Andy Nowicki ranks as one of my fave raves amongst the new era of cutting-edge political commentators. The co-founder of the ALTERNATIVE RIGHT blogspot along with Colin Liddell and Richard Spencer, for the past decade-plus Nowicki has been cranking out some mighty though-provoking and dare-I-say "edgy" socio-political commentary especially in/for these eggshell tip toeing times, and while he certainly isn't as controversial as Liddell (a South African living in Japan who considers the Irish a bunch of wogs) he's controversial enough to be on the current SPLC and ADL hit lists even if his writings aren't anti-black or Jewish (critical at times true, not anti---but as we know that doesn't matter anymore). Even if he's not as hot button as some of the newer commentators on the "scene" his opines can still blanch a patch of precocious petunias especially in these overwrought garment rending times.
Of course I like him if only for this. I've read many of the new alt right breed and might disagree with some or even most of their opines, but I find Nowicki pretty on-the-ball as far as any personal copasetic feelings regarding politics and the current clime go, not sans certain faults mind you but then again the greatest men in time had the greatest faults and who am I (or you) to judge as they say.
Being not much of a fiction lover I decided to get Nowicki's 2011 novella (one of a number of books by the man) a go anyway if only because of what I have read by him via ALTERNATIVE RIGHT and other on-line sources. Never was a big fan of fiction unless it was encased in word balloons with lotsa pictures to behold, but this particular title seemed like just the particular piece of fantasy to get (if I hadda only get one) and man it is a good enough read.
Given how sometimes these tomes for the times can strike at your soul (heck, I even liked Ayn Rand's ANTHEM perhaps because it was her least cluttered and overall least irritating work) I felt that I couldn't do that bad by giving it a try. Y'know what, I was right once again. UNDER THE NIHIL is a dark, engrossing and reams-your-brain kinda novel that's probably not in much of a demand by the typically library-combing book readers of these days. (Heck, I tried to obtain a copy via library search and none in the state was in possession of a copy...wonder why???) But if they only knew what the book was, who wrote it and who published it (Counter-Currents) maybe I wouldn't even be here to tell you all about it...free expression is such a limited commodity these days.
In this 'un a nameless seminary school washout found beaten in the bad part of town is approached by some official-looking type with a JFK accent and prodded to be a guinea pig in an experiment where said subject is to take a pill called Nihil (which eliminates all fear and woe in a person making him the ultimate ubermench) and record the day-by-day effects of it on his personality and behavior. Feeling abandoned by the fambly, by humanity and by God in particular the guy agrees to the deal because for the most part, he is already "nihil" himself. Sounds good enough considering the pay, and like what do twentysomething ex-seminarians living on skid row have to look forward to anyway?
The experiment takes on a whole slew of strange turns until coming to a surprising conclusion, and then a bright and blazing symbolic if anything coda which might even have some of your more "enlightened" readers throwing the book in utterly righteous disgust considering the ultimate moral about liberty and freedom which is espoused during page-turning conclusion. Who knows, most readers might just begin to think twice about these modern day concepts which seem to have oozed themselves into twisted chasms that I don't think anyone woulda thought they woulda gone into a good fifty years back...at least back then the powers that be knew enough right from wrong to see just where humanity was heading but given the free form spreading and metastasized concept of what man is truly to be (and never could be) it's been all washed up into a basin of nothing reading to be flushed away into eternity. Billy said both those words were dead only he was a few decades ahead of himself. Nihil indeed!
You'll think, maybe even shudder at the message this book contains. I don't think you're gonna be able to shake it off that easily. And really, that is good thing especially in these times when we've all become too complacent about just where we are to the point where most of us couldn't even care about the big bulldozing of everything we've created being torn down like some old gas station that has been abandoned sixty years ago. Definitely an "I dare you" read, of course you won't take me up on it.
1 comment:
Nowicki is one of the Pizzagate-mongers. He's as full of rancid shit as Trump himself is.
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