May 2019 Journal

Sorry for the delay. I moved last week and didn't have Wi-Fi for a few days. To make up for the lack of new essay this week, I'll let $1 patrons in on a commissioned Indiana Jones post soon. We'll be back on Orgonon this week with "Magician."

The Wild Boys (William S. Burroughs) - Certainly not the most interesting Burroughs I've read. It seems like this sort of thing is better when Burroughs does some massive formalist fucking around. Has good bits, but not a book I can envision myself rereading. 

The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Bertolt Brecht) - Huh. Guess I had a 20th century avant-garde literature phase back there. Not sure I got this one - I think W. H. Auden's translation does it a disservice, as it's choppy and reads poorly. From the clips I've seen this looks much better onstage. Reading it in English is the wrong way to experience it.

Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (Bart Ehrman) - Good stuff. Ehrman goes beyond a nitty-gritty acount of who edited the Bible but tells a story about what people believe and how it changes. Wish he went into more depth in some places (I'm spitting nails at him for bringing up the "365 gods" belief system more than once and never explaining it), but a very worthy read overall.

Promethea Vol. 2 (Alan Moore) - Fuck you, I'm including comics. It's Alan Moore and he's at his best. Extremely formally dense and beautiful treatise on magick starring a Latina gal. The best of the comics medium. Don't hand someone Watchmen or Swamp Thing to explain what's special about Moore - hand them this.

Basic Witches: How to Summon Success, Banish Drama, and Raise Hell with Your Coven (Jaya Saxena and Jess Zimmerman) - Took me a while to get into this, but it was worth it in the end. Saxena and Zimmerman, despite not being occultists themselves, understand that magic has everything to do with desire and the inner landscape. They have some clever spells as well which I'd like to try out. A highly respectable book.