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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Book of Lies: Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occult

wicker woman

08:47 / 12.04.04

Anyone else checked this out yet? It's essentially a compilation of essays by various people, ranging from dear ol' Mr. Morrison, Terence McKenna, Genesis P-Orridge, Anton LaVey, Timothy Leary, and so on.

I'm having a hell of a lot of fun reading this. I've not really come close to reading the whole thing, but an article by Allen Greenfield on the beginnings of Wicca, an interview with LaVey, and Grant's article on Pop Magic are standouts so far.

My only real complaint so far would be Genesis P-Orridge's article, Thee Splinter Test. For the most part, it's a decent read on the potential evolution and death of language, but at some points he seems to be making a little too much of an effort to write in as abstract a manner as possible, which (at least for me) buries some of whatever point he may have been trying to get across.

Char Aina

06:23 / 13.04.04

worth buying, or will reading it twice do?

illmatic

09:59 / 13.04.04

Argh! The dreaded "Splinter Test"! Seriously, that f**ing essay has been in every damn occult mag or collection of articles in the last 5 years. I have about eight seperate reprints of it. And it's not particulary good either, it's not like it's reprinting on merit.

Not read the book, but the main complaint I've heard from people who have is the lack of female contribtors. I'm more tempted by the new Feral house Collection Apocalypse Culture 2 - I brought the first one when it first came out, when I ws about 14 or 15 and it was the most disturbing book I'd ever seen. It's not been rivalled much in the past 15 years, either.

Nalyd Khezr Bey

06:01 / 14.04.04

This is my first post on Barbelith Underground. I've been checking it out for a few days and thought I'd give my insight into something simple first. OK, Book of Lies, in my opinion, is a great introduction to magick for anyone new to the subject and wants to know the more recent trends. It's one of those books that should lead anyone with a little curiosity to all of the right sources to bypass the B.S. Some of us didn't have that kind of luxury back in the days. Six Voices On Crowley by Tim Maroney was an interesting piece written as a dialogue between 6 points of view. I was personally familiar with most of what was in this book but I enjoyed it and would recommend it to all beginners. Oh, and I think this book might be a better buy than Apocalypse Culture II.

raelianautopsy

20:16 / 14.04.04

I'm about halfway through it. Much of it is very good and interesting but some is just too unintelligable even for me. Most of the parts about William Burroughs and Brion Gysin were obviously written for those already knowledgeable on the subject. For those new to it they did not make much sense at all.

The best article was the Executable Dreamtime. The rest should be more like that. The book is hit or miss but is still worth the read.

Although for a sometime-straightedger like myself it was a bit disturbing how extremely pro-drug the themes are. But what should I expect? I don't plan to take DPT after that one article, but hey, to each their own.

The Falcon

23:17 / 14.04.04

Is that the Pinchbeck article, I take it? No, DPT sounds awful.

Had a flick through this the other day, but bought the Moore birthday book instead. I think I definitely will get this, though.

wicker woman

05:03 / 15.04.04

worth buying, or will reading it twice do?

Worth buying. The majority of it doesn't resemble Genesis-speak, and even if you don't glean anything from the book, you're only out $24.

Olulabelle

19:44 / 18.04.04

I think it's worth buying, it's the sort of book you can just dip into when you feel so inclined and I certainly think it's a useful book to have reference wise.

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