Did Anais Nin Cultivate Carlos Castaneda?

    "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." Anais Nin

    As mentioned some time ago in this blog, Anais Nin introduced Carlos Castaneda via her literary salon in Los Angeles in the late 1950's. 
    Isn't it remarkable that Nin, a strong anima figure, believed that truth and beauty were the basis of all she wrote, but then she distilled the writing, drawing out the essence.   Much like, she said, one distills a dream.
    To do this, she said, she used  the mesonge vital or  necessary lie.
    Was this distilled writing technique  something Castaneda assumed from Nin? 
Having read all of  Nin's work and Castaneda, I can only conclude, yes. 
    In his recent book, William Patrick Patterson writes with remarkable insight into the making of Castaneda, placing Castaneda in Nin's orbit.
    Soon to be available as a quality paperback, you can get a copy  of The Life & Teachings of Carlos Castaneda through Amazon or  explore the bookstore at Gurdjieff Legacy.com

Comments

[armageddonxmas]

I'm not familiar with Mrs. Nin's work, I know of her, of course, but haven't read her books. But it is fascinating that Mr. Castaneda was a contemporary of hers. Maybe there's a bigger story there as well.

And that is interesting indeed about the new book coming out soon about Mr. Castaneda.. I'm sure going to want to read that. Hopefully the take won't be about the validity of Mr. Castaneda's written experiances! Such questions are a little silly in these days and times!

Thank you again then.