Holy shit this is great – five pages in and I’m cackling with what I can only describe as enraged and disgusted glee.
-
Holy shit this is great – five pages in and I’m cackling with what I can only describe as enraged and disgusted glee. The perfect companion to @spencersunshine’s “Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism” (which Home namechecks).
-
Holy shit this is great – five pages in and I’m cackling with what I can only describe as enraged and disgusted glee. The perfect companion to @spencersunshine’s “Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism” (which Home namechecks).
I knew some of what Home’s managed to put together about the (perhaps surprisingly shallow) history of modern yoga, but not all of it. It *definitely* puts an unexpected spin on the charges of cultural appropriation that are often lodged against Western yoga practitioners.
-
I knew some of what Home’s managed to put together about the (perhaps surprisingly shallow) history of modern yoga, but not all of it. It *definitely* puts an unexpected spin on the charges of cultural appropriation that are often lodged against Western yoga practitioners.
Three-quarters of the way through, and I’m actually a little bit disappointed. Home’s scholarship is sound enough, but for most of its length so far the book has mostly been a linear chain of guilt-by-association – peppered with the occasional anachronistic inclusion slagging off musicians he finds dodgy. (Michael Moynihan I’ll give you, obviously, but I think the case of Current 93 is rather more complex than Home allows.)
-
Three-quarters of the way through, and I’m actually a little bit disappointed. Home’s scholarship is sound enough, but for most of its length so far the book has mostly been a linear chain of guilt-by-association – peppered with the occasional anachronistic inclusion slagging off musicians he finds dodgy. (Michael Moynihan I’ll give you, obviously, but I think the case of Current 93 is rather more complex than Home allows.)
He’s made the case, overwhelmingly convincingly, that there were a whole lot of unsavory characters involved in the promulgation of a set of ostensibly Indian postural practices called “yoga” across the 20th century. What he *hasn’t* shown is that any of their ideas attached to the practice, i.e. that modern yoga has any notable (or indeed detectable) degree of fascist *content*. It may be a ludicrous, orientalist pastiche…but it’s not, like, esoteric Hitlerism in matching Lululemon.
-
He’s made the case, overwhelmingly convincingly, that there were a whole lot of unsavory characters involved in the promulgation of a set of ostensibly Indian postural practices called “yoga” across the 20th century. What he *hasn’t* shown is that any of their ideas attached to the practice, i.e. that modern yoga has any notable (or indeed detectable) degree of fascist *content*. It may be a ludicrous, orientalist pastiche…but it’s not, like, esoteric Hitlerism in matching Lululemon.
That said, the chapter titles are a hoot (“Happy Baby,” “Warriors 1, 2 and 3” and “Downward Dog”). And so I return to my doom yoga practice, purged of all worry that I am inadvertently propagating something monstrous on the heart of an unsuspecting Hackney.
-
That said, the chapter titles are a hoot (“Happy Baby,” “Warriors 1, 2 and 3” and “Downward Dog”). And so I return to my doom yoga practice, purged of all worry that I am inadvertently propagating something monstrous on the heart of an unsuspecting Hackney.
OK, finished. Sadly, “disappointing” remains the final verdict: in a way that oddly mirrors some of the charlatans and mountebanks he’s writing about, Home has oversold (or allowed his editors and publishers to oversell) the book’s actual content.
-
OK, finished. Sadly, “disappointing” remains the final verdict: in a way that oddly mirrors some of the charlatans and mountebanks he’s writing about, Home has oversold (or allowed his editors and publishers to oversell) the book’s actual content.
He establishes the shallowness of modern postural practice’s genealogy, the false ascription of a “mystic” Hindu origin for its techniques, and the fabulation of an ostensibly ancient and superior “Aryan” culture behind that in turn – the last, mind you, an element “fascist yoga” has in common with the rantings of any number of contemporary Hindutva weirdos online. That’s sufficient, and it’s fine. But the book simply isn’t as wild or nearly as much fun as it promised to be. Ah well.
-
He establishes the shallowness of modern postural practice’s genealogy, the false ascription of a “mystic” Hindu origin for its techniques, and the fabulation of an ostensibly ancient and superior “Aryan” culture behind that in turn – the last, mind you, an element “fascist yoga” has in common with the rantings of any number of contemporary Hindutva weirdos online. That’s sufficient, and it’s fine. But the book simply isn’t as wild or nearly as much fun as it promised to be. Ah well.
@adamgreenfield Saw this video earlier in the year and assume it summarizes the book sufficiently, would you agree? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17SqyPBDAsA&t=385s
