 |
 |
| The Real Middle Earth by Brian Bates-First of all this book talks relativly little about Tolkien or any of his books. What it does is try to capture the "magic" of the places and time periods that Tolkien drew inspiration from for his work, namely post Roman to pre Norman Great Britain, and to a slightly lesser extent Scandinavian and Icelandic society and culture from the same time periods using historical sources, so called "myth", namely the pagan beliefs of the Celts, Norse and Anglo-Saxons and other assorted folk beliefs and tales. From what I can gather from reading this book the author seems like he has a similar belief that I have always had that Tolkien on one level was conciously trying to help to write a missing part of our (assuming you are of anglo-celtic-norse ancestry) heritage due to our own ancestors poor job of writing down and recording their own history, and in part to the fact that much of what is known of our pre christian history was written by outsiders to the culture, or people with a biased political agenda, and above all Christian church hierarchy who were more or less under orders to discredit our whole culture as of being of the Jewish satan and to force this alien Jew Yahweh/Jesus god upon our people. Even though Tolkien himself was a devout Catholic, I believe he was conciously trying to "fill in the blanks" in a sense, even though the inspiration and the imagination of the Hobbit/LOTR came from his subconcious ancestral memory as well as the written sources of the time that we have. So enough of my pschoanalyzing, on to the book itself. Bates goes into most everything that was "magic" about those times and is very entertaining in doing so talking about the warrior culture, the concept of wyrd and destiny, shapeshifting, the pre christian gods and how the people related to them, how people related to nature, animals, the forest, the land, the use of spells and magic, dwarves and elves, whether you take these things as real or imaginary superstitions they were 100% real to the people of those times. This is a great book for anybody who wants to look into the "magic" of those times or for anybody who wants to get a better understanding of where Tolkien got his ideas, both on the concious and subconcious levels. |
| A Hundred Little Hitlers by Elinor Langer-One of the few books I have seen written by someone outside the so called white nationalist scene pertaining to anything to do with it that is fair and even sided to everyone involved. A drunken brawl breaks out between skinheads and Ethiopian immigrants late one night in Portland Oregon. One of the Ethiopians dies. A chain of events occurs where opportunistic "activists" somehow find a way to sue Tom Metzger, even though he lived in Southern California and I believe had never even spoken to anyone involved with the fight that resulted in the Ethiopians death, win the lawsuit and take everything he worked his whole life for. The whole crux of the lawsuit was Metzger was responsible because an associate of his had given the Portland skinheads some of Metzgers literature! Langer does a good job of showing the skinhead scene for what it is, mainly people in their early 20's and teens who came from dysfunctional families going through a "stage" they will soon grow out of, having more to do with fashion, socializing and being part of a "scene" than anything else, lacking any real focus in their idealology, and with a few exceptions the worst thing they are really doing is petty street violence, ie, getting getting drunk and getting in fights, not unlike a lot of frat boys I might add. Which like another reviewer mentioned is pretty lightweight when compared to what so called minority youth gangs are involved in. The author is very fair and sympathetic in her portrayal of Metzger. Even if you despise his ideas on race and politics its hard not to like him on the personal level from reading this book, reminding me almost of retired old men that hang out in a small town barbershops telling jokes and talking about politics. Her portrayal of the "activist" Morris Dees is less flattering as he comes off as a sleazy opportunistic egotistical sort who exploited this whole situation for his own personal gain. Dees organization the Southern Poverty Law Center takes in millions every year, while the family of the slain Ethiopian, who Dees represented, has recieved very little in the way of compensation even though the multi-million dollar lawsuit was won by Dees. |