Notes on the 1992 Revision of The Tales

The Revision of The Tales

[An Excerpt from To Fathom The Gist, Vol 2 – The Arch Absurd]

The Revision Story

The whole idea of a revision of The Tales is an absurdity; as though, after the death of Leonardo Da Vinci, someone had produced a “revision” of La Giaconda, claiming that Da Vinci wasn’t particularly adept at painting and was, in fact, more at home inventing things. Or perhaps after the death of Shakespeare, a revision of all his sonnets were suddenly introduced by someone claiming that, although Shakespeare was indeed an accomplished playwright, poetry really wasn’t his forte.

While we have great respect for both the paintings of Da Vinci and the poetry of Shakespeare, we do not think of them as objective art. Gurdjieff stated quite plainly that The Tales was objective.

To make the situation worse, the revision effort was clearly organized by Mme. de Salzmann, but the book was not published until after her death, and hence there was no possibility of asking her what the point of it was. It is entirely possible that no-one in the revision team other than Mme. de Salzmann knew what the point of it was.