The Eldritch Evola & Others: Traditionalist Meditations on Literature, Art, and Culture Kindle Edition

A Review of 'The Eldritch Evola' by James J. O'Meara

For the unitiated, James writes from a masculinist perspective outlined in his prior two works mentioned in the blurb above, enmeshed into a right-of-the-right theorising of radical (or primordial) traditionalism. For those reeling from that salvo of a sentence, you can begin to understand my problem as a reviewer.

The required grounding alone is a hurdle for those not already familiar with the above terms. Hs prior work as it is covered in passing when relevant, which is useful as the expanse of topics here makes focus impossible - The strength of this book is in the conversational, lofty and unthreatening way that difficult topics are broached. This book is, despite its flaws, is a good introductory volume for those not yet seated on what I call the humble right, mainly embodied by Counter-Currents and other commentators at the Occidental Observer. I am taking for granted here that you as a reader are already of the right mileu in general, or at the least have an intellectual curiousity that has been piqued by James' engaging prose.

Why humble? Well, O'Meara spears the opposition with his own scathing satire on the West; 'Faustian man knows only one direction - Onwards! Examining premises? That's for sissies!'. Braving Sissyhood, James takes the viewer on a submarinal exploration of the subtexts of cultural materials and examine them almost archeologically, using them as proofs against our basic assumptions of the present day. He has a knack for spotting lateral associations between fiction, music, pop-culture, anthropology, and classical works (Lovecraft, Wagner, etc) and packaging them together in breezey, explanatory tracts. O'Meara is hugely knowledgeable, but never intimidating - The book opens with a self depreciating preface that follows up his suffering of the The Gilmore Girls with a excerpt of the Bhagavad Gita expounding the necessity of new book.

For example, anyone typing 'Jewish X' into Google will be confronted with extensive essays of historical atrocities committed against the Germans in the aftermath of World War II, or potentially The Daily Stormer yelling at them about Jewish this and Jewish that. James, in contrast, never forces a viewpoint or agenda, but examines the attitudes present in literature prior to our existing post- WWII hegemony. In this case, he deals with the topic gently by presenting character interplay between White & Jewish Americans from a 1903 book, where the differences in character between the two peoples were taken for granted. It's all very nuanced, as opposed to propelling oneself into a chamber of paranonia. O'Meara follows the the thread of historical through to the present, here the Winklevoss twins and the film The Social Network, bringing the reader to understand the authentic rightist viewpoint in a contemporary context and meaningful way, and does uses this approach throughout the best and most informative essays of the book. The Wagner series and explanations about music tonal systems are worth the price of admission alone for the consistent insight and demonstration of how the West has lost its way in adoption of various cultural defaults.

That's O'Meara at his best - When he explains his source text and viewpoint substantially. Even then, there are some slips and elsewhere, a lot (and I mean a lot) is asked of the reader in terms of prior reading or background, which prompts the question - Is James writing this for his readers, or for himself? I would say The Eldritch is an incomplete work, not half because there are simply no explanatory footnotes to go with this. Partly this is because it is a Kindle-format version of existing Counter Currents essays (constant readers will not find a whole lot new here), and all the in-text links, pictures, Youtube embeds, etc, are removed. I muddled my way through 'Eldritch' - Having never read Lovecraft and not having an interest in it, the title is pretty meaningless and lost on me, and the Web Original has said multimedia content that makes it at the least readable to someone who is not familiar with the source texts. This is in contrast to the awesomely expansive footnotes in something like "Fighting for the Essence" by Pierre Krebs (an essential purchase for any budding European Traditionalist) which frequently run to filling over half the page. Given that Kreb's is work is a translated French and hard going, I felt pretty demeaned that I didn't have assistance in coming to understand Eldritch, especially when James is a native English speaker and the prose fluent and crisp.

Finally, why spend actual money on something you can already look up most of online? Firstly, because the longer essays that don't require the web-enrichment are much, much better in matt, eBook readability instead of the distraction infused, eye-bleeding backlit web browser window. Secondly, because I believe there is some exclusive content here, even if I'm not sure what or how much. And thirdly, because there aren't too many writers on the right of the right, and there's nothing else quite like it out there. I recommend picking and choosing a start point that interests you from the contents page allowing the thematic arrangement guide you through the rest. Some essays I have simply skipped because I know nothing about the source, and noones paying me to write this.

A tentative four out of five stars. If you own a Kindle and like O'Meara, it’s probably worth buying.

At the time of writing, James J. O’Meara’s ‘The Eldritch Evola’ is only available as a Kindle book but it is due to be published in hardback and paperback formats later in the year (2014). O’Meara is well known in New Right circles as one of the most illustrious writers at Counter Currents (www.counter-currents.com), the home of the North American New Right. What distinguishes O’Meara’s writing as unique is his unwavering ability to discern deeper Traditionalist currents moving beneath the surface of the most unlikely pop-cultural phenomena.
‘The Eldritch Evola’ begins with a discussion of some of the resonances that can be discerned between the Traditionalist writings of Evola (and also Guenon) and the horror fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. For O’Meara, this resonance centres around the notion of the immensity of the ancient past and the fear that its ultimate alienness engenders. Whilst he rightly rejects the notion that Lovecraft was in any way associated with esoteric doctrines he still shows that the cosmic horror of Lovecraft embodies a certain initiatory character. The nameless aeons in which the Old Ones lived bear a certain correspondence with the cyclic aeons of history about which Traditionalist authors write.
From this starting point, O’Meara continues by looking at Traditionalist themes in Henry James and at some unexpected similarities between James and Lovecraft. The great thing about these chapters is that there is a lightness to the writing that belies the depth of the literary analysis going on. The chapter on James’ story The Jolly Corner is a particular highlight.
Two chapters on Wagner (one is actually about Harry Partch who is claimed as an American Wagner- “only better”) make a compelling argument that the high regard accorded to Wagner is a sort of decadence due to Wagner’s continuation of the Western musical tradition. Even more radically that Evola and other Traditionalists, O’Meara argues that the entire Western music system is based on a false footing stemming from the Greeks. This is why certain composers are able to find inspiration from non-Western musical traditions; it is not so much that they are beguiled by the exoticism of such music, but that they recognise something that was lost when Western music took its initial, and wrong-footed, first step. It’s an audacious argument but skilfully and entertainingly made and it will make you want to seek out the music of Harry Partch.
Elsewhere, O’Meara examines the film Kiss Me Deadly and the singer Scott Walker. Again, unexpected Traditionalist themes are brought to the surface in surprising and compelling ways. What is O’ Meara trying to do here? Many people will think it is pointless to try to look for such deep themes in pop-cultural, even trashy, forms. After all, it is high level art that deals with the big issues, right? Here, O’Meara turns this notion on its head. It’s not just that these deeper motifs and symbols seem to be present despite the source material being pulpy; it’s because the source material is pulpy. In a telling passage O’Meara quotes the screenwriter of the Mike Hammer films explaining that he wrote the script on auto-pilot. This is seen as a telling admission because it explains how material that would be excluded if it were consciously examined is able to smuggle itself into the film. And it’s this element that seems to be so important. In low culture it is always easy to fall back on pre-existing structures for narrative and thematic content (think of George Lucas’ plundering of Joseph Campbell, for example). And so Traditionalist motifs that are otherwise encoded into fairy tales and myths are constantly regurgitated in popular forms. As O’Meara puts it, “only the despised pop or lowbrow cultural artefacts fly low enough under the elite radar to smuggle in some Traditionalist meaning”.
In other chapters, Olaf Stapledon and Andy Nowicki receive similarly exhilarating treatment.
The Eldritch Evola is probably a unique book due to its combination of deep appreciation of Traditionalist writers and its wide range of pop cultural and literary reference. And if that seems like a circle that can’t be squared O’Meara will remind you that it was always a circle and it will always be a circle; and the circle remains unbroken.

James J. O'Meara is my favorite critic of literature, film, and culture in general. He brings a masculinist, New Right, and Traditionalist perspective to bear on both high and low culture. His trademarks are discerning surprising metaphysical depths in ephemeral pop cultural artifacts, establishing connections between far flung realms of culture, and a sense of humor that is sometimes zany, sometimes wry. This collection contains some of his best essays on topics ranging from Evola, Lovecraft, and Henry James to Olaf Stapledon, the film of Kiss Me Deadly, and composers Harry Partch and Richard Wagner -- as well as architect Ralph Adams Cram, economist Thorstein Veblen, singer Scott Walker, and the novels of Andy Nowicki. Forget George Steiner or Susan Sontag. Forget the unreadable Leftish whinging that passes for cultural criticism today. James O'Meara is further proof that all free-thinkers and creative minds today are on the Right.