The Sound Barrier: A Study of the Ideas of Colin Wilson (Colin Wilson Studies)

Originally written in 1963 as a sequel to 'The World of Colin Wilson', Sidney R. Campion's assessment of the early work of Colin Wilson--including much of the `Outsider Cycle' and the accompanying novels--failed to find a publisher at the time, despite being amended by Wilson and enhanced by quotations from his journals. Eventually abandoned and forgotten for over 40 years, Wilson scholars will see the publication of 'The Sound Barrier' as an invaluable addition to Colin Wilson studies concentrating, as it does, on that particularly fruitful and important stage in the author's career.

Forgotten for nearly half a century, this book on the ideas of the best-selling British writer Colin Wilson is available at long last. Abandoned and forgotten about for more than four decades, 'The Sound Barrier: A Study of the Ideas of Colin Wilson' should be regarded as an invaluable publication by Wilson devotees because of its focus on the early stages of the author's career. Written in 1963, 'The Sound Barrier', is an assessment of Wilson's early work (he is now 80 years old), including 'The Outsider' (1956), subsequent titles in the remarkable `Outsider Cycle', and the contemporaneous novels.
Campion, who wrote 'The Sound Barrier' as a sequel to his biographical 'The World of Colin Wilson' (1962), was unable to find a publisher for it at the time, although the book was amended by Wilson himself and improved by quotations taken from his journals.
Wilson's bibliographer Colin Stanley, who runs Paupers' Press, came across the manuscript in a filing cabinet on a visit to Wilson's home in Cornwall in 2010. Wilson had reservations about publishing, but Colin Stanley thought it would be of 'inestimable value to scholars' for its insights into Wilson's writings.
Indeed, it is. In terms of the literary culture in Britain in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Campion's perception was amazingly prescient, fully recognising not only Wilson's uniqueness and importance as a philosopher and novelist, but also his masterly critique of literature since Shakespeare.
Substantial extracts from letters which Wilson wrote to Campion in response to the latter's requests for information or elucidation are revealing and of great interest for the way they shed light on the currents of Wilson's thinking at the time.
Campion's concluding summary of the central existential concern, and its development, in Wilson's work still applies today, nearly 50 years on: that a new type of human is emerging in the psychological sense; that we possess freedom but, because of the poor quality of our consciousness, we are unable to make use of it.
The title of Campion's book arises from Wilson's journal of 1951 in which he wrote that around the year 1800 it seemed 'the life-force decided to experiment with a new model of human being, a model as different from the man of the past as a jet plane is from an old-fashioned bi-plane. These new romantics, these outsiders, certainly travelled faster than the older planes; the trouble is that they were likely to shatter when they hit the sound barrier. So we get a long history of "tragic outsiders" throughout the 19th century'.
Wilson's basic metaphysic is the notion of evolution through the extension of consciousness. What is needed is an intensification of consciousness leading to an optimistic world-view, and all Wilson's work comprises a Herculean effort to provide this by a careful examination, or revaluation, of the premises of our culture.
Today, Wilson's ideas are no less relevant, perhaps more so, following the rise of consumerism, celebrity culture, general moral decay, and the distractions of post-modernism and now post-humanism. With the ever-growing international 'New Age' movement, and latest world events such as the Arab Spring and the Occupy campaign arising from an acute disillusion with political, religious and business leaders, there are signs of an intensifying consciousness at large.
Although Campion is a voice from the past, Colin Wilson's philosophy, and what Campion had to say about it, still very much address crucial questions of the future of our existence on this planet.
--Geoff Ward