Bronze Age Pervert

Hmmm...undoubtedly an entertaining rant at times but not much there in terms of coherent philosophy. Reminded me of Conan the Barbarian, that great movie with Arnie, based on the works of Robert E. Howard -- criticized by some as writing like a bullied kid fantasizing about turning into an all conquering muscle man and coming back to destroy his enemies (an alt-right trope perhaps?). BAP has read the Greek classics and decided that girly-men are bad and spills a fair amount of digital ink admiring strong youths of antiquity. I agree that we in the West have become a self-critical mess and reading the Greeks, the forefathers of our culture, may be therapeutic. The Chinese and the Indians respect their own classical literature and see it directly relevant to their modern cultural situation. We should do the same, even though we of the new world live in different lands to our cultural ancestors. My main problem with these go back to antiquity, barbarism, solitude type guys is they would probably find practicing what they preach not much fun. Hard physical training in a place with much solitude? I get the not liking life in the steaming pile of crap cities. I can understand why these alt-righters don't dig multiculturalism. But when you visit a monocultural spaced-out conservative suburb, man things are boring. BAP doesn't like suburbs either of course. BAP talks of wanting space, conquering space, fresh air, but then admits being entertained walking the red light districts of the teeming 'turd world' completely wasted. He hangs out in Rio taking photos of well built men, is that authentic? Why doesn't he go to the cold desert wastes where only the polar bears roam like Nietzsche (metaphorically) did? Dunno, I won't spend the time to untangle BAP. He's a troll who reads at least...and his contradictions can help us be free? Not really. The liberal left is a bore and the old conservatives stale...but the alt-right is just confused. I listened to a BAP podcast where he was discussing some great authors: Mishima, Celine and Junger...but he puts on a fake Eastern European accent -- and thus tells us in no uncertain terms to treat him as the Borat of Philosophers. Although I hear him that reading such authors is amazing, but then your friends will flat out refuse to even try them. This book is fun stuff but tastes like junk food. Rant over.… (meer)

It reads like a collage of ideas rather than a truly finished product. Hilarious and very insightful at times, even if his the over abundance of longwinded historical examples stray from a broader point BAP is trying to convey. That's BAP and we love him for it.

Youth, beauty and strength are all good things, yes. However, there is also nothing wrong with growing old. In fact, it's natural. BAP may not be an atheist - and actually ends up mocking them a good bit - but those of us who are of faith will find a some of the subject matter and materialist ideas misguided. Some of the harder to read parts to read are degenerate, flesh-worshipping, materialism. But don't let that stop you from picking this up.… (meer)

A rant about the merits of the bronze age heroes and living like them, and how they were in some ways superior to modern people. Even the deranged leaders of history (e.g. Nero) were superior to modern whacko dictators in how inspiring they were. (OTOH, this values a few exceptional things more than daily quality of life).

I read this only because people were trying to ban it. I went between saying it's a 1-2 star book (which it is in parts), or a 5 star book (which it also is in parts). It's much better as an audiobook than an ebook -- I couldn't bring myself to even the 10% part in text.… (meer)