October 21

Essential Asatru by Diana L. Paxon

Click to buy
Click to buy

Review by Michele Lee and Michael Lush

Asatru is the pagan path that follows Norse tradition. For laypersons, this means Odin, Thor, Loki, their stories and their kin. Ask any pagan their views on Asatru and you’ll get mixed responses. While many people, especially men, find their spiritual home as followers of the Asgardians, it’s also been adopted by hateful, racist sects. Asatru, however, is not a racist belief system, in fact it’s one of the few ancient paths that holds men and women equal. Goddesses and gods are equal, Odin accepts men and women into his ranks of warriors and in the Norse lifestyle men and women could both own land and hold respected social positions.

Because of Asatru’s adoption by small groups of racists, and the reputation even centuries later of the Viking invaders, books on the subject often hint at the faith only being applicable to those of Northern European decent. However, Essential Asatru is different.

To begin with it points out that the Vikings traveled so far, to the Americas, even into Africa, that it’s possible that many people who don’t look Nordic might still have Norse blood.

Essential Asatru also focuses on the other thing that makes Asatru different from other pagan paths. Asatru is a functional religion, it’s designed to blend into a life, not rule it. In Asatru the gods are allies in every day life, not overlords who must be appeased for humans to survive. Interacting with the religion is, and was, a low priority (which is not surprising when considering that the original Vikings lived with 9 months of winter a year, implying that they often had little time for anything other than survival.)

Essential Asatru is the first fully satisfying non-myth book we’ve added to our collection on Asatru. It’s a choice pick for those interested in the faith, readers interested in religious studies in general and writers looking for research books on the Norse faiths.

September 20

The Decline of Men by Guy Garcia

Review by Michael Lush

In his study of the American male Guy Garcia exposes the ugly truth that all men want to hide but desperately need shown, our weakness in today’s age of networking and social strong arming. The author adequately displays how the feminist movement empowered women but in essence castrated an entire nation of men.

We live in an age where all the strengths that helped us make it out of the caves has made us all but useless in the world we created. Guy Garcia points to a lot of statistics making the work informative but a little dry, then blind sides you with two chapters about Mattel’s Ken and Superman, referring to them as both real men and symbols of what we are and what we used to be, respectively a useless metrosexual and an idealized figure of manhood. The fact that he spoke of both characters as if they were true flesh and blood men seemed a little silly and out of place in this particular work.

In the end we see that our Pop Icons are mirrors of what we think a “Man” should be but can never live up to ourselves. In short the implication is that instead of living up to our traditional ideas of manhood we should just redefine what it is to be a man.

Seems a bit lazy to me, but hell what ever makes you sleep better at night.

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