From Phil Hine’s online journal:
I’m currently reading Karen McCarthy Brown’s Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn – a really enthralling book that is just streets ahead of anything I’ve ever seen by “occult” writers on the subject of Vodou. Brown is one of the “new wave” of academics who do not shy from placing themselves as subjects within their narratives so that their own feelings, experiences, etc., are part of the story. I’ve read quite a few works that take this approach recently – Meena Khandelwal’s Women in Ochre Robes: Gendering Hindu Renunciation being another fine example – and the more I read them, the less inclined I am to go back to reading ‘occult’ books, which tend to be dreary and simplistic in comparison.
Occult web boards and magazines periodically resound to cries of writers advocating some kind of “occult revolution” – the desire to find a new direction or ethos. Of course, this has been going on ever since the advent of Chaos Magic in the late ’70’s. If anything, I feel what’s needed is a “revolution” in how texts are “written”.
Phil Hine: we need a revolution in how occult texts are written
(via thedudeatx).
November 24, 2004 at 6:09 am
yeah but who’s going to write it? & once written, who’s gonna publish it? & once published, who’s gonna buy it? oh yeah. louv. disinfo. the kids
May 12, 2005 at 9:27 am
Can’t agree more. I can’t wait for magick writings to move away from the mystical obscurity and/or pop psychology templates.
Just think how different the whole scene would have been if, for instance, Hunter S Thompson had gotten into Chaos instead of politics.
Gonzo Chaos ? Why the hell not ?