Author: Michael Walker
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Part 1 of 3 (Part 2 here)
Dr. Michael Nehls
Das Indokrinierte Gehirn
Vörstetten, Germany: Mental Enterprises VerlagDas Indokrinierte Gehirn, which has recently been published in English translation as The Indoctrinated Brain, is difficult to read in both senses of the term. Its subject is the decline of human cognitive ability as a result of an unnatural — the writer claims intentionally induced — weakening of the hippocampal faculties. (more…)
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January 19, 2024 Michael Walker
A Pocket Full of Posies
Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung, the Comic
Part 2Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 here)
What, then, of Craig Russell’s graphic art? Enthusiasts of either opera or graphic art will probably find great pleasure in Russell’s Ring. The book — some muddled scenes such as the discovery of the sword excepted — is easier to follow than Wagner’s 16-hour cycle of music-dramas. Admirers of Craig Russell have a 448-page feast before them, while opera lovers are likely to be intrigued to discover how a comic artist presents one of the most famous of all operatic works. (more…)
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January 18, 2024 Michael Walker
A Pocket Full of Posies
Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung, the Comic
Part 1Part 1 of 2
P. Craig Russell, illustrator
Richard Wagners Der Ring der Nibelungen
Vienna: Cross Cult, 2023
(originally published in English by Dark Horse)Opera and comic book art have in common that they attract large and dedicated followings, but enthusiasts of the one are probably seldom found among enthusiasts of the other. Most people are either enthusiasts or indifferent to them. (more…)
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4,453 words
Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 here)
It is during and after the First World War that reinforced concrete was incorporated into political programs as a “progressive” building material. The Futurist Antonio Sant’Elia inspired an entire generation of so-called “brutalists”: Le Corbusier, Buckminster Fuller, and members of the movement called De Stijl. Jappe cites Futurist proponents of concrete cities: (more…)
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Part 1 of 2 (Part 2 here)
Anselm Jappe
Béton: Arme de construction massive du capitalisme
Paris: Éditions L’échappée, 2020Ask any thinking people what they consider to be the most dramatic and long-lasting changes in the world over the last hundred years, and a wide variety of responses may be expected, ranging from demographic shifts to the atomic bomb, (more…)
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Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 here)
Nero was only 16 when he became Emperor. His coming to power had nevertheless been enabled by several murders and/or suspiciously timely deaths. Claudius may or may not have died accidentally, but Narcissus, who favored Britannicus and the Senator Silanus, were poisoned almost certainly on the orders of Nero’s mother. (more…)
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Part 1 of 2 (Part 2 here)
Alexander Bätz
Nero: Wahnsinn und Wirklichkeit
Hamburg: Rowohlt Buchverlag, 2023Among those able to name any Roman emperors, Nero is likely to be on their list. Although he was Roman Emperor for only 14 years, from 54 to 68 AD, he is widely viewed as one of the most famous or infamous of all of them, strongly associated with the persecution of the Christians and the murder of both his mother and wife, and he is widely seen as the embodiment of tyranny. (more…)
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5,446 words
Wolfgang Will
Der Zug der 10 000: Die unglaubliche Geschichte eines antiken Söldnerheeres
Munich: C. H. Beck, 2022
314 pagesThe merit of Der Zug der 10 000 (The March of the 10,000: The Incredible Story of an Ancient Mercenary Army) lies in the story itself, not in the wooden and pedestrian manner in which it is retold by Wolfgang Will. The march of the 10,000 was a remarkable event in ancient history. (more…)
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Stefano Boni
Homo confort: Le prix à payer d’une vie sans efforts ni contraintes
Paris: Les Éditions L’échappée, 2022For several years I worked freelance for a company which specialized in controlling indemnity claims on behalf of automobile insurance companies. Like many others, the company published an annual in-house magazine which included cheesy personal interviews with managers and heads of departments. (more…)
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Dietmar Friedhoff
Denken wir Afrika: Eine konservative Grundsatz-Strategie zur Selbstentwicklung unseres Nachbarkontinents
Bad Schussenried: Gerhard Hess Verlag, 2021A canny financier in the British situation comedy series Only Fools and Horses proposes a new investment future: “Get your hands round this” he exclaims, then pauses dramatically and utters one word: “Africa.” (more…)
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English original here
Alain de Benoist
Contre le libéralisme: La Société n’est pas un Marché
Monaco: Éditions du Rocher, 2019Název nejnovější knihy Alaina de Benoist Contre le libéralisme (Proti liberalismu) je polemický, zatímco podtitul La société n’est pas un marché (Společnost není trh) by klidně mohlo posloužit jako velmi případný slogan demonstrace. (more…)
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4,606 words
Part 3 of 3 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here)
One might have expected that Western leaders were adequately forewarned that Putin’s ambition, priorities, and values were different from those of liberal globalists — that Christopher Hitchens better understood Russia’s new ruler when he dubbed him a “KGB weasel” than those who believed he would move effortlessly into the global scheme of a new world order, even should that mean weakening the identity and power of the Russian state. (more…)