Tsundoku Psychohazard reviewed Occulture by Carl Abrahamsson
Review of 'Occulture' on Goodreads
1 star
A collection of previously-published essays, sophomoric in both style and character, and ranging from mediocre to unpublishable in quality.
If you are a practitioner of magick or have an intellectual interest in its intersection with art, this book is not for you; if you believe that "sjws are ruining magick" and would like someone to agree with you at length without supporting his points, you will find that this book meets your needs.
The experience of reading this slog was made even more disappointing by the occasional hint of potential: every few essays, Abrahamsson will make half of a good point, or reference a potentially interesting idea, only to drop it. Had he kept to the ostensible topic of his essays or explored interesting points rather than lazily going back to flogging the same dead horse in every section, he might have written something worth reading, but: what is good …
A collection of previously-published essays, sophomoric in both style and character, and ranging from mediocre to unpublishable in quality.
If you are a practitioner of magick or have an intellectual interest in its intersection with art, this book is not for you; if you believe that "sjws are ruining magick" and would like someone to agree with you at length without supporting his points, you will find that this book meets your needs.
The experience of reading this slog was made even more disappointing by the occasional hint of potential: every few essays, Abrahamsson will make half of a good point, or reference a potentially interesting idea, only to drop it. Had he kept to the ostensible topic of his essays or explored interesting points rather than lazily going back to flogging the same dead horse in every section, he might have written something worth reading, but: what is good here isn't new, and what is new here isn't good.
I like and respect Erik Davis, Mitch Horowitz, and Gary Lachman, and would have loved to read the book they were describing in the glowing blurbs that somehow got attributed to this hunk of dry rot.
