Minnen av Robert Svensson, min bror

This is the Swedish version of the Robert Svensson bio. An English version of the text is to be found here. -- Detta är alltså mina minnen av Robert Svensson. Han var min bror och han var konstnär.

1.


Som alltid skrivs denna blogg av mig, Lennart Svensson. Detta är min dödsruna över min bror. Och min bror Robert Svensson föddes i maj 1963 och dog i mars i år, 2016. Han var 52 när han dog.

Begravningsceremonin hölls 28 april i Kärlekens kapell vid Arnäs kyrka. Det var en grå dag men halvvägs in i ceremonin sken solen in. Och det var ingen slump, säger jag som den mystiker jag är.

Robert var konstnär, en målare i akvarell och olja. Dessa verk sålde han ibland på utställningar. Mer privat var han verksam som tecknare (blyerts, tusch). Han utbildades vid konstavdelningen på Wiks Folkhögskola i två omgångar (1984-1985, 1986-87). Under 1990-talet hade han utställningar på Galleri Dombron, Uppsala, på Café Mannaminne, Nordingrå och på sitt eget Galleri Söråsele, Åsele, för att nu nämna de viktigaste utställningarna.

Han var en konstnär par preference, en född skapare av bilder. Det är sant att han också var en ganska bra skribent; till exempel när han studerade vid Uppsala universitet under 1980- och 1990-talet så gick skrivandet av uppsatser och PM lätt för honom. Man kan säga: skrivandet var en lek för honom men detta att skapa bilder var allvar. Han levde och andades alla aspekter av målning och teckning, som att begrunda nyanser och färg, färgen på himlen, färgen på skuggorna etc. etc., liksom olika sätt att teckna serier, att komponera scenografi i filmer et cetera. Till exempel nämnde han en gång att David Lynchs tv-serie Twin Peaks spelades in i studior med tak, innertak, vilket gör scenerna mer hemtrevliga, en aspekt som saknas i alla andra tv-dramer och komedier sedan långt tillbaka.

Ett sådant särdrag, att titta på TV och notera hur scenografin var gjord, kunde sysselsätta honom oändligt. Han var något av en glorifierad dagdrivare och släntrare, hade svårt att komma igång med vissa projekt. "Jag ska ta tag i det, nästa dag, jag lovar" kunde han säga. Och ändå levererade han, som omslagen han gjorde till mina romaner Antropolis och Till Smaragdeburg. Jag hade en vision för layouten och han implementerade den genom att texta snyggt och lägga till bilder.

Han hade sina lata drag men han var också en "go-getter", en som tog befälet. Såsom ledare för sitt rockband The Neurones på 80- och 90-talet. De uppträdde live här och där och gjorde några demos och inspelningar, som att ha en låt på ett spanskt antologialbum. Jag kan just nu inte hitta det på google. Poängen är i alla fall att när han ledde sitt band kunde han "peka med hela handen" och vara en musikalisk inspiratör och ledare samtidigt. Han spelade gitarr och sjöng och karriärmässigt kanske det inte ledde så långt men de demos de gav ut (jag har fortfarande kopior av dem, in alles bortåt 10-15 låtar) hade snits och sväng. Han var en musikalisk man, en man som leddes av musorna, de grekiska gudarna för poesi, sång och konst.

Han gillade också att läsa (Tolkien, en del sf, folksagor, böcker om konst, serier) men hans stora intresse jämte konst var musik. Med utgångspunkt i new wave, rock och pop kunde han även gilla jazz, ambient och allt, även en och annan dansbanslåt och hårdrockslåt. Livnärande sig på tidningsutdelning kunde han "slösa" bort sina dagar genom att spela skivor, dricka kaffe, teckna...




2.

Vad gäller mig och Rob (som han kallades) stod vi ganska nära varandra från vår tidiga barndom och fram till omkring år 2000. När vi var barn lekte vi med cowboys och indianer och leksaksbilar, vi ritade och spelade spel, vi byggde plastmodeller, alltihop med en omisskännlig estetisk touch, som att uppskatta layouten och den allmänna känslan i spel, eller att bygga dioramor och ge en illusion av verkligheten, ett konstant konstprojekt som pågår än -- i så måtto att jag personligen fortfarande sysslar med det, genom att skriva romaner som är någon form av konceptuella dioramor.

Vi bodde i Övik, Ångermanland där vi gick i skolan, och därefter, i slutet av 80-talet, återsågs vi i Uppsala där vi båda studerade och hade våra respektive studentrum. Mötena vi hade under dessa år kunde vara ganska långt ifrån varandra men de var ändå viktiga per se, vi inspirerade varandra med det eller det citatet eller faktumet. Sedan, efter millennieskiftet, gled vi isär. Inte för att jag ska kritisera honom men i slutet blev han något indolent, som att han inte svarade på brev.

Han dog av en stroke och han upplevde en liten stroke förra året också, detta kan vara en indikation på hans allmänna tillstånd. Jag skulle inte säga att han bleknade bort, han jobbade med tidningsutdelning till slutet, distribution av morgontidningar hem till folk med sin cykel och för detta behöver man viss kondition. Men han blev lite "aloof", lite "beyond the beyond" mot slutet.

Jag tänker fortfarande på honom varje dag, så som jag nästan alltid har gjort. Men vi ska träffas igen, det är logiken i iden om reinkarnation, en idé jag stödjer. Och den kan uttryckas som: "inget möte är det första, inget farväl är det sista", sagt av Dénis Lindbohm. Själen är energi och energi kan inte förstöras, bara omvandlas till ett annat fysiskaliskt tillstånd.




3.

Robert gillade westerns, vilda västern-myten som ett bildmässigt fenomen; för oss som föddes på 60-talet var westerns något av en stapeldiet i form av serier, filmer och tv-serier. Till exempel var hans favoritserie Lucky Luke, en fransk komisk westernserie. Och när jag ärver Roberts Britains Deetail figurer, 54 mm cowboy figurer, kommer jag att tänka på honom. De kommer att vara ständiga påminnelser om hans väsen, ett slags minnesstatyetter.

När vi byggde plastmodeller förderog han plan, plan från andra världskriget. Elementet luft låg för honom ty förutom detta skrev han sin fil kand-uppsats om fågelmålningar av konstnärerna Lars Jonsson och Gunnar Brusewitz. Och min far sa att i sitt sista telefonsamtal med honom, den 26 mars, sa Robert att han skulle gå ut senare och titta på fåglar. På våren återvänder flyttfåglarna, det blir barmark och det torkar upp och i dessa ängder kan det vara en del fågelliv på Uppsalaslätten.

Han står på Uppsalaslätten och tittar på fåglar... det är en värdig bild av den man han var. "I'm far, far away, with my head up in the clouds"...




4.

Roberts favoritpopband var Echo and the Bunnymen. Och Beach Boys med Brian Wilson.

Hans favorit bland svenska serietecknare var Jan Lööf.

Han gillade memoarböckerna av konstnären Peter Dahl. Robert var inte så mycket för Dahls konst i sig, men han gillade hur han berättade om sitt konstnärskap i böcker som Kanske konstnär etc. Speciellt uppskattade han Dahls livslånga projekt för att skapa ett fantasiland med sina tennsoldater, leksaksbilar, modelljärnväg och modellhus, landet "Caribanien". Detta, menade Robert, var Dahls mästerverk (i genren konceptuell konst) medan hans oljor och litografier inte var så minnesvärda.

Robert var en blond, nordisk typ, omkring 178 centimer lång, av en något kompakt uppbyggnad. Han var en man av den "pykniska, atletiska" typen, inte "leptosom, smal" typ som jag. Vi såg, som sig bör, besläktade ut men vi var av olika somatiska modeller.

Jag nämner hans utseende eftersom min roman Antropolis (2009) har ett kapitel där huvudpersonen möter konstnären Tim Parill. Parills utseende är skapat för romanen, han är en fiktion som sådan, men hans beteende som en disträ konstnär som tar emot en gäst i sin studio bygger mycket på Robert:

I ett av segmenthusen bodde Parill. Väl uppe på dess fjärde våning gick jag in i ett ljust, högt ateljérum, en riktig ateljé till skillnad från min egen som ju bara var övervåningen i mitt hus. En doft av terpentin och olja slog emot mig. Jag fann mäster himself sittande vid ett bord läsandes Antropolis Nyheter. -- Jag bugade lätt och slog mig ner, Parill nickade och reste sig. (...) Han bjöd på vin, skålade för mig och frågade om jag skulle köpa något – men när jag sa nej fortsatte han att läsa sin tidning. Jag tog tillfället i akt och såg mig omkring i ateljén, rymlig lokal med takhöjd på tre meter. Fönster endast mot norr; så ska det vara för målare, det visste jag, eftersom norrljuset var jämnare än det feta, flödande, sig–hela–dagen–flyttande söderljuset. Överallt stod dukar; det var både landskap och abstraktioner och något enstaka porträtt, alltsammans omisskännligt Parill. Det var kolorism och pastosa lager, det var spelande former, det var kraftlinjer som möttes och skildes, skummande bäckar, mörka djungler och psykedeliska ängar.

Efter en beskrivning av de märkliga föremål som pryder studion får vi denna bild av konstnären själv, "väldigt Robert" om jag får säga det själv:

Parill satt och stirrade ut i luften. Dammpartiklar for runt i en solstråle. Så reste han sig plötsligt och gick bort till sitt staffli. Från en hängare tog han upp en målarrock, svart och full med färgfläckar i skön slumpmässighet. Han torkade av fingrarna på den medan han målade. -- Jag sneglade på motivet, ett landskap med några hus intill en sjö, och en sol över några berg på andra stranden. (...) Man såg gula fält och skuggiga hus, koppargrön sjö och blåbärsblå himmel. -- Parill tryckte ut färg på paletten och verkade ha glömt min närvaro. Han tog upp en pensel, approcherade tavlan och började arbeta på skuggorna som husen gjorde. Han la på grönt och blått, korsade penseldragen och fick färgerna att nästintill blandas. "Skuggor är aldrig svarta," sa han. Jag instämde med denna visdom, bugade mig och gick mot dörren.

[kapitel 16, "Konstnären"]

5. Utställningar

Robert hade en del utställningar med sina tavlor under det han levde. Härmed ett urval:

Genebiblioteket, Domsjö 1992
Konstfest 92, Övik 1992
Norrlands nation, Uppsala, 1993
Mannaminne, Nordingrå 1994
Pharmacias konstförening, Uppsala, 1995
Sjöbodarna, Docksta, 1996
Galleri Dombron, Uppsala, 1997
Arnäs hembygdsgård, 1997

Edit 2020: Jag LS ordnade även en retrospektiv utställning över Robs tavlor. Det var i Sundsvall i april 2017.




Coda

Robert var en fascinerande typ och jag kunde fortsätta att berätta om hans särart. Men i ljuset av vad som redan sagts tror jag en exposé av några av hans konstverk är det bästa sättet att teckna ett porträtt av honom. Han var min bror och han är ännu levande för mig, så som jag antytt ovan. Och nu antyder jag det igen. Och förutom det så lever han vidare genom sina tavlor. Se själva.

(Alla tavlorna nedan är i privata samlingar. Man kan klicka på varje bild för att få en förstoring.)

"Riddaren och bäcken" (oljemålning av en medeltida riddare som kommer till en bäck i skogen).

"Nonfigurativ" (nonfigurativ oljemålning som undersöker färg och form per se).

"Stilleben" (oljemålning av blommor, tämligen åt det impressionistiska hållet).

Omslaget till "Antropolis," utfört av Robert.

"Söråselesommar" (oljemålning av Söråselesjön, södra Lappland).

"Saltoluokta" (oljemålning av sjön Langas och omgivande berg i norra Norrbotten).

"Sommarhimmel" (akvarell av Söråselesjön).

"Solnedgång" (oljemålning av norrländskt hus, motivet i sig ihopfantiserat och ej en avbildning av något IRL).




Relaterat
RS-retrospektiven 2017
Andlig glädje
Antropolis
Vid min mammas grav
English version of this obituary

Den översta bilden föreställer Robert någon gång under 1990-talet. Nästa bild visar honom under hängande av bilder på Genebiblioteket i Övik, samma decennium.

A Memory of Robert Svensson, My Brother

As always this blog is written by me, Lennart Svensson. I have a brother who recently passed away and these are my memories of him. A Swedish version of the text is to be found here. -- The burial ceremony itself was held at Kärlekens kapell, Arnäs kyrka, on April 28. I was there and it was a dignified ceremony. One detail: it was a grey day but halfway into the ceremony the sun shone through. And this was no coincidence, I say as the mystic I am.

1.

My brother Robert Svensson was born in May, 1963. He died in March, 2016.

Robert was 52 when he died. He was an artist, a painter in aquarellle and oil on canvas, and also active as a draughtsman (pencil, ink). He was educated at the art department of Wik Folkhögskola for two separate years (1984-1985; 1986-87). In the 1990s he had exhibitions at Galleri Dombron, Uppsala, at Café Mannaminne, Nordingrå, and at his own Galleri Söråsele, Åsele, to mention the most important exhibitions.

He was an artist at heart, a born creator of pictures. It’s true that he also was a rather fine writer; for instance, when studying at Uppsala university in the late 1980s and 1990s writing essays and papers came easy to him. However, I’d say: writing was a game to him but pictorial shaping was serious. He lived and breathed all the aspects of painting and drawing, pondering nuances and coloring, the color of the sky, the color of shadows etc. etc.– as well as different styles of drawing comics, of composing frames in movies et cetera. For instance, maybe he told me or I told him that David Lynch’s TV series Twin Peaks was filmed in studios with ceilings, inner roofs, making the scenes more homely, a feature absent in all the other TV dramas and comedies since way back.

Such a feature, watching TV and noting how the scenography was composed, this could occupy him endlessly. He was something of a glorified loiterer and saunterer, having a hard time to get going with some projects. ”I’ll get into it, next day, I promise” he could say. And yet he did deliver, like the covers he drew for my Swedish novels Antropolis and Till Smaragdeburg. I envisoned the layout and he implemented it, doing fine lettering and adding drawings.

He had his lazy traits but he also was a go-getter, taking charge. Like leading his rock band the Neurones in the 80s and 90s. They performed live here and there and did some demos and recordings, like having a song on a Spanish anthology album. When googling it now I can’t find it. However, the point is that when leading his band he could ”point with the whole hand” and be a musical inspirator and leader at the same time. He played guitar and sang and career-wise it didn’t lead that long but the demos (I still have copies of them, some 10-15 songs) had a lot of flair and pizazz. He was a musical man, a man led by the Muses, the Greek gods of poetry, song and art.

He also liked ro read (Tolkien, the odd sf tale, fairy tales, books on art, comics) but his main interest along with art was music. With a basis in new wave rock and pop he also cherished jazz, ambient and whatnot, even the odd Swedish dansband song and heavy metal song. Subsisting on his paper route work he could ”waste” away his days by playing records, drinking coffee, drawing...




2.

As for me and Rob (as he was called) we were rather close from our early childhood and until about the year 2000. When we were young we played with cowboys and indians and toy cars, we drew and played games, we assembled plastic models, all of it having some aesthetic quality, that of appreciating the very layout and feel of the game, or, that of building dioramas and giving an illusion of reality, a constant art project going on for ever – like, I’m personally still at it, writing novels that are some sort of conceptual dioramas.

We lived in Övik, Ångermanland where we went to school, and then in the late 80s we reconvened in Uppsala where we both studied and had our respective student bedsits. The meetings we had during these years could be rather far apart, however, in some ways they were essential, we bonded, we inspired each other with that odd line or fact. Then, after the millennium, we kind of drifted apart. Not that I critisize him but at the end he became rather lethargic, like not answering letters.

He died of a stroke and he experienced a slight stroke last year too, this could be an indication of his general state. I wouldn’t say he faded away, he did work with his paper route to the end, distributing morning papers to homes with his bike and for this you need some condition. However, he became a bit aloof, a bit ”dormant” at the end.

I still think of him every day, as I’ve almost always have. But we’ll meet again, that’s the logic of reincarnation, ”no meeting is the first, no goodbye is the last” as Dénis Lindbohm said. The soul is energy and energy can’t be destroyed, only transformed into another physical state.




3.

Robert liked westerns, the wild west myth as an iconographic phenomenon; to us being born in the 60s westerns was a staple diet in comics, films and TV series. A favorite comic of his was Lucky Luke, a French western comic series. And when I inherit Robert’s Britains Deetail figures, 54 mm cowboy figures, I will think of him. They will be constant reminders of his being, a kind of memorial statuettes.

When building plastic models his favorite was planes, WWII planes. He had an aerial trait – for in additon to this, he wrote his Bachelor of Art degeree paper about the bird paintings of Swedish artists Lars Jonsson and Gunnar Brusewitz. And my father said that, in his last phone conversation with him on March 26, Robert said that he would go out later and look at the birds. In spring the migratory birds return to Sweden, the snow-free and drying, soon-to-sprout lands, having some wealth of birdlife.

He’s standing in the Uppsala plain, looking at the birds... a worthy image of the man he was. ”I’m far, far away, with my head up in the clouds...”




4.

Robert's favorite pop band was Echo and the Bunnymen.

His favorite Swedish comics artist was Jan Lööf.

He liked the memoir books by Swedish artist Peter Dahl. Robert wasn’t so much into Dahl’s art per se but he liked the way he told of his artistic career (Kanske konstnär etc.). Specifically, he appreciated Dahl’s lifelong project of creating a fantasy land with his tin soldiers, toy cars, model railroad and model houses, the land ”Caribanien”. This, Robert meant, was Dahl’s masterpiece (in the realm of conceptual art), his oils and litographies were not as memorable.

Robert was a blond, Nordic guy, about 178 centimers tall, of a somewhat compact build. He was a man of the ”pyknic, athletic” type, not the ”leptosome, slim” type like me. We indeed looked akin but we were of different somatic models.

I mention his overall look because in my nove Antropolis (2009) I have a chapter where the main character meets up with the artist Tim Parill. Parill’s look is made up, he’s a fiction as such, but his behavior as a distraught artist receiving a guest in his studio is very much based on Robert:

In one of the segment houses lived Parill. Once up on the fourth floor, I entered a bright, lofty atelier, a real studio unlike my own that was just the upstairs floor in my house. A smell of turpentine and oil struck me. I found the master himself seated at a table reading Antropolis News. – I bowed slightly and sat down, Parill nodded and stood up. (...) He offered wine, toasted me and asked if I would buy anything – but when I said no, he continued to read his paper. I took the opportunity and looked around in the studio, a spacious room with a ceiling height of three meters. A window only to the north; thus it must be for a painter, this I knew, because the light from the north was smoother than the saturated, flowing, over-the-whole-day-shifting southern light. Everywhere sat canvases; they were both landscapes and abstractions and some individual portraits, all of it unmistakably Parill. There was colorism and rich layers of paint, there was the play of forms, there were power lines meeting and parting, there were foaming streams, dark jungles and psychedelic meadows.

After a descriptions of odd objects decorating the studio we have this image of the artist, ”very Robert” if I may say so:

Parill sat and stared into the air. Dust particles danced around in a sunbeam. Then he suddenly got up and went to his easel. From a hanger he picked up a painter coat, black and full of color patches in quaint randomness. He wiped his fingers on it while he painted. – I glanced at the canvas, a landscape with a few houses next to a lake and a sun over some mountains on the other side. (...) You could see yellow fields and shady houses, a copper green lake and a blueberry sky. From a tube Parill pressed out some paint onto the palette and seemed to have forgotten my presence. He picked up a brush, approached the canvas and started working at the shadows cast by the houses. He put on green and blue, crossing the brush strokes and having the colors blend. ”Shadows are never black,” he said. – I agreed to this wisdom, bowed and headed for the door.

[chapter sixteen, ”The Artist”]

Coda

Robert was a fascinating guy and I could go on telling about his peculiarity. However, in light of what I've already told I guess that a sample of his artworks is the best way to portray him. He was my brother and he's still alive to me, I've intimated it above and now I say it again. And above that, his art lives on. Judge for yourselves.

(All the paintings below are in private collections. Click on each picture to get an enlargement.)

"The Knight and the Brook" (oil painting of a medieval knight coming to a brook in the woods).

"Nonfigurative" (nonfigurative oil painting exploring color and shape per se).

"Still Life" (oil painting of flowers, rather much in the impressionist vein).

Cover of "Antropolis," executed by Robert.

"Söråsele Summer" (oil painting of Lake Söråsele, southern Lapland).

"Saltoluokta" (oil painting of Lake Langas and surrounding mountains in northern Norrbotten).

"Summery Sky" (aquarelle of Lake Söråsele).

"Sunset" (oil painting of a Norrlandic house, the motif as such is made up, not being a "real life" motive).




Related
Son of Sweden (poem)
A Presentation of Antropolis
In Swedish: Antropolis
In Swedish: On Spiritual Joy
In Swedish: The Death of My Mother
Swedish Version of This Obituary

The top picture is of Robert sometime in the 1990s. The next picture shows him at Genebiblioteket in Övik, hanging pictures before an exhibition, same decade.

An Interview With Lennart Svensson, Author of "Borderline"

This is an interview. Technically I conduct it with myself = an auto interview. The focus is on my works, past and present.

Q: Can you state your name and place of birth?

A: Certainly. I'm Lennart Svensson, born in the north of Sweden in 1965. I turned 50 in December last year, 2015.

Q: Do you like being 50?

A: I do. But as Ernst Jünger said, "spirit has no age". So I'm not indulging in being this or that age. I simply am.

Q: Speaking of Ernst Jünger you published a biography of him in 2014. Comments?

A: None, other than that the book is still to be bought. From a creative point of view I knew the subject, Jünger, I enjoyed writing the book and now my fellow brethren and sistren can read about Jünger and be amazed and intrigued, being led to spiritual clarity.

Q: Spiritual clarity indeed. Your essay "Borderline" is receiving coverage here and there these days. Like this review on Heathen Harvest.

A: Indeed. They even seem to like the book.

Q: Why is "Borderline" so important?

A: It's a beacon of hope for a culture bogged down in relativism and nihilism. The science community of today advocates reductionism which is absurd; holism is the only way ahead. There has to be an element of metaphysics in physics, otherwise it gets totally unintelligible. That's what "Borderline" is about -- as well as being a strategic overview of Plotinus's eidetic, "ideas-based" ontology. I also discuss how his followers brought the doctrine into our times, followers like Goethe, Ernst Jünger and Hugo Fischer. As Fischer has demonstrated, Plotinus can teach today's scientists a lot about metaphysics.

Q: Is that all?

A: No. In addition to this, "Borderline" tells about holistic ethics, how to act as a human being given that the world is an organism and not a machine. Man is not a robot; man is a microcosmic organism mirroring the organic macrocosm. Man has will, thought and compassion in his being and in the book I teach how to acknowledge this. Also, I speak about literature and art in this respect, depicting people like C. D. Friedrich, T. S. Eliot and Edith Södergran and their holistic opuses. Ernst Jünger also gets a chapter; he's referred to throughout the book and specifically, his approach to "life, universe and everything" is covered in chapter 25.

Q: Strictly speaking, "Borderline" was published last year. This year, 2016, you've published another book-length essay, "Science Fiction Seen From the Right". What's this?

A: This is a study summing up 20th century science fiction and fantasy, seen from a conservative point of view. Now, it doesn't cover every author in the field, not even every author having once held some conservative view. However, it does cover a lot regarding an overview of the field from a traditionalist standpoint. Authors like Heinlein, Herbert, Lewis, Tolkien, Bradbury, Pournelle, Niven, Dick, van Vogt, Howard, Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith are covered, along with Borges and Castaneda and some additional names like Moorcock and Bradbury. Even Ernst Jünger gets a chapter...!

Q: He's always there.

A: He is, when there's reason to mention him.

Q: Apart from this, the conservative angle, what made you write the book?

A: It was a labor of love. I mean, I do have a polemical message with it all, an errand of snatching back sf from leftists and Social Justice Warriors who currently seem to occupy the genre. The conceptual-political battle is raging and I'm on the right side. That said, the book is also about the wonder and glory sf and fantasy give us, about ideas and visions, about fantastic stories in the realms of future lands, lost worlds and parallel demesnes. I've been reading sf and fantasy for over thirty years and this is my report.

Q: And the future? Of your operation at large?

A: I can give no details but I currently write this and that, both works of fact and fiction.

Q: But as for fiction, you have already published novels?

A: I have. In Swedish I've published the novels "Antropolis" and "Till Smaragdeburg". Here's a presentation in English of "Antropolis".

Q: In Swedish, you say. Those books were published in 2009-2010. Since then you've written and published yourself in English. Do you still consider yourself a Swedish author?

A: You could say: if a Swedish editor mails me and asks about manuscripts in Swedish I can send him that. And if an English speaking editor asks me about manuscripts in English, I can give him that too. I'm rather bilingual, you might say.

Q: Briefly, the world situation at large. Are we in for it? Is this the end?

A: No, of course not. There's no risk for major war as this link will tell you. The world might seem a mess right now but the forces of Light are advancing. The Russian leader Putin has done a lot, in intervening in MENA 2015-2016, to rectify the situation. He might not be a saint and I don't support his every move -- and I remain being a SWEDISH nationalist -- but he is on the good side. The Westworld, for its part, is enmeshed in evil. With the US as a linchpin it's a corrupt regime in need of reformation and this will also come about, on legal grounds and not with an all-out shooting war. That's what I see before me. The fear-based thinking has to give way to a more constructive approach.

Q: Constructive? Isn't there a propaganda war raging, isn't this a time to fight and not to build?

A: OK. I mean, the situation is dire and we need to stand firm in opposing evil. But the situation isn't as bad as many internet pundits, even on the right side, seem to think. A war it is but it's a propaganda war and a frequency war -- thus, tune in to your own frequency and don't become dejected by reading false visions of a looming war. Stand firm in your personal being, employing "C3", that is, meditate and be "calm, cool and collected". A man who controls his breath controls the world.




Related
Ernst Jünger -- A Portrait (2014)
Borderline
Heathen Harvest reviews Borderline
Science Fiction Seen From the Right
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Review: The Illuminoids (Wilgus 1980)

Secret History can be interesting. And Neil Wilgus might be the right man to guide the reader through its nooks and crannies. His book is entitled ”The Illuminoids” and was issued in USA in 1978. This is based on the British 1980 NEL issue.

1.

We live today in a kind of virtual war: propaganda war, frequency war, a war of nerves. Your inner mind is the battlefield.

To win in this war we must stay cool and stay informed. As for spreading information about grey area operations, fact books is one way to go. 

From this view, that of highlighting the viable factbook, the readable, succinct factbook, I will now take a look at Neil Wilgus’s ”The Illuminoids”. It was issued over 30 years ago but it still has something to tell us. Wilgus admits the grey area character of his subject -- the secret history of the West -- and in doing this portrays an area of research often shunned by manistream academics. At the same time Wilgus tries to stay critical of the worst excesses of conspiracy research.

As intimated, you should not fictionalize this subject. In this respect, Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea’s ”Illuminatus” trilogy from 1975 has not aged as well as Wilgus’s book. Their novel is rather lively and intriguing as such – but to have the elite club in question not as villains but as some kind of ”give them the benefit of the doubt, who knows what’s right or wrong” is out of sync with the zeitgeist. Sinister forces has run the Westworld from the sidelines since at least the 1700s – and Neal Wilgus, in his factbook-cum-essay, portrays this better than Shea-Wilson in their hip novel trilogy.

Wilgus was right in writing a nonfiction book on the subject. He had read the Wilson-Shea trilogy, however, as intimated his own ”The Illuminoids” takes a critical approach to the written sources concerned. This attitude holds its ground. This approach to the material still benefits us today, 35 years later, when we are in the process of ridding the world of the globalist elite club empire.




2.

Neil Wilgus writes about the historical Illuminati, secret dealings, crimes, wars and rigged ”secret history moves” in ”The Illuminoids”. The title per se is meant to be a derivation of the Illuminati, meaning ”like / of the Illuminati” or somesuch. Wilgus’s sources include Nesta Webster’s ”World Revolution – The Plot Against Civilization” (1921) and ”Secret Societies and Subversive Movements” (1924), John Robison’s ”Proofs of a conspiracy” (1797) and Clarence Kelly’s ”Conspiracy Against God and man” (1974).

Now let’s take a look at the contents. The first half of the 190 page book is a captivatng narrative of elite club doings in Europe and the US from the 1700s and on. The latter half of the book is made up of diverse timelines and chronicles, repeating some of what’s gone before and adding some new facts.

Chapter one, for its part, is called ”Some Founding Fathers” (p 17), telling of the founding of the Illuminati in 1776, its prosperity and subsequent forbidding ten years later (but the group continued to exist in spite of it). Then is depicted secret aspects of the American Revolution: it is told in detail about George Washington, secret club involvment and the occult imagery of the US government seal. This was unknown to many in 1978 but today it’s common knowledge.

Chapter two is called ”A Rogue’s Gallery” (p 34), covering the French revolution. With figures like Mirabeau, abbé Sieyes, Talleyrand, the Duke of Orléans, Cagliostro, the diamond necklace affair, the German Union (1787) as a new Illuminati form, dr. theol Karl Bahrdt, Anarcharsis Clootz, and the Count Saint Germain as alchemist. Of the latter I’ve blogged here.

Chapter three is called ”Evolution of Revolution” (p 50), containing more about the French revolution. This chapter succinctly treats figures like Franz Anton Mesmer, the Marquis de Sade and Meyer Amschel Rothschild, p 51-52. Then there are some notes on the secret history of the 1700s before the revolution, with Diderot and the Encyclopaedists, Montequieu, Voltaire and Rousseau. We even read of Beaumarchais who wrote the plays ”The Barber of Seville” and ”The Marriage of Figaro,” later set to music by Mozart. Also, we read about Casanova, Tom Paine, Philippe Buonarroti and Louis de Saint-Just, a Jacobin, all of it told in a witty style, trying to capture the grey area of secret society Europe.




3.

Chapter four is entitled ”The Illuminoids” (page 68), taking up a few loose ends and giving us the secret history development to the present day (= the day of Wilgus’s writing, the mid 1970s). Here are mentioned such as Spanish alumbrados, Saint-Martin, Willermooz, Raymond Lull and the Middle East’s assassins (hashishin). On page 75f is told the story of the Nine Unknown, also covered by Pauvels and Bergier in ”Morning of the Magicians” (Fr. 1960, Eng. 1963, reportedly, a survey of the debunk kind, however, might still be worth the effort). – Furthermore are treated Manichaeism, Sufism, Atlantis, Guy Warren Ballard and the I AM strain. Any follower of this my blog knows that I AM is the moral-ontological statement of all times. The rest of the chapter (p 84-110) provides many clues to America’s secret history during the 1800 and 1900s, some of which I will elaborate upon below.

Chapter five is called ”An Illuminated Chronology” (p 113). This is a timeline from shortly before 1776, the Illuminati founding, to today.

Chapter six is called ”An Outline of Illuminated History” (p 137). This is a timeline from Atlantis to today, with various digressions in the maze of facts surrounding secret history.

Finally, we have ”Sources of Illumination” (p 177), a list of sources and some additional information.




4.

As we have seen Wilgus begins his book by talking about the 1700s, ”the times of Wigs, Horses and Muskets” with names like Washington, Mirabeau, Robespierre and Casanova etc. etc. All this has its interest but I will not go into it here. In the rest of this review I will look into various aspects of secret history of recent times, phenomena Wilgus elaborates upon with a rather balanced and – important! – not dismissive style. He is not out to debunk, like many other ”respectable” writers of the subject tend to be. Overall, Wilgus has noted the circumstantial evidence and deemed that it can not be ignored. You can’t debunk him because he’s got vast resources of bunk...!

A subject treated in chapter four is the establishment of the US Federal Reserve bank, as such, a privately owned cartel issuing debt notes, pretending to be a national bank issuing money. Wilgus relates some already known, yet interesting facts such as the following. – In the US state of Georgia there is an island called Jekyll Island. In a mansion on this island some top names in banking and finance held a meeting in November 1910. Two top politicians who attended were Deputy Minister of Finance A. Platt Andrew and Senator Nelson Aldrich. From the banking sector participated J. P. Morgan-men such as Henry P. Dawson, Charles D. Norton and Benjamin Strong and the Rockefeller-man Frank Wanderlip. The meeting resulted in plans that led to the founding of America’s privately owned Federal Reserve.

- - -

Wlgus also tells of the Anti-Mason movement in the United States, a failed attempt in the 19th century to stop the elite club governance. – That the United States was founded by Masons is not a secret. Washington, Jefferson and other fathers of the republic were active in the secret society of Freemason. Freemasonry as such may have some spiritual strains but on the top levels it soon got hi-jacked and co-opted by power-mad operators of the illuminoid kind.

Then came an American opposition to Freemasonry. A significant example is William Morgan’s book from 1826 in which Masonic activities were revealed: ”Illustrations from Freemasonry”. This gave rise to a protest movement against this secret club. For example, in 1830 was held anti-Masonic conventions in Massachusetts and Vermont where they presented evidence that the Freemasons had been taken over by the subversive, atheist-nihilist Illuminati, founded in 1776 in Bavaria. Illuminati had on his program the abolition of the family, private property, inheritance rights, patriotism and religion, and the establishment of a world state, so you can understand that people were upset. In light of the revelations, a new political party in the United States became the Anti-Masonic Party. They stood in the presidential election in 1832. But no breakthrough was reached either then or later this decade. The party was disbanded in 1838.




5.

Then there are som lines on the silver standard and uts drama. Even in the Bible, under King Solomon, silver was belittled. ”Silver was not considered valuable in the days of Salomon,” it says in 2 Chronicles 9:21. This is seen as an early devaluation of silver coining by the pseudonym R. E. Search in ”Lincoln Money Martyred” (1935). But the Bible passage does not speak of the coin, but how Solomon preferred gold for household items and art objects. Coins didn’t begin to be used until several centuries later, according to established history. About Search and the antique currency debate we read in page 87 of Wilgus’s book.

- - -

Can political murders generally be attributed to conspiracies? Is the theory of ”the lone madman” a routinely put up cover story? Indeed, there are indicia that many famous presidential, prime minister and head of state murders may have been planned. Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, Stolypin, President McKinley, Kennedy, M. L. King, Malcolm X and so on and so on.

For instance, Wilgus relates suspicions concerning Secretary of Defese James Forrestal’s death in 1945 at Bethesda Hospital Neuroligical Ward. Even Joseph McCarthy died there in 1957, officially of jaundice but according to secret history theory, a deliberately injected drug overdose (mescaline or LSD), which may have made him suicidal. Cooper has more details on the Forrestal-murder.

Drugs: it is since the 1970s proved that the CIA experimented with drugs on people. According to Wilgus, the CIA, for example, admitted that it gave Dr. Frank Olsen LSD in 1953 so that he died (= this triggered him to suicide). In addition to LSD, the CIA developed drugs that would brainwash people or trigger the programming they received, or have retired agents forget information they received when they were in active service. In other instances, the CIA has been experimenting with mind control, arising out of such as B. F. Skinner’s behavioral sciences and ”aversion therapy” (= make people dislike something by associating it with discomfort). In addition, there are such things as brain surgery / lobotomy and surgical implanting of electrodes in the brain. To some extent, the brain works as a computer that can be programmed. All organizations, from the church and the army to the prison system, know this says Wilgus (page 90). On a smaller scale, this applies on such a case as the 1970s SLA terrorist group who kidnapped the millionaire daughter of Patty Hearst and had her take part in a bank robbery.

Behavior manipulation can also be used to control gunmen and killers. This may be suspected of Robert Kennedy’s assassin Sirhan Sirhan, and Lee Harvey Oswald, the grey area figure and patsy of the JFK murder. – More about the theories of Sirhan can be found on page 91 in Wilgus’ book.

Already in the 1700s there were behavioral manipulation in the form of hypnosis, developed by Franz Anton Mesmer. He was a German who lived from 1734 to 1815. The subject of behavioral control in connection with the Jacobins time in power (and Weisshaupt, the founder of the Illuminati), Wilgus treats on the pages 92-93.




6.

A theory that Wilgus discusses is this: that it is the Democratic Party of the United States that draws the country into war, and possibly the Democrats have been a little more elite club-influenced than the Republicans. Just look at the Democratic presidents Wilson (World War I), Roosevelt (World War II), Truman (Korean War) and Johnson (Vietnam War). Truman and Roosevelt were both highest degree Freemasons (33rd level) and Roosevelt placed the Illuminati pyramid symbol on the back of the one dollar note. Besides Democrats the elite club Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has been the haunt of America’s elite in general, where the member list included people like Nixon, Eisenhower and Kissinger and Henry Cabot Lodge, Zbigniew Brzezinsky and Jimmy Carter.

- - -

A note on the subject ”Wall Street and Bolshevism,” from Wilgus’ book. Banker J. P. Morgan had spent money on President Wilson’s campaign in 1912. Then he financed Lenin’s and Trotsky’s Russian Revolution, as well as selling weapons to the English before the First World War. The affair of Lusitania played a part in this. A central player in these times was President Wilson’s adviser Colonel E. M. House. House participated in the founding of the CFR. He also wrote a novel painting a picture of an elite club operator: ”Philip Dru, Administrator”.

- - -

Overall, Wilgus book is crisply written, a popular history rendering with a certain depth. Wilgus takes no position on the material but he seems to suggest that the topic of secret history has substance. The official history of our times, that history can only be created by decisions made by official bodies, is incorrect. Elite clubs and secret groups with hidden agendas have characterized the history of the West since the 1700s.

Moreover, I am proud that I own the English edition of this book. It has among other things a memorable cover (see picture). The American edition was much simpler.




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Book News: Science Fiction Seen from the Right (Svensson 2016)

My new book is out now on Amazon. It's a massive, book-length essay about 20th century science fiction and fantasy. "[W]ith a title like Science Fiction from the Right, one can consider this an automatic purchase for anyone on the “Alt Right.”" -- James O'Meara on Counter-Currents. -- Buy the book on Amazon. Buy the book on Adlibris.

"Science Fiction Seen from the Right" is now to be bought from an internet bookstore near you. This study examines 20th century SF and fantasy, focusing on works having a relation to eternal values like faith, responsibility, duty, honor and courage.

This is the angle employed. This is what you might call a conservative, traditionalist way of looking at SF. Otherwise we always hear from leftist pundits that SF is a genre about change and that no eternal values exist.

The chapters of the current book depict American and European authors like Heinlein, Frank Herbert, C. S. Lewis, Tolkien, Jünger, Boye, R. E. Howard, Lovecraft, Borges, Pournelle, Dick, Bradbury et cetera. In addition, there are chapters about the development of the genre and a look at comics, films and specific themes such as nihilism, history and war.

Some product details:

Paperback: 378 pages
Publisher: Manticore Books (March 24, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0994252595
ISBN-13: 978-0994252593
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches

Some quotes from the book could come in handy. For instance, this I say about Clarke's "2001":

This is more than literature, this is an initiation, a raising of man to a higher level -- the next level, the space-faring, alien-encountering level. -- What made Childhood's End fail is here rectified; 2001 intimates that man has to be on a higher mental level, on par with the space-faring aliens, to be able to meet them, encounter them and meaningfully communicate with them. [p 124]

And this I say about Ray Bradbury:

We all know that Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) was a man longing for years gone by, for the American 1920s with T-Fords, striped cotton suits and icecream sundaes. But this kind of sentimentality can’t be tolerated in a study like this. Tradition isn’t about being sentimental, it’s about acknowledging Eternal Values, values that still can lift us, inspire us and guide us, offering an alternative to the current materialism and nihilism. For in essence, sentimentality is a form of nihilism. Therefore it takes some time to sort out the Bradbury stories having to say something to us even today, stories about Faith, Musicality, Awareness and Courage. [p 299]

The following is another take on the subject of nihilism in science fiction:

[N]ovels like Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun (1980-1983), Sam J. Lundwall’s No Time for Heroes (1971) and Harry Harrison’s Bill, the Galactic Hero (1965) are all rather enjoyable, the first for its accomplished style, the latter two for their drive and wit. -- That said, to have an executioner as main character (Wolfe) overall leads out into nothingness, as does the banterings of the other two, I figure. A hero is led by Will, Truth and Compassion; an antihero is a symbol of the opposite, of decadence, whose core concept is nihilism. If you accept that, then these books can be estimated at their true value. Just don’t come and say that they’re some kind of alltime, essential classics pointing the way ahead. For this some embracing of ideals is needed, some spiritual elevation. [p 332]

The following I say about J. G. Ballard:

The strategy he [= Ballard] used is called "Death of Affect as an approach to character". Because, in the usual prose story the reader is manipulated to sympathise with the protagonist. Syrup is smeared over the dish. Ballard, in contrast, is disconnecting such sentimentality. He portrays his characters with some emotional distance but thus manages, paradoxically, to have them come closer. He doesn't manipulate, he portrays. [p 144]

A portal figure of the book is Robert A. Heinlein. In chapter one I for instance say this regarding his topical fiction:

The ideals of olden times are still viable. Self-restraint, self-reliance, responsibility and nobility of character must be remembered and imparted, again and again. And in his 1950s novels Heinlein did just that. [p 16]

In other words, this is what you get in "Science Fiction Seen From the Right" -- a venturing out into the vistas of wonder and glory, traditional style.




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The Book Reviewed by Counter-Currents
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Heinlein's Role in the Study
Presentation on the Publisher's Site
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Borderline Reviewed

All praise for "Borderline -- A Traditionalist Outlook for Modern Man".

On the Manticore Press site there was recently a review of my book "Borderline". In it, N.M. Phoenix praises the book’s synthesis of holism, anti-reductionism and mysticism. The survey of perennially minded, traditionally inclined authors treated in the book is also appreciated:

The ending chapters cover Nietzsche and a few profound poets whom portray Tradition and holistic thought. It is difficult for me to reiterate his chapter on Nietzsche, which also discusses Evola in depth, but it is certainly one of the best chapters. It ties in much of what was recently mentioned and its relevance to the teachings of both Evola and Nietzsche. Following this chapter is a discussion on Södergran, T.S. Eliot, Freidrich, Swedenborg, and Jünger respectively. These were no less enjoyable chapters, and I have personally fell in love with Södergran whom I was unaware of until this work.

As a coda of the review Phoenix has this:

"Borderline" by Svensson is worth reading, contemplating, and applying in practice. Even weeks later I recall parts and allows me to shift how one thinks about things. It is an excellent survey of Perennialism, and is filled aplenty with writers and philosophers to further study. Think of it as a college course, or lecture, and contemplate the content. It is well worth the time and effort.

Edit 2024: the review isn't online anymore. So I can't link to it.




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More Info About the Book
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