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Alan Watts was born on this day in 1915. A prolific scholar and dazzling stylist, Watts is best known as the chief popularizer of Asian philosophy for the Beat and Hippy movements, but he was also an original thinker in his own right and a quiet man of the Right. In commemoration of his birth, I wish to draw your attention to these works at Counter-Currents:
- Martin Aurelio, “The Wisdom of the East?“
- Greg Johnson, “Alan Watts at 100” (Spanish translation)
- Greg Johnson, “The Spiritual Materialism of Alan Watts: A Review of Does It Matter?” (French translation)
- James J. O’Meara, “Alan Watts: The First Alt-Academic“
- James J. O’Meara, “‘PC is for Squares, Man’: Alan Watts and the Game of Trump“
- James J. O’Meara, “Re-Kindling Alan Watts,” Part 1, Part 2
- James J. O’Meara, “There and Then: Personal and Memorial Reflections on Alan Watts“
Note: James O’Meara’s essays on Watts have been collected in his book Mysticism after Modernism: Crowley, Evola, Neville, Watts, Colin Wilson & Other Populist Gurus (Melbourne: Manticore, 2018)
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2015 I was listening to old Watts lectures on repeat.
2016 I was listening to old Bowden lectures
2020 Both
“Myth and Ritual in Christianity” helped alter my life and outlook. Read today, it is a compendium of what has been lost to the world.
There’s something about his voice that just enchantes you. He’s a bit hard to follow if you’re not in the right mood, but when it clicks, it’s a joyous ride!