Sunday, February 28, 2010

The Coming Apocalypse

Apocalypse Culture and Apocalypse Culture II are two highly prized books in my library. With a variety of writers (who are of varying skill levels), these two volumes cover secret societies, conspiracies, cannibalism, sex crimes, necrophilia, child pornography in the media, cloning Jesus through his foreskin, and so on. Outrageous theories are presented and defended. Mores investigated and dissected. Ideas postulated. And it is all very fascinating.

Like a lot of books I enjoy, these two books have a limited audience. The easily offended and distracted will do themselves a favor by staying away from them. Even the most open minded reader will probably find some of the pieces challenging on a moralistic level. That's what makes the books so intriguing. They are unlike almost anything you've ever read before.

Adam Parfrey, the editor of these books, is no stranger to devotees of obscure subject matter. . Nor is publisher Feral House an unknown entity in the realms of the unusual. It's a good combination, and anyone who gets that has probably already read these books. If you haven't, well, you know the drill.

If, on the other hand, the idea of having your ideals and beliefs taken into question fills you with a sense of unease, you need to stick with reading something more your speed. Perhaps Bill O'Reilly's book, or those teen vampire novels.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

The Reich of the Black Sun

Should be sleeping, but my back is aching, so I read a bit instead and then thought I'd write. I'm reading Reich of the Black Sun: Nazi Secret Weapons and the Cold War Allied Legend, which is a mouthful. It is published by Adventures Unlimited Press, and if you have ever read anything from that publisher you know that while editing is not the strongest, the information will be fascinating. And that is the case here.

Prior to this I read Rise of the Fourth Reich, which was also about Nazis. This book also mentioned something at the crux of the Joseph Farrell's Adventures Unlimited tome: the Germans had the bomb.

While I'm no expert on Nazis, I have heard this before from other sources. Most of the times I read about it, the writer would say it was all either misinformation, conspiracy thinking or just plain wrong, but there is enough compelling information out there to make the idea of the Germans having the atom bomb at least feasible. (And I'll seem like a moron if this just came out as common knowledge. I have not read it about it on CNN or MSNBC.)

I'll reserve judgment until I finish this book.

The last interesting book I read that had to do with Nazis was Dreamer of the Day, a massive book on Francis Parker Yockey. That book blew my mind.

Nazis were vicious, cruel people. They also brought us many advances in science and medicine. They engaged in genocide and occultism (just a fancy way of saying a belief system other than Christianity). They understood propaganda and symbolism. They were environmentalists. They were (and still are) the world's villains (with a great fashion sense), and they almost succeeded. That's what makes books about them so fascinating. My brother saw my wish list on Amazon and was mildly disturbed by it. (I think he feared that I had become part of the National Socialist Movement, but let's face it, the NSM does not exactly grant anarchists an open-arm welcome.) It's history, sociology and the most fabulous of fictional non-fictions all rolled into one neat package.

Now I'm really off to bed.