Talk:Jack Parsons

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.	Biography Portal
Start	This article has been rated as Start-Class on the Project's quality scale. [FAQ] (If you rated the article, please give a short summary at comments to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses.)

	Jack Parsons is part of WikiProject Thelema, an attempt to expand, improve, and standardize articles related to Thelema. You are invited to participate by editing the article or by joining the Thelema WikiProject as a participating member.
Start	This article has been rated as Start-Class on the Project's quality scale. (If you rated the article please give a short summary at comments to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses.)

A recommendation for additions to this page: Preserve some kind of balance between discussions of Parsons the engineer and those of Parsons the mystic. It would suit Wikipedia for this page to become either a torrent of overwrought Thelema, nor a whitewash of that side of Parsons' life. --FOo

Was this the fellow who blew himself up with fulminate of mercury trying to create an alchemical homunculus? -- IHCOYC 13:35 17 Jul 2003 (UTC)

I have read credible assertions that he was producing mercury fulminate at the time of the explosion, but not for what purpose. It seems to me at least as credible a conjecture that he was producing it in his laboratory for his straight job. --FOo 02:11 18 Jul 2003 (UTC)

The Los Angeles Times ran a long biographical piece on Parsons around 2000 in their Sunday magazine. I can't find it now, but interested individuals might uncover it. Cheers, -Willmcw 09:28, Apr 1, 2005 (UTC)

I've got a biography of his published by Feral House that was written in the last couple of years (2004, I believe). I've read through it once, but I did not glean a lot of information from it due to my lack of "magickal" knowledge, either of history or practice. It does mention his various start-ups, his work on the JATO bottles, and the early solid- and liquid-fuel experiments done by the JPL folks at Arroyo Seco (sp?). I'll dig into this article as my first wikipedia project once I've read up on Crowley and his ilk and gone over the book once more. The book supports the "accident" hypothesis, but does mention the humonculous angle (mentioned twice by the author's sources, but the theory was never really supported.) Parsons' second wife, Cameron, thought it was murder and insisted that the blast came from beneath the floorboards (i.e., planted explosives) rather than the Pasadena investigator's hypothesis that Parsons was mixing something dangerous in a can and simply dropped it. (The fact that the blast blew off Parson's right arm and appeared to have occured near to the ground, coupled with multiple anecdotal mentions of his tendency to perspire excessively which could likely have compromised his grip, seems to point to this conclusion)psilogen 10 Nov 2005

[edit] Rocket to the Morgue

"For Hugo Chantrelle was an eccentric scientist. In working hours at the California Institute of Technology he was an uninspired routine labratory man; but on his own time he devoted himself to those peripheral aspects of science which the scientificpurist damns as mumbo-jumbo, those new alchemies and astrologies out of which the race may in time construct unsurmised wonders of chemistry and astronomy." (Rocket to the Morgue The Ninth Day: Friday, November 7, 1941)

I think the book Rocket to the Morgue by Anthony Boucher is an interesting resource for people looking for a character-sketch of Jack Parsons. While the book is fiction, a number of the characters and locations are extremely true-to-life, down to Robert A. Heinlein's "Nitrosyncretic Lab". One of the scenes is at "Hugo Chantrelle"'s place, but I don't know if it matches Parsons'. The book was written in early 1942, and devotes at least a page to Hugo Chantrelle's double-life and predates later events involving Parsons and Hubbard. The next time I reread the book, whenever, I'll take notes. (And no, you can't borrow my copy. :) Obviously none of it can be used as fact in the article. AndroidCat 06:10, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Jealousy?

It states that Parsons was very jealous of Hubbard and Sara's relationship but everything I've read, including Parsons' letters reprinted in A Piece of Blue Sky, seems to reflect a man who was a whole lot less jealous than you would expect under the circumstances. Any citations for this jealousy? -- Antaeus Feldspar 03:44, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Copyvio poem?

Edit by GeoffCapp (remove uncited copyright violating poem unless/until someone has proof in writing of Parsons' Estate permission to use (this does not qualify under fair use))

Is there a filed copyright on record for that poem, or even a copyright notice in the publication? In 1943, copyrights weren't automatic, and according to Wikipedia:Public domain: "Published in the U.S., without a copyright notice: From 1923 to 1977: in the public domain" AndroidCat 01:22, 4 August 2006 (UTC)