SOURCE: "Here Lies the Woodpecker Who Was Zeus," in A Sacred Quest: The Life and Writings of Mary Butts, edited by Christopher Wagstaff, McPherson & Company, 1995, pp. 159-220.

In the following essay, Blaser provides an extensive analysis of Armed with Madness, as well as a survey of major themes in Butts's writings.

This essay on Mary Butts's Armed with Madness (1928) will, I fear, appear to be more an anthology than a commentary. My reasons are that her work is little known, few libraries have her twelve published volumes, and even the little that is written about her is hard to come by and confusing. I have chosen, therefore, to quote extensively and carefully. Her work belongs to the youth of twentieth-century writing, and the creative energy of it helps in the imagination of ourselves. An essay-story, then.

Mary Butts's reputation began with the publication of a volume of stories...