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26 ratings | 27 reviews | avg rating:3.62

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Alexander Duncan

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August 2007

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Average rating: 2.5 · 2 ratings · 1 review · 2 distinct works

	Buddhist Self-Ordination: A Dharma Strategy for the West 2.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2014 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Khatas 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2013	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Never A Day So Bright

by Kate Aitken

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read in August 2026

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Alexander Duncan said: " Kate Aitken was my great-aunt, so I approached *Never a Day So Bright* with more than ordinary curiosity. What struck me most, especially in the preface, was not simply the nostalgia for an earlier Canada but the language through which that nostalgia Kate Aitken was my great-aunt, so I approached *Never a Day So Bright* with more than ordinary curiosity. What struck me most, especially in the preface, was not simply the nostalgia for an earlier Canada but the language through which that nostalgia is expressed: ancestry, “stock,” pioneer character, hard work, church, family, farm and small-town community.

I do not mean that this is an extremist book, still less anything resembling a fascist tract. Rather, it preserves in unusually clear form an older British-Canadian social ideal that was still very much alive during my childhood. Certain kinds of families — largely British, Protestant, respectable, industrious and rooted in established communities — were imagined as possessing the qualities that had built Canada.

There is much in the ideal itself that is attractive: self-reliance, community, thrift, responsibility, endurance and family solidarity. But reading the book now, I am much more conscious of its shadow. Once a particular cultural and ancestral type becomes the model of the “good Canadian,” it becomes very easy to regard people who differ from it as somehow deficient: the wrong class, the wrong race, the wrong politics, the wrong sexuality, the wrong kind of family, or simply not “our kind of people.”

That shadow was very familiar to me growing up. I encountered intense class consciousness, an obsession with heredity and genetics, explicit racial prejudice, political intolerance and a strong pressure to conform to a predetermined idea of respectability. *Never a Day So Bright* did not create those attitudes, and it would be unfair to hold Kate Aitken personally responsible for everything associated with the culture she describes. But the book helps me understand the positive mythology that could sustain that social world.

For that reason I now find it more interesting than I probably would have when I was younger. It is both a warm memoir of small-town Ontario and a cultural document: a portrait of an older Canada seen from inside, before many of its assumptions about class, race, ancestry and social order were seriously challenged.

Its title captures the nostalgia perfectly. The day remembered may indeed have been bright. But brightness casts shadows. ...more "

Aug 29, 2026 07:33PM · see review

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The Book of Forbidden Knowledge

by Johnson Smith & Company

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Alexander Duncan said: " I love this book. I read it when I was ten (1964-65), and it was my first "spiritual" book, using the word somewhat loosely. I loved the aesthetic and it awakened my imagination. In subsequent years I studied astrology, esotericism, shamanism, Jungia ...more "

May 14, 2022 08:43AM · see review

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Them

by Whitley Strieber (Goodreads Author)

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read in July 2026

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Jul 29, 2026 10:42AM

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Alexander’s Recent Updates

Alexander Duncan made a comment on Alejandra’s review of The Third Eye " Interestingly, the Office of the Dalai Lama takes a decidedly balanced tone. No, Lobsang Rampa was not a Tibetan lama, but the author clearly has some ...more "
Jun 12, 2026 07:19AM · see review
Alexander Duncan made a comment on Davin Patrick’s review of The Secret School: Preparation for Contact " I had a UFO experience at age 13 or 14, although not nearly as interesting or as elaborate as Whitley's. ...more "
Feb 16, 2026 05:42AM · see review
Alexander Duncan made a comment on Sophia’s review of Encounters: Experiences with Nonhuman Intelligences " I'd love to hear what's bad about the scholarship. Truly, please do tell. ...more "
Mar 31, 2025 06:25AM · see review