Post
by Alexander Noble » Wed Sep 23, 2015 10:33 pm
Literally just put WWWM down. I don't take a 1000+ page undertaking very often because it gets me behind on my other reading and writing. I read the Amazon ebook version on my Kindle and it was clearly a scan with all the troubles associated with OCR. It seems italicized text confused it as there was nearly always a spacing or formatting error associated with it. The references at the ends of the chapters also suffered greatly. with random formatting changes and paragraphs that started in the middle with no context, only to have the beginning show up under another heading.
Otherwise, it was an enjoyable though time-consuming read. I'm always delighted when WN writing disproves the stereotype of raving lunatics with no referents in reality. There were 392 references for one chapter alone. Impressive. I've read a great deal of what Simpson discusses elsewhere, but I now realize that these were somewhat derivative works with a debt owed to Simpson. He was probably blazing trails in unknown territory in his day, though too few people walk those trails today.
His past as a minister seemed clear to me. I couldn't quite place the tone of the book at first, then I realized it came across as a passionate and sincere sermon. Perhaps Simpson was shepherding a lost Western flock? I think a condensation edition would encourage those intimidated by its length. There are many lengthy flights of flowery prose, and a lot of repetition and telling the reader what he's about to tell the reader. The book could be condensed to half its present length without cutting anything Simpson is striving to say, and still leave him some room for eloquence.
The book saddened me in many places because of how much things have clearly gotten worse since the book was written. An example was Simpson's alarm at some white families only having 4 children, which rather seems like the good-old-days now. Some of his statements made me wince a little, not because they weren't valid, but because they would make one a social pariah today. In some cases, his recommended starting points are today's long-term goals. The work references and credits a multitude of books that would be worth owning and reading today. Sadly, the titles alone would prevent their publication in some, if not most, cases.
Now, on to Imperium possibly?