Episode · Behind the Bastards · 2022-08-23
Books mentioned on Part One: Helena Blavatsky: the woman who inspired the Nazis, and Gwyneth Paltrow
Robert is joined by Jamie Loftus to discuss Helena Blavatsky. See omnystudio.
Robert Evans discussed The Princess of Babylon, An Essay on Universal History, the Manners, and Spirit of Nations, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne, The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz by Johann Valentin Andreae, Coming Race by Edward Bulwer Lytton, and Zanoni by Edward Bulwer-Lytton.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Princess of Babylon
Discussed“In Candid gives kind of the final word in the book to a Turkish dervish. Uh in the princess of Babylon he depicts a golden age civilization on the banks of the Ganes.”
Where to get it
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An Essay on Universal History, the Manners, and Spirit of Nations
Discussed“Um so one of the things that he wrote during his very long life was an essay on the spirit of nations. Um which listed China and India he's kind of going through in a list what he views as like the oldest civilizations”
Where to get it
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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne is a classic 1870 science fiction adventure novel chronicling the subterranean and oceanic voyages of Captain Nemo aboard the Nautilus.
Discussed“So Bailey's ideas did not gain tremendous ground in his time. Uh Jules Vern actually mocks it. The whole book 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is Jules Vern making fun of this guy pretty much.”
Where to get it
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The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz
Discussed“In 1612 in the German city of Castle, an anonymous brochure was published. It was a manifesto of the Rosacrusian Order, an organization nobody had ever heard of before. The manifesto claimed that medieval occultist Christian Rosen Croy had founded an order”
Where to get it
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Coming Race
Coming Race by Edward Bulwer-Lytton is a nineteenth-century science fiction novel depicting an advanced subterranean civilization of beings who harness a mysterious and powerful energy source known as vril.
Discussed“Um and yeah, this book it's not Bull Woritten obviously this is published in 1871. Not a Nazi. I don't even think he's particularly a white supremacist, but his book is going to become extremely influential to the weirdest kind of Nazis.”
Where to get it
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Zanoni
Discussed“Um, and one of the books that Helina would have grown up loving from this guy is Zenoni, which is about a secret order of Rosaian who had psychic powers and lived forever. This is probably why Helina later claimed that her great-grandfather had been a Rosacruian”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (4) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“In Candid gives kind of the final word in the book to a Turkish dervish. Uh in the princess of Babylon he depicts a golden age civilization on the banks of the Ganes.”
“No, the silliest thing you could do is is write a book about how history has come to an end. Um, that's right, Fukuyama. Go look for Atlantis, decides, I'm going to find Atlantis.”
“I um always enjoy something like that where you're like yeah you could read the like when do you find out the Wizard of Oz is an allegory for something you're like well I didn't know about these agrarian like what”
“The hero of the story is presented as Hermes Tris Try Magistice, a god of Hellenic and Egyptian origin. Hermes getting heady, Robert, this is getting pretty the Emerald Tablet, which is like an a European alchemical text.”