The Outsider

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Tobe Hooper directed the film Lifeforce, an adaptation written by Dan O'Bannon based on Wilson's novel The Space Vampires. [22] After its release, Colin Wilson recalled that author John Fowles regarded the film adaptation of Fowles' own novel The Magus as the worst film adaptation of a novel ever. Wilson told Fowles there was now a worse one. [23] There is an unintentionally funny scene in the autobiography when he decides to spend Christmas Day meditating and is furious when Betty interrupts to ask him to hold the baby. They separated soon afterwards. She reappeared when The Outsider came out, but by then he was in love with Joy. He admits that Betty is 'the one thing that often worries my conscience'. Rapatahana, Vaughan. More than the Existentialist Outsider: reflections on the work of Colin Wilson (2019), Nottingham: Paupers' Press ISBN 9780995597839

Kenneth Allsop, The Angry Decade; A Survey of the Cultural Revolt of the Nineteen Fifties. London: Peter Owen Ltd. Hodder also decided to issue a pamphlet about me and to increase my advance, which troubled me. After 10 years of poor sales, I was afraid it would lose money. But I was proved wrong. The book was not only widely and respectfully reviewed, but sold excellently. So did the US edition, which immediately went into a Book Club edition. On 1 July 2016, the First International Colin Wilson Conference took place at the University of Nottingham. A second conference took place at the same venue on 6 July 2018. The Third Conference was held in Nottingham on September 1-3, 2023 which included the premiere of the Figgis-West eight-part documentary film series Colin Wilson: his life and work. Directed and edited by Jason Figgis, the documentary is a detailed study of Wilson's life and work which includes interviews with Uri Geller, Gary Lachman, Tahir Shah, Damon Wilson, Jason Figgis, John West, Martha Rafferty and Philip Pullman. [33] John is an admirer of Wilson’s work, while Jason knew Wilson and once had plans to work with him on a series with Uri Geller. Jason said: 'It's a great honour to present the first episode of our six-part series. It's been a great journey of rediscovery, delving into every aspect of this fascinating cultural figure's life and work. His body of work is astounding, and his philosophies are a great practical help to any inquiring mind.' Taylor, Brett (2018). "Colin Wilson's Idiosyncratic Literary Legacy". Skeptical Inquirer. 42 (2): 54–56.Or consider the view that man is a stranger or alien in the world. On the conventional religious view one can understand roughly what is meant by this. Man’s soul, which is separable from his body, is either a fragmented part of the world-soul and must return to the One from which it descended, or, cast into the natural world, its supernatural end is reunion with God, its creator. But if an individual surrenders this view, and, like most of Mr. Wilson’s characters, repudiates the dogmas of immortality and resurrection, what home can he possibly conceive man to have other than the natural world of which he is a part, to be sure a distinctive part, but as dependent upon other existing things as the animals and stones in the field? Wilson is rather like the headmaster of some apalling school who contrives in his innocence and benevolence, to find a good word on even the most outragous of his pupuls. [The Occult] displays, more fully than any other Wilson bok that I have read since The Outsider, the full array of his amiable virtues.” Tredell, Nicolas. Novels to Some Purpose: the fiction of Colin Wilson (2015) Nottingham: Paupers' Press ISBN 9780956866363 a b Williamson, Marcus (8 December 2013). "Colin Wilson: Author (Obituary)". The Independent . Retrieved 17 January 2014.

No art can be judged by purely aesthetic standards, although a painting or a piece of music may appear to give a purely aesthetic pleasure. Aesthetic enjoyment is an intensification of the vital response, and this response forms the basis of all value judgements. The existentialist contends that all values are connected with the problems of human existence, the stature of man, the purpose of life. These values are inherent in all works of art, in addition to their aesthetic values, and are closely connected with them. He met Joy on one of his countless temporary jobs - he was a Christmas shop assistant and she was in charge of the cash registers. He fell for her immediately, partly because she was middle-class. 'I knew I could never bear a girl who talked with a Leicester accent or with any kind of local accent. And when I heard Joy, I thought "Oh marvellous, that's what I want." And when I asked her, "What books have you got on your shelf?" and she said she'd got Yeats and Ulysses, and Proust in French, I thought, "My God, that's the girl I really want!" Betty didn't read at all.' Hundreds of people were outside the theatre hoping to get a glance of Marilyn Monroe who was currently in London to appear in the film version of Terrence Rattigan’s play ‘The Sleeping Prince’. It was being directed by and co-starring Lawrence Oliver and eventually would become known as ‘The Prince and the Showgirl’. Marilyn and her husband Arthur Miller had arrived in Britain three months previously in July 1956 after going through a tumultuous few weeks. Not only had they just got married but Miller had recently appeared, three years after his play The Crucible had first been staged, in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee accused of communist sympathies. Trowell, Michael. Colin Wilson, the positive approach (1990), Nottingham: Paupers' Press ISBN 0-946650-25-X He thought Joy was unattainable because she was wearing an engagement ring. 'But to my amazement, six weeks later there I was in bed with her. Couldn't get into her, mind - she was a totally impenetrable virgin - but just to lie there kissing and cuddling and feeling her bum through her pants was tremendously exciting. I was absolutely astounded - that was the greatest Peak Experience of my life.'Lachman, Gary. Beyond the Robot: the life and work of Colin Wilson (2016) New York: TarcherPerigee ISBN 9780399173080 I escaped to Cornwall with my girlfriend Joy, and in due course we started a family. But the intense hostility remained, and my books were often not even reviewed. It was obviously going to take a long time for all the silly publicityto be forgotten - it was still dogging me in the late 1960s.