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Лук и булава
Книга представляет собой сборник эссе, во многом углубляющих и расширяющих проблемы, затронутые в предыдущей книге автора — "Оседлать тигра". Эта работа, не поддающаяся однозначному толкованию, вызвала у критиков и читателей целый ряд разногласий и вопросов. На многие из них дан ответ в настоящей книге. Само название "Лук и булава" выбрано не случайно. Лук — это оружие дальнего боя, булава или дубина применяется в близком бою (а иногда и в уличной драке). Таковы и темы, рассматриваемые в настоящей книге — от глав, посвящённых темам инициации и традиции, до проблем "третьего пола" и "негритизации" Америки.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1968
About the author
Julius Evola
211 books1,120 followersJulius Evola, born Giulio Cesare Andrea Evola, was an Italian philosopher and esoteric scholar. Born in Rome to a Sicilian family (often claimed to be landed gentry, giving Julius the title of Baron, though his birth certificate lists his father's occupation as "Mechanic," while his mother worked for the post office), Evola was raised a strict Roman Catholic. Despite this, his life was characterised by 'an anti-bourgeois approach' hostile to both 'the dominant tradition of the West—Christianity and Catholicism—and to contemporary civilization—the 'modern world' of democracy and materialism'.
By turns 'engineering student, artillery officer, Dadaist poet and painter, journalist, alpinist, scholar, linguist, Orientalist, and political commentator', he has been described as a 'rare example of universality in an age of specialization'. Yet behind it all lay a singular emphasis on, and pursuit of, a 'direct relationship to the Absolute'. For Evola, 'the center of all things was not man, but rather the Transcendent.' This metaphysical conviction can be seen to have determined both Evola's stance on socio-political issues, and his antipathetic attitude towards 'all professional, sentimental and family routines'.
The author of many books on esoteric, political and religious topics, his best-known work remains Revolt Against the Modern World, a trenchant critique of modern civilisation that has been described as 'the gateway to his thought'. Since his death, also in Rome, his writings have influenced right-wing, reactionary and conservative political thought not only in his native Italy, but throughout continental Europe and, increasingly, the English-speaking world. Nevertheless, he should not be considered primarily as a political thinker, but rather as an exponent of the wider Traditionalist School that encompasses the work of such individuals as René Guénon, Titus Burckhardt and Frithjof Schuon.
By turns 'engineering student, artillery officer, Dadaist poet and painter, journalist, alpinist, scholar, linguist, Orientalist, and political commentator', he has been described as a 'rare example of universality in an age of specialization'. Yet behind it all lay a singular emphasis on, and pursuit of, a 'direct relationship to the Absolute'. For Evola, 'the center of all things was not man, but rather the Transcendent.' This metaphysical conviction can be seen to have determined both Evola's stance on socio-political issues, and his antipathetic attitude towards 'all professional, sentimental and family routines'.
The author of many books on esoteric, political and religious topics, his best-known work remains Revolt Against the Modern World, a trenchant critique of modern civilisation that has been described as 'the gateway to his thought'. Since his death, also in Rome, his writings have influenced right-wing, reactionary and conservative political thought not only in his native Italy, but throughout continental Europe and, increasingly, the English-speaking world. Nevertheless, he should not be considered primarily as a political thinker, but rather as an exponent of the wider Traditionalist School that encompasses the work of such individuals as René Guénon, Titus Burckhardt and Frithjof Schuon.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 25, 2023
The Bow and the Club (Arktos, 2018), skriven av Julius Evola (1898-1974) utgavs för första gången 1968. För ovanlighetens skull vill vi inleda med en kommentar på bokomslaget som är otroligt estetiskt tilltalande för den inbundna version vi läst. Fint där Arktos.
Detta verk, som består av 19 essäer av varierande längd, har en röd tråd som utgörs av en kritik av den moderna civilisationen och av dess subversiva element utifrån ett Traditionalistiskt perspektiv. Vi noterar att Evola i denna bok tar på sig rollen som kulturkrigare och vis läromästare och därigenom levererar en dräpande och laddad kritik som skiljer sig markant från hans vanliga iskalla avskildhet. Troligtvis handlar detta retoriska grepp om att provocera fram en reaktion hos läsaren, någonting underlättas av en precis och kraftfull prosa. Vi vill även lyfta fram John Bruce Leonard för det kompetenta förordet och de utmärkta förklarande noterna som underlättar läsningen (eftersom boken är kryddad med en hel del Franska, Tyska och Latin).
Angående titeln så representerar klubban ett verktyg för destruktion. En destruktion som bör riktas både mot defekta delar av den egna personligheten men också mot moderniteten i sig. Bågen står för riktning, mål och precision.
Vi håller med Leonard om att The Bow and the Club fungerar som en utmärkt introduktion till Evolas (mer avancerade) övriga verk. Avslutningsvis bjuder vi på ett smakprov från essän The breed of the evasive man :
“Plato has stated that those who have no master within themselves at least ought to have a master outside them. But what has been extolled as the ‘liberation’ of this or that people and its ‘democratic progress’, which is brought — often even through the use of violence (as occurred after the World War) — by doing away with all principles of sovereignty, all genuine authority and all order from above, is matched today in a significant number of individuals by a ‘liberation’ amounting to the elimination of any inner ‘form’, any sort of character, any kind of rectitude. What we find, in other words, is the decline or absence in the individual of that central power which I have already referred to with the evocative Classical denomination of hegemonikon. This does not apply to the ethical sphere alone, but also to the field of common behaviour, of individual psychology, and of one’s existential structure. The result is the spread of an unstable and formless type — what may well be described as the breed of the evasive man.”
s.11
Detta verk, som består av 19 essäer av varierande längd, har en röd tråd som utgörs av en kritik av den moderna civilisationen och av dess subversiva element utifrån ett Traditionalistiskt perspektiv. Vi noterar att Evola i denna bok tar på sig rollen som kulturkrigare och vis läromästare och därigenom levererar en dräpande och laddad kritik som skiljer sig markant från hans vanliga iskalla avskildhet. Troligtvis handlar detta retoriska grepp om att provocera fram en reaktion hos läsaren, någonting underlättas av en precis och kraftfull prosa. Vi vill även lyfta fram John Bruce Leonard för det kompetenta förordet och de utmärkta förklarande noterna som underlättar läsningen (eftersom boken är kryddad med en hel del Franska, Tyska och Latin).
Angående titeln så representerar klubban ett verktyg för destruktion. En destruktion som bör riktas både mot defekta delar av den egna personligheten men också mot moderniteten i sig. Bågen står för riktning, mål och precision.
Vi håller med Leonard om att The Bow and the Club fungerar som en utmärkt introduktion till Evolas (mer avancerade) övriga verk. Avslutningsvis bjuder vi på ett smakprov från essän The breed of the evasive man :
“Plato has stated that those who have no master within themselves at least ought to have a master outside them. But what has been extolled as the ‘liberation’ of this or that people and its ‘democratic progress’, which is brought — often even through the use of violence (as occurred after the World War) — by doing away with all principles of sovereignty, all genuine authority and all order from above, is matched today in a significant number of individuals by a ‘liberation’ amounting to the elimination of any inner ‘form’, any sort of character, any kind of rectitude. What we find, in other words, is the decline or absence in the individual of that central power which I have already referred to with the evocative Classical denomination of hegemonikon. This does not apply to the ethical sphere alone, but also to the field of common behaviour, of individual psychology, and of one’s existential structure. The result is the spread of an unstable and formless type — what may well be described as the breed of the evasive man.”
s.11
May 4, 2017
"CHAPITRE IX - LE GOÛT DE LA VULGARITÉ" est un excellent chapitre à faire lire par tout le monde... spécialement à tout prétendu "artiste" que vous croisez et tout ceux qui aiment justifier la crasse et la médiocrité. Une projection assez hilarante peut être faite, d'après mon contexte, de tout ce chapitre sur la littérature et les films marocains.
Le reste, caveat lector.
Evola semble est un constateur et un commentateur social brillant - mais pas plus. Il peut faire des diagnostics, mais n'a lui même pas les remèdes - puisqu'il se borgne à "constater", à "rester debout au milieu des ruines" - son pessimisme, utile pour diagnostiquer, le rend totalement aveugle concernant les chemins et l'action à prendre. (= Voir son interview en français sur youtube)
Le reste, caveat lector.
Evola semble est un constateur et un commentateur social brillant - mais pas plus. Il peut faire des diagnostics, mais n'a lui même pas les remèdes - puisqu'il se borgne à "constater", à "rester debout au milieu des ruines" - son pessimisme, utile pour diagnostiquer, le rend totalement aveugle concernant les chemins et l'action à prendre. (= Voir son interview en français sur youtube)
November 14, 2020
A philosophical book composed of a series of essays on the way forward for the betterment of civilization.
October 6, 2026
A series of essays covering various topics of Evola’s philosophy. Two passages really stood out for me.
“Natural law is not at all a single law, valid and evident everywhere and for everyone: it is only one kind of law, the particular conception of law developed by a certain type of civilisation and a certain type of man. As for the idea that, unlike political law, this kind of law corresponds to the divine will — whether this is seen as being normative in itself or rooted in the conscience of man as a rational being, as for instance Kant’s so-called ‘categorical imperative’ — this is nothing but a myth, a speculative smokescreen set up by those who defend and seek to affirm a view that reflects a particular outlook and ideal of society”
- Essay 8, The Olympian Ideal and Natural Law
This is interesting since he is saying, your conception of the rational human being is actually the product of a particular civilization, but he then goes on to presents his own conception of the Traditional man as though that reveals something fundamental about human nature, which could be easily contradicted by the same concept since if natural law needs a genealogy, perhaps Traditional man does too. Still a very powerful critique.
The other passage is
“Yet no one, strictly speaking, dies from it; nothing is changed in the human being, a being who is filled with contradictions, a being exemplified by both Prometheus and Epimetheus. So what is destroyed by this laughter? The very importance of titanic misery, its allegedly tragical quality. In the face of Zeus, a laughing spectator, the eternal race of men plays out its eternal human comedy.”
- Essay 10, The Laughter of the Gods
It is like Zeus is thinking, humanity is performing its eternal tragedy while the divine perspective sees the absurdity of the whole spectacle. In this context human suffering becomes tragic partly because the human mind insists on making its own predicament cosmically significant. Which leads to the question, if Zeus laughs at the human comedy, is the laughter liberation or is it simply another way of stripping the universe of the meaning that we do desperately want it to have?
Neither of passages are Traditional philosophy and for me, oddly enough, that is when Evola is at his best.
“Natural law is not at all a single law, valid and evident everywhere and for everyone: it is only one kind of law, the particular conception of law developed by a certain type of civilisation and a certain type of man. As for the idea that, unlike political law, this kind of law corresponds to the divine will — whether this is seen as being normative in itself or rooted in the conscience of man as a rational being, as for instance Kant’s so-called ‘categorical imperative’ — this is nothing but a myth, a speculative smokescreen set up by those who defend and seek to affirm a view that reflects a particular outlook and ideal of society”
- Essay 8, The Olympian Ideal and Natural Law
This is interesting since he is saying, your conception of the rational human being is actually the product of a particular civilization, but he then goes on to presents his own conception of the Traditional man as though that reveals something fundamental about human nature, which could be easily contradicted by the same concept since if natural law needs a genealogy, perhaps Traditional man does too. Still a very powerful critique.
The other passage is
“Yet no one, strictly speaking, dies from it; nothing is changed in the human being, a being who is filled with contradictions, a being exemplified by both Prometheus and Epimetheus. So what is destroyed by this laughter? The very importance of titanic misery, its allegedly tragical quality. In the face of Zeus, a laughing spectator, the eternal race of men plays out its eternal human comedy.”
- Essay 10, The Laughter of the Gods
It is like Zeus is thinking, humanity is performing its eternal tragedy while the divine perspective sees the absurdity of the whole spectacle. In this context human suffering becomes tragic partly because the human mind insists on making its own predicament cosmically significant. Which leads to the question, if Zeus laughs at the human comedy, is the laughter liberation or is it simply another way of stripping the universe of the meaning that we do desperately want it to have?
Neither of passages are Traditional philosophy and for me, oddly enough, that is when Evola is at his best.
August 4, 2022
This very much reads like a summary of Julius Evola's previous works. The majority of these essays touch on topic already dealt with in Evola's previous books. As such,
The Bow and the Club
share all of the good and bad from Evola's bibliography, as well.
The Bow and the Club certainly contains essays with a lot of insights and critiques. Evola's analysis of initiation rituals is till poignant, and Evola's critiques of the youth culture of the '60's is very well argued.
But you still have essays and passages, where Evola sees fit to abandon his metaphysical and esoteric methodology to make a point based entirely on material arguments, and I'm pretty sure that Evola's arguments don't stand up to scrutiny when opened up to material critiques.
The Bow and the Club certainly contains essays with a lot of insights and critiques. Evola's analysis of initiation rituals is till poignant, and Evola's critiques of the youth culture of the '60's is very well argued.
But you still have essays and passages, where Evola sees fit to abandon his metaphysical and esoteric methodology to make a point based entirely on material arguments, and I'm pretty sure that Evola's arguments don't stand up to scrutiny when opened up to material critiques.
February 27, 2023
An interesting book by Evola, one of his more topical, less systematic works- although there remains a persistent theme of "setting the record straight" on the central issue, of answering "what is Tradition?"
There is a lot of commentary and criticism of Evola's contemporaries, which may make this one of his texts less "timeless" and more situated in his own particular circumstances, but we enjoyed it! Evola's persistent persnicketyness is entertaining and humorous to our mind, so even where we don't resonate with his positions, we enjoy learning about his reasons for propounding them. And his wealth of knowledge synthesized into kshatriya criticism is always enlightening. The chapter on Latin etymologies was particularly useful, and the chapter in skiing was hilarious!
There is a lot of commentary and criticism of Evola's contemporaries, which may make this one of his texts less "timeless" and more situated in his own particular circumstances, but we enjoyed it! Evola's persistent persnicketyness is entertaining and humorous to our mind, so even where we don't resonate with his positions, we enjoy learning about his reasons for propounding them. And his wealth of knowledge synthesized into kshatriya criticism is always enlightening. The chapter on Latin etymologies was particularly useful, and the chapter in skiing was hilarious!
June 11, 2025
Relatively easy and accessible read for an author who's known to be convoluted. I disagree on many, many of the things he has to say in this book, and I find SOME of his ideas borderline incomprehensible, but still good.
May 4, 2020
will write review after read again..
August 10, 2022
On the weaker side of Evolas works
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews