throbbing mysticism

Some quasi-random hits as followups to my previous post. item: Just ran across this quote from Genesis P-Orridge, driving (bumping? grinding?) force behind the band, Throbbing Gristle. It's from the (apparently) far-famed 1983 Industrial Culture Handbook issue of RE/Search -- also (un)available as a 2nd edition hardcover book. Never mind what "that" refers to in the first sentence. It's not clear from the larger context either, but you'll get the idea. I mean, you know what I mean? Think: a better class of Spinal Tap. Now we're going to try and do that with a sort of philosophical, mystical magick, so non-dogmatic and non-authorative [sic] -- people who've been brought up to despise anything that smacks of "religion" -- maybe we can remind them that there are useful structures; that spiritual values aren't necessarily to be despised or ridiculed; that there are certain individual attentions which, when used in a mystical way, actually are quite beneficial. As an example of this "mystical way," you might try sampling Throbbing Gristle's Zyklon B Zombie track. (If you're not familiar with Zyklon B, the gas, hit that Wikipedia link, but don't confuse it with the black metal band of the same name ["Zyklon-B stated that they were an apolitical band." ROFL].) Here are some of the Zyklon B Zombie lyrics... See all these little Jewish girls they have no clothes on and with my mind I see you with all your clothes on and so I spare you from your friends who I give Zyklon just as they take a big warm breath some more pure Zyklon... So there you have some-a that "philosophical, mystical magick." Some-a those "spiritual values," "individual attentions" and "useful structures" that are so "beneficial." Stir some into your P-Orridge! item: After posting Walk on the Dark Side, I discovered that one of my favorite chroniclers of the weird and wonderful world of Tradition, Mark Sedgwick (see Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century) has also blogged about the music scene. In Music Scene Traditionalism he writes... Scene Traditionalism is more European than American, and has a certain Northern European and Scandinavian emphasis. It is generally musical, Traditionalist, and neo-pagan; it is sometimes also political, in which case it will be rightist. One typical figure is an American, Michael Moynihan (born 1969). Moynihan is the musician who established the band Blood Axis. He is also an editor of the Traditionalist journal Tyr: Myth–Culture–Tradition, and a member of the neo-pagan Tribe of The Wulfings. There's a rich collection of stuff in Sedgwick's music category, including: his refutation of being called "a kind of Euro-Atlantic spy" (!!!) in an announcement of Tyr Volume 3 a precis of "The Euro-Pagan Scene: Between Paganism and Radical Right" by Stéphane François (Journal for the Study of Radicalism - Volume 1, Number 2, 2008, pp. 35-54), which floats the fascinating concept of "black romanticism" a response to that article by Tyr editor Joshua Buckley. I noticed yesterday that Google reports... No results found for "pro-antimodernist". -- a situation I am herewith correcting [heh], as I think this is as good a characterization as "radical traditionalist" for the Tyr crowd. And oh btw, they got that latter tag from Julius Evola's Men Among the Ruins: Post-War Reflections of a Radical Traditionalist and John Michell's Confessions of a Radical Traditionalist. I previously wrote about both those guys in Baron Julius Evola: Yet Another Esoteric Nutter. So there's a clue. For a bigger clue about antimodernism, see No Place of Grace: Antimodernism and the Transformation of American Culture, 1880-1920 by T.J. Jackson Lears. item: Finally, at least there's some sense of humor in that scene -- though perhaps the humor is unintentional. Hard to tell with this lot. But either way, I am adopting the sound bite (do hit the play button!) as my comment on Throbbing Mysticism in all its varied and splendiferous forms. OK, now you can all go get hammered. Happy New Year!

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