Paul Christensen's Blog
February 24, 2021
The Rainbow
The Rainbow by D.H. LawrenceMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Was woman made of man, or man of woman?
Is life numinous or are we mere automaton?
If the latter, then what keeps the ‘forces’ unified?
So, no, it’s consummation: Being multiplied
Infinite times, so oneness with the infinite;
These are the themes ‘The Rainbow’ holds within it.
Ursula’s mental independence, elicited,
Makes her reject her pervert teacher Winifred,
As well as the women’s movement, brought to life
Solely by men’s weakness. Yet no wife,
She can’t find a man who’s free of stale bureaucracy;
And so she grows to bitterly hate democracy.
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Two on a Tower
Two on a Tower by Thomas HardyMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Two on a Tower
A haunting juxtaposition
Of heavenly exposition,
Astronomical exhibition,
And tragical perdition,
Rather spoiled in this edition
(a Penguin Classics commission)
By the unfortunate addition
Of some academic’s submission
To classify every position
At the expense of recognition.
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The Year of Living Dangerously
The Year of Living Dangerously by Christopher J. KochMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Like all Koch’s novels, this is an esoteric work; that is to say, the real ‘action’ is not what it appears on the surface.
Although ostensibly the main character is Guy Hamilton, the book can be read as a dialectic between the figures of Billy Kwan (a half-Chinese dwarf who embodies the eternal restlessness of the racially mixed) and Sukarno, the populist dictator of Indonesia. Sukarno originally embodied all strands of Javanese society (Hindu, Muslim, Right and Left), but when he threw in his lot with the PKI (Communists) he came to an ignominious end, because he had lost his connection with the people. Sukarno, not Hamilton, is the real ‘giant brother’ of Billy Kwan…Kwan dies because Sukarno was dead internally.
‘The struggle of [Right and Left] never ends, because neither side is wholly good or bad,’ Koch writes. Maybe that was true in Koch’s time, but in 2020 the ‘Left’ (servants of the Davos billionaire class) do appear to have actually become evil.
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The Doubleman
The Doubleman by Christopher J. KochMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Well-written and well-structured novel dealing with Tasmania, occultism, and the electric folk scene of the ‘60s. Its fictional band ‘The Rhymers’ are like a cross between Fairport Convention, The Seekers, and the Manson Family. The characters are very vivid and you get a strong sense of what they look and talk like.
The weak point of the book is the rather sinister Darcy Burr, who is clearly modelled on Koch’s perception of Charles Manson (one of his disciples is even called Pipsqueak…an obvious reference to Lynette ’Squeaky’ Fromme). But it is never clear what Burr’s real motives are! Is he interested in ‘piercing the veil’ of the sensory world, like his master Clive Broderick? Or is he merely desperate for the shallow pleasures of celebrity, to the point where he will water his music down to please record company execs?
Aside from that ambiguity, highly recommended.
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February 14, 2021
Red Shift
Red Shift by Alan GarnerMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This lonely tale deals with non-linear Time, centred round a hill in Cheshire called Mow Cop and three young men linked to it down the centuries (or are they reincarnations of the same man?) in Roman days, in Cromwell’s time, and the 1970s.
The dialogues aren’t realistic, nor meant to be, instead poetically reflecting inner states.
Red Shift is a wonderful yet painful book, like a spiky dead sea urchin on a stony beach, under stars of late autumn.
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February 13, 2021
The Haçienda: How Not to Run a Club
The Haçienda: How Not to Run a Club by Peter HookMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
New Order had the biggest selling 12” single of all time in ‘Blue Monday’, but didn’t benefit from it materially - all their profit was sucked into a money-draining vortex known as the Haçienda.
In the 80’s the club held concerts by bands like Kiling Joke, Cocteau Twins, Sisters of Mercy and The Cult.
But from 1988 it became the centre of acid house and rave party culture.
Then, ethnic street gangs moved in and metal detectors had to be installed. Eventually the security costs were so high the club had to be shut down.
There are a few funny anecdotes in this book.
The funniest concerned a 1985 performance by Einstürzende Neubauten, when the band brought along a pneumatic drill, and during their set started attacking the central pillar that held up the entire building. The audience was mesmerised, and the club staff had to wrestle it away from them.
A strange decade, the 1980s.
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The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century
The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex RossMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book could be subtitled: ‘Musicians who did stuff after Wagner, with wildly varied results’. Wagner hovers like a ghost over this work, the Great Father whose achievements couldn’t be surpassed in toto, only in miniature via crazier and crazier endeavours.
The composers range from deep genius (Debussy, Sibelius) to sterile fapping (too many to name), but whether one loves or hates their music is irrelevant as this is primarily a work of social history.
The author describes ‘classical’ music in the 2000s as a ‘sunken cathedral’, i.e. an interregnum, and who knows what comes next.
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Entertain Us: The Rise and Fall of Alternative Rock in the Nineties
Entertain Us: The Rise and Fall of Alternative Rock in the Nineties by Craig SchuftanMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
The anti-white self-loathing of this author is embarrassing (albeit somewhat comical), and there is no mention of the two most interesting alternative music scenes of the 1990s, namely Black Metal and the various World Serpent-distributed groups.
One wonders if the whole ‘self-loathing proto-SJW grunge’ vs. ‘sex-crazed 80s hair rockers’ thing isn’t somehow reflective of the protestant/catholic divide, which in turn reflects deeper tendencies in the European soul…I say that because most of the grunge singers are Nordic-looking, whereas bands like Bon Jovi and Motley Crue have southern European genetic make up (Vince Neil is half Mexican).
Simplification, but maybe a grain of truth to it; perhaps someone with time could investigate further?
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England's Hidden Reverse
England's Hidden Reverse: A Secret History of the Esoteric Underground by David KeenanMy rating: 1 of 5 stars
This book is a complete whitewash.
In looking at one of the most interesting music scenes of the ‘80s and ‘90s, it removes the more politically incorrect bands (Death In June, Fire + Ice, Allerseelen, Boyd Rice, and even The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath A Cloud) from the picture, thus making World Serpent music safe for ‘consumption’ by oily hipsters in the 2000s (Tony Wakeford, after jumping through hoops to prove what a good ‘anti-fascist’ he is, gets a token pat on the head).
The same hipsters who leeched onto anodyne black metal bands like Wolves in the Throne Room, scrubbing ‘problematic’ bands like Burzum and Graveland from history in good Orwellian fashion.
When hipsters leech onto something, you know it’s past its creative prime.
In 2020, David Tibet gives art shows in galleries whose curators hold his religious views in amused contempt.
Was the ‘respectability’ really worth it?
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Listen To This
Listen to This by Alex RossMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
The description of the mausoleum-like atmosphere of a typical classical concert (on pp.20-21) is very funny. What Alex Ross doesn’t consider, however, is that (mainly white) audiences listen in silence because it’s their ancestral heritage, like going to a local museum in an old, old building.
They don’t want noisy cheering every time a catchy melody appears (a la Parisian opera in the early 1800s), which the author seems to think would ‘liven it up’, nor do they want it mixed with jazz, or the orchestra playing Radiohead covers.
The ‘classical concert’ is an elegy for a certain mode of whiteness, a grand whiteness that no longer exists. That isn’t to say the music isn’t brilliant in its own right, but Ross doesn’t consider the unconscious motive of average 2000s concertgoers, who don’t go to hear living composers, not even beautiful ones like Arvo Pärt (which they can buy recordings of if so inclined).
What Ross calls a ‘cold marble facade’ is actually a much-venerated tombstone.
Ross’ broad knowledge of musical history leads him to make many interesting observations, but his taste in contemporary music is pretty mundane (though bonus points for mentioning Skrewdriver(!)).
The chapter on Radiohead is revealing: the band are as airheaded as their music is boring!
References to Kurt Cobain’s ‘suicide’ make the book appear a bit dated, as since ‘Soaked in Bleach’ (2014) everyone knows he was bumped off.
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