Zen Effects: The Life of Alan Watts

by Monica Furlong

Book Overview

Monica Furlong followed Watts's travels conducting interviews with his family, colleagues, and intimate friends, to provide an analysis of the intellectual, cultural, and deeply personal influences... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0395353440
• ISBN13: 9780395353448
• Release Date: January 1986
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 236 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Anyone who is considering reading Alan Watts's writings,

listening to his taped lectures or watching the video recordings should read Monica Furlong's biography first. Monica Furlong has written a discreet, respectful biography of a man whose reputation is still a flickering flame, whose seven children and three wives still profit from his works and whose former friends and associates remain, for the most part, silent about Watts' personal life, at least in writing. I imagine that Furlong wrote the biography with anxious glances over her shoulder at imagined lawyers defending what is left of Watts' reputation but she manages quite well anyway, to provide a very good outline of his life that we are, I think, invited to fill in with our imaginations. The external events of Alan Watt's life are not pretty: For example, he quite suddenly "converted" to Episcopalianism after many years as a Buddhist, and became a Priest without going through the normal academic preparations. Powerful people within the Church hierarchy "pulled strings" for him, to "get him in" based on the reputation of his books, mostly on Buddhism and Zen. His daughter Joan suggested that one reason for his sudden "conversion" from Buddhism to Christianity was that it was 1941 and Watts was eligible for the draft. Being a Priest would keep him from being drafted. Watts was formally asked to leave the Church after his wife, Eleanor, sent a letter to Bishop Wallace Conkling, bishop of the Episcopal diocese of Chicago, complaining about Watt's unusual sexual demands. In the letter, Eleanor said that Watts demanded that Evelyn beat him as the only way he could have sexual satisfaction with her. He also inflicted various tortures upon himself to achieve orgasm ... He told me that he had practiced masturbation more than once daily from his schooldays to the present and that as the fantasy life which accompanied this practice grew more compelling he spent hours in drawing pornographic pictures and reading pornographic literature to excite his interest. As a result of this and other complications with his marriage, the Church was in the process of asking Watts to leave when Watts resigned. He then married his second wife, Dorothy, which caused automatic excommunication from the Episcopal Church because he was still considered married to his first wife, Eleanor. In the end, Watts was married three times and was, by his own admission, unfaithful to all three of his wives. Watts' own father regarded his son as "a failure as a husband and father." Watts admitted to being a bad father, mostly from simple neglect. He said, justifying himself in his autobiography: the Disneyland 'world of childhood' is an itsy-bitsy, cutie-pied, plastic hoax; a world populated by frustrated brats trying to make out why they are not treated as human beings ... If my children have found me distant and aloof, this is the explanation. He left his second wife, Dorothy, and his four children, when she was pregnant with their fifth child. D

A certain lack of sympathy?

Although I have given this book 5 stars, it deserves some serious criticism. Monica Furlong's earlier biography of Thomas Merton is quite a bit longer as well as more objective. She would seem an ideal biographer for Watts, and yet the results are somewhat disappointing. The original UK hardcover of this work was entitled "Genuine Fake," which is a sad example of using someone's own words against them. The American title "Zen Effects" is much better. The first two thirds of the book are quite excellent, but Furlong's coverage becomes more superficial as well as less sympathetic after circa 1955. Since Watts' last two decades on earth were his period of greatest fame, perhaps she felt that we already knew enough about that period. However, much of what we thought or remember may be in serious need of revision and reexamination. I feel the ideal account of Alan Watts' life has yet to be written. Since I first encountered his work in 1968, there have been several times when Watts' books and/or lectures have made me happier to be alive. No philosopher or spiritual teacher can do more than that. Many other readers have had similar experiences, no doubt. Therefore a more detailed and respectful biography is long overdue. The entire New Age movement would be nearly inconceivable without Watts' contributions. There is only one other biography of Watts - the other (by David Stuart) is long out of print and decidedly inferior to Furlong's book. There is also the autobiography "In My Own Way," much the best written of the three. If you love Watts, you should read all of these as well as all his books (some sadly out of print). But I hope someone out there will research and write the definitive Watts biography, or else I will have to do so myself!

Coyote love

Alan Watts was one of the celebrities of San Francisco's 1967 'Summer of Love'. His version of Zen Buddhism was regularly broadcast on the newly emerging FM radio stations that served the booming teen market. As a teenager, one of these broadcasts introduced me to Zen and I've always appreciated Alan's efforts to bring me that message. I was surprised to discover Watts ending his life at the relatively young age of 58. According to Furlong, he averaged a bottle of vodka per day during his last years. He passed away in his sleep, probably from heart failure. To the end, he maintained a workaholic lifestyle which supported two ex-wives, wife number 3, and a steady stream of affairs with innocent young women enchanted by his 'talk'. He was survived by all three wives and at least 7 children. Alan started his life in England and grew up in 'public' schools. In his teens (1934) he published his first book on Zen Buddhism. He continued writing on the subject for the rest of his life. He seems to have dodged the British draft in 1939 by moving to America, and dodged the American draft in 1941 by enrolling in an Episcopalian seminary. In the mid 40s, he took up the role of college chaplain and remained one for about 5 years. At that point, a dramatic affair with a beautiful coed ended the priestly career and first marriage. His later career as a free-lance writer and lecturer-at-large was shaped by this scandal. And, does any of this matter? Does his alcoholism color how one reads his books or listens to his recorded lectures? This question is the focus of the biography. Furlong concludes it doesn't. Watts was the 'coyote' of Native American legend, bringing fire to mankind, but getting his tail burnt in the process. Exactly how he fit into the 'beat' and 'hippie' movements is never directly addressed, though Furlong connects Alan with all the key names. There isn't a serious effort to explore Zen, either. The focus is more personal, modern and western: Do the private weaknesses of your favorite celebrity change your reaction to the 'message' that celebrity delivers via TV, movies or radio? If this sounds interesting, you might want to look into 'The Golden Guru'.

A vodka enema for a true Tartuffe

It is not often that a biography is at least as important as any work of its author subject - this is. Gently - without flourish or wagging finger - the author shows us that the very very clever "talking of the talk" is never close to the true wisdom of the "walking of the walk". Watts' life demonstrates brutally that wisdom is not an "just an easy stride beyond the extremely eloquent and clever synthesis" Wisdom is reflected in our actual effect on others - including those close. LSD and the likes of Watts made a consumer choice of the life of the spirit - books like this are necessary that Watts does not - like St Augustine - become another who explained it so well we feel he believed little of it and secretly yearned for the harsh dualism of Arian and Mani and yet gets to be the "doctor" of a new religious paradigm. Have the guts to buy this gentle book if you once read this man - uncritical of others perhaps only because he dwelt knowingly in a glass-house and was so unwilling to throw stones. Had he perhaps not shirked the war - the chance of real zen training - the debt he owed particularly to his second wife - a debt of attendence not of money - what might he have been - had he been a poet or story-teller perhaps and not set himself up as a spiritual reformer. Money - as usual - is the only truthful witness of this life.