Gustav's
relation to the old men and the mystery of Gustav's solution to
the Outsider's problem. To put it another way, Zweig's role as
"detective" in the novel is to find out if Gustav is a murderer
and, more importantly, to find out the solution to the Outsider's
problem. If Zweig himself were not an Outsider, he would be inter
ested only in the former of these roles, and his position as the
central character in the novel would be inexplicable. The situa
tion, then, is one in which an Outsider, Zweig, struggles to under
stand another Outsider, Guatav, who is going beyond the Outsider
and evolving into a Superman.
An analysis of Gustav's evolution from Outsider to Superman
in Necessary Doubt includes, initially, a restatement of the Out
sider's position and of his problem. In the revealing confronta
tion between Gustav and Zv/eig, Gustav begins his explanation by
telling Zweig of the ideas expressed by Georgi Braunschweig,
Gustav's friend when he was a student. According to Gustav,
Georgi's most important idea was "'that every human being who has
ever lived has wasted his life completely,'" and '"that rf a"!!
22
human life has contained a certain error, then the man who real
ized this would be completely alon^'" (Necessary Doubt, p. 261).
Gustav later becomes convinced that Georgi was right and knows
that he will have to work alone. This quotation implies, at
once, the basic alienation of the Outsider and his sense of the
futility of life.
Another aspect of the Outsider is revealed when Gustav
tells Zweig of his recognition "'that most people do not like
their own identities'" (Necessary Doubt, p. 269). Gustav's elab
oration on this recognition is a clear and concise explanation
of the Outsider's awareness of self-delusions:
"Then I came to realize that men build themselves personalities as they build houses--to protect themselves from the world. But once they have built a house, they are forced to live in it. They become its prisoners. . . So I was alvays observing men who seemed at home in the world--confident, at ease--and realizing that most of them hated their houses." (Necessary Doubt, p. 270)
Gustav reflects a final aspect of the Outsider when he
relates to Zweig the story of how he first realized that man is
capable of some intense form of existence. According to Gustav,
his father once put a kettle on to make coffee, but the gas was
so low that it took nearly an hour to boil. His father looked
up from an article he v/as trying to write and said, "My brain is
like that kettle---it won't boil" (Necessary Doubt, p. 267).
Suddenly, Gustav realizes "in a flash" what is wrong with all
human consciousness:
"The pressure is so low that it never boils. We live
23
at half pressure. We are all psychologically undernourished because the pressure of consciousness is so low. . . .if human life has always been futile, it is because human beings live at half pressure. There are certain moments when the consciousness intensi-fies--in a sexual orgasm, for example--and we catch a glimpse of the real potentialities of the brain and body." (Necessary Doubt, pp. 267-268)
Gustav's realization that man is capable of living an intensified
existence brings him to the Outsider's position finally reached
by Gerard Sorme in Ritual in the Dark: face to face with the
problem of how man can achieve this intense form of existence and
know a unifying sense of purpose. Unlike Sorme, however, Gustav
continues to evolve, to go beyond the Outsider and closer to a
Religion of the Outside.
In Gustav's explanation of his solution to Zweig, he com
pares human beings to dynamos that turn slowly because they are
supplied with a mere trickle of power. The first difficulty
Gustav encounters is determining the nature of this power. He
concludes that the source of this power is the will. However,
since man cannot will without a purpose, Gustav believes he is
caught in a vicious circle. To escape from this circle, Gustav
experiments with the nature of purpose. He steals a car and
drives it as fast as he can toward the edge of a five hundred
foot cliff. The next thing he knows is that he is lying on the
ground while the car burns at the bottom of the cliff. Gustav
interprets his experience as indicative of an unconscious level
of purpose:
"Without an act of conscious will, I had flung myself
24
out of the car within two feet of the edge of the cliff. You see? I had̂ not̂ w i V l ^ j_t. Something deep inside me--something beyond my everyday consciousness--had flung me out of the car. . . .All the doubt seemed to vanish. My dynamo was suddenly working at full power. It seemed that I understood everything. . . .This experience taught me that everything is inside us; all we have to do is pull the switch. But the switch is carefully concealed." (Necessary Doubt, pp. 268-269)
Finding this "carefully concealed" switch in order to tap the
unconscious level of purpose is the next step in Gustav's approach
to the solution.
It is at this point in his progress toward a solution that
Gustav becomes aware of the possibilities of his father's neuro
caine, a drug which can obliterate habit patterns. Gustav
believes that habit prevents man from finding the control switch
to his unconscious level of purpose which could enable him to
intensify his existence. In short, habit limits the conscious
ness. Gustav maintains that it is important for human evolution
that man's consciousness should be limited. Then, in man's
struggles to achieve intense consciousness, he creates languages
and all the aspects of civilization. However, Gustav also
believes that this device of the evolutionary force has outlived
its usefulness, i.e., the complexity of the civilization man
creates is beginning to overwhelm him, but he cannot break the
habit of limiting the consciousness (Necessary Doubt, p. 276).
Gustav sees the habit-destroying neurocaine as '"a drug to create
the superman. . .or rather, to make it easier for the superman to
create himself" (Necessary Doubt, p. 277).
25
Through his experiments with the drug, Gustav moves another
step closer to a solution: he realizes the negative nature of
freedom. With all of his habit patterns destroyed, Gustav finds
himself in '"a desert of freedom'" (Necessary Doubt, p. 281). He
becomes aware '"that man needs his habits to save him from too
much freedom,'" and "'that freedom is potentially man's most dan
gerous enemy'" (Necessary Doubt, p. 281). The importance of the
negative nature of freedom is emphasized in Gustav's description
of his realization:
I realized what Heidegger meant when he said that man can only know true freedom in the face of death. Because death is the ultimate threat, the ultimate limitation. It makes man aware of his purpose, his desire to live. I realized suddenly: It is not freedom that man needs. He already has more than he can use. It is a vision of purpose. (Necessary Doubt, p. 281)
After his experiments, Gustav concludes that neurocaine
must be modified so that it will destroy only certain habits or
weaken their powers. More significant, however, is his recogni
tion of the importance of purpose in the mechanism of the will.
He sees that without discipline of the will a vision of purpose
is impossible, and that exercise of the will is just as important
to physical health as exercise of the body. As Zweig points out
in the novel, instead of using his intellect alone, Gustav recog
nizes that part of the problem is purely physical. Gustav realizes
"'that no drug can solve the problem of freedom'" but "'can only
simplify it at certain points'" (Necessary Doubt, p. 283). In
other words, a drug that can destroy man's habit patterns and
26
give him limitless freedom of consciousness is useful, but a men
tal discipline to control this freedom by creating a vision of
purpose is also necessary.
In the conclusion of the novel, Zweig expresses an aware
ness of the need for such a controlling mental discipline.
Talking with Natasha about philosophers and their works, he states:
These men were sick of the meaninglessness of life. They were sick of life slipping away like a confidence trickster and leaving nothing behind. Their works are a protest against the chaos and futility, an attempt to get a grip on life. And yet after more than tv/o thousand years of philosophy, we are not wery much wiser. Life is still a confusion. It still escapes us. Yet the true philosophers continue to dream of some simple tool--like a pair of pliers--that will give us a grip on life. (Necessary Doubt, p. 302)
This "simple tool" that will enable man to achieve "a grip
on life" is not revealed in Necessary Doubt. However, the novel
does reveal this fundamental concept of the Religion of the Out
side: the solution to the Outsider's problem of intensifying
existence, of regaining his lost god-like freedom, of making
contact with his inner-source of power, meaning, and purpose, is
through a discipline of the will. Utilizing this discipline,
man can alter his habitual, limited way of interpreting the world
and, thus, emerge from the darkness of the Outsider's world.
CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION: INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW EXISTENTIALISM
The analysis of the fictional definition of the Outsider
and his problem found in Wilson's Ritual in the Dark reveals two
important aspects of the Religion of the Outside. The first of
these aspects is the representation by Gerard Sorme of the condi
tions which characterize the Outsider's situation: a feeling of
alienation, a sense of the futility of life, an awareness of self-
delusion, and, most importantly, an instinctive knowledge that man
is capable of something higher, of some more intense form of exis
tence. A second aspect of the Religion of the Outside revealed
by the analysis of Ritual is the precise nature of the Outsider's
problem: how man can achieve the freedom and power of feeling at
once real and meaningful and thus achieve the intensified existence.
With the analysis of the fictional approach to the solution
of the Outsider's problem represented by Gustav Neumann in Wilson's
Necessary Doubt, still another important aspect of the Religion of
the Outside is revealed. This third aspect provides a partial
answer to the Outsider's problem: the way to an intensified exis
tence is not through increased freedom, but rather through a vision
of purpose realized by a discipline of the will.
Although Wilson's two novels supply three basic aspects of
the Religion of the Outside, it is impossible to determine the
27
28
exact nature of this religion from the fictional work Wilson has
written thus far. The final missing aspect needed to provide a
unified and complete analysis of the nature of this religion is
that "simple tool," that "pair of pliers" which Zweig mentions in
Necessary Doubt, i.e., the method by which man can master a disci
pline of the will. Wilson has not yet worked out an exact fic
tional correspondence to describe this method of his religion (as
Ritual corresponds to The Outsider), however, the method of the
Religion of the Outside that is implied in Necessary Doubt is
contained in Introduction to the New Existentialism. It is in
this latter work that Wilson provides the "simple tool" so sought
after by the characters of his novels.
In his "Postscript to The Outsider," Wilson discusses men
tal disciplines which can produce the consciousness-expanding
effects of drugs. He conludes with a succinct statement that
serves as an excellent beginning point for understanding his "new
existentialism":
There are such disciplines, and, to a certain extent, I have discovered how to use them. . . .1 am not speaking of yogic disciplines, but of processes of thought, of what Husserl calls "phenomenological disciplines." Primarily, they are concerned with the creation of a new language, a new conceptology; for our problem is that we spend too much time looking at the external world to make any close acquaintance with the world of the inner mind.''
Understanding these "phenomenological disciplines," then, is the
final evolutionary stage of the Outsider as well as the methodology
Wilson, The Outsider, p. 301.
29
of the Religion of the Outside.
In Introduction to the New Existentialism, Wilson traces
the development of the "old existentialism," i.e., existentialism
as it is commonly understood, through the works of Kierkegaard,
Jaspers, Heidegger, Sartre, and Camus. Wilson maintains that the
existentialism represented by these men is no longer a living
philosophy. It is necessarily a philosophy of pessimism, or, at
most, a limited, stoical optimism. Existentialism's reliance on
the notion of man's contingency leads it into an unavoidable blind
alley; consequently, any further development as a living philosophy
is impossible. Wilson summarizes the failure of existentialism in
this way:
Existentialism, like romanticism, is a philosophy of freedom. It has reached a standstill because no existential thinker can agree that there are any values outside man--that is, outside man's ordinary, everyday consciousness. . . .man is free, but the world is empty and meaningless--this is the problem.^^
In order to create a "new existentialism" that avoids the
blind alley of man's contingency, and that can continue to develop,
Wilson utilizes the philosophical method of phenomenology founded
by Husserl. According to Wilson, the fundamental error of all
philosophy prior to Husserl is its concern with the study of the
external universe as man perceives it, rather than with the study
of man's perception itself, i.e., man's consciousness should be
12 Colin Wilson, Introduction to the New Existentialism
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1966), p. 33. Subsequent references are to this edition and appear in the text.
30
the object of the study. Thus, the basic concept of phenomenology
denies the belief that man has a passive consciousness which
reflects an accurate picture of the world. Instead, phenomenology
suggests that man's consciousness is intentional, that it is not a
mirror merely reflecting the world. In other words, man's percep
tions are as liable to prejudice and distortion as his emotions.
According to Wilson's "new existentialism," then, phenom
enology is the method, or mental discipline, by which man can
achieve an intensified existence. It is "an attempt to observe
things as an emanation of consciousness, and ultimately to increase
the control of the human being over his own existence" (Introduc
tion, p. 63). Wilson's concept of the Outsider, the problem he
faces, and the nature of the Religion of the Outside cannot be
reduced to simpler terms than in the following excerpt from the
conclusion of his Introduction to the New Existentialism:
The 'new existentialism' accepts man's experience of his inner freedom as basic and irreducable. Our lives consist of a clash between two visions: our vision of this inner freedom, and our vision of contingency; our • intuition of freedom and power, and our everyday feeling of limitation and boredom. . . .The 'new existentialism' concentrates the full battery of phenomenological analysis upon the everyday sense of contingency, upon the problem of 'self-devaluation.' This analysis helps to reveal how the spirit of freedom is trapped and destroyed; it uncovers the complexities and safety devices in which freedom dissipates itself. It suggests mental disciplines through which this v/aste of freedom can be averted. (Introduction, p. 180)
The "clash" Wilson mentions between the visions of inner
freedom and contingency firmly establishes the religious nature of
the "new existentialism." This clash is reflected by the conflict
31
of realities in Wilson's basic definition of religion: "the belief
that this everyday human reality is not the final truth, and that
there is another order of reality that is usually inaccessible to
human consciousness" (Introduction, p. 134). This simple defini
tion describes not only the fundamental problem of the Outsider,
but also the very essence of the Religion of the Outside: man's
need to regain a feeling of individual purpose is the need for
religion.
Although this analysis of Wilson's philosophical and fic
tional approaches reveals many substantial conclusions about his
Religion of the Outside, it is nevertheless difficult to determine
whether his development of this religion is complete. Like Gerard
Sorme in Ritual in the Dark, the Outsider seems to be once again
staring into the mirror and asking: "What do you do now, you
stupid old bastard?" The answer to this question is uncertain.
In 1957 Wilson himself saw little hope of returning to a religion:
A new religion would mean the general acceptance of religious dogmas. Even if these dogmas were drawn up by an assembly of bishops—and this would be less difficult than it sounds--the problem would still be to get the half-educated modern man to swallow them. There can be no 'new religion.' A religion is not made by throwing ingredients into a cooking pot. . . . A religion depends primarily on a climate of opinion which demands it, and that climate has not yet appeared in our civilization.13
However, ten years later in his "Postscript to The Outsider,'
Wilson is much more optimistic:
^\'ilson. Religion and the Rebel, pp. 126-127
32
I have taken more than ten years to create my 'new existentialism,' and it seems to me that I am working upon the most interesting problem in the world, the only interesting problem. . . .1 feel that immensely exciting things are about to happen, that we are on the brink of some discovery that will make our century a turning point in human hi story.14
Regardless of the ultimate acceptance or rejection of
Wilson's Religion of the Outside, his contributions to both lit
erature and contemporary thought cannot be ignored. His unique
place in the history of ideas is perhaps best expressed by a
reference to the epigraph in his own Necessary Doubt. This epi
graph is an excerpt from RiIke's Notebook of Malte Laurids Brigge
which raises the question of the possibility "that nothing impor
tant or real has yet been seen or known or said," and "that the
whole history of the world has been misunderstood." The con
cluding passage describes, at once, the role which Colin Wilson
probably envisions for himself, as well as the role which history
may ultimately assign him:
But if all that is possible—if it has even no more than a semblance of possibility--than surely. . . something must be done? The first comer. . .must begin to do some of the neglected things. . . there is no one else at hand.
^^Wilson, The Outsider, p. 302.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Campion, Sidney R. The World of Colin Wilson. London: Frederick Muller Limited, 1962.
Wilson, Colin. The Outsider. New York: Dell Publishing Co., Inc., 1967.
.. Religion and the Rebel. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1957.
• The Stature of Man. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1959.
.. Ritual in the Dark. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1960,
. Adrift in Soho. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1961.
. The Strength to Dream. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1962.
. The Violent World of Hugh Greene. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1963.
. Origins of the Sexual Impulse. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1963.
. The Sex Diary of Gerard Sorme. New York: Pocket Books, Inc., 1964.
. Necessary Doubt. New York: Trident Press, 1964.
. Beyond the Outsider: The Philosophy of the Future Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1965.
. The Glass Cage. New York: Random House, 1966.
. Introduction to the New Existentialism. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1966.
. The Mind Parasites. Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1967.
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34
. Rasputin and the Fall of the Romanovs. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Company, 1964.
and Patricia Pitman. Encyclopedia of Murder. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1962.
Colin Wilson on Music. London: Pan Books Ltd., 1967.
Eagle and Earwig. London: J. Baker, 1965.
Chords and Dischords: Purely Personal Opinions on Music. New York: Crown Publications, 1966
• Sex and the Intellegent Teenager. London: Arrow Brooks, 1966.
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