September 4, 2009

ABRACADABRA

There's a surprising strain of magical thinking in American culture, indeed, in American politics, which bears examination. As it turns out, much of this is a relatively modern phenomenon dating from the middle of the nineteenth century — thus, in certain cases, political rhetoric which we see as typically American would have been completely unknown to the Philadelphia Convention. (For example, 'Yes, we can!') Anyhow, the whole larger issue of mysticism in American thought all too often gets passed over by mainstream history. For a flavor of what we've missed I turned to Mitch Horowitz, editor in chief of Tarcher/Penguin and author of the just about to be published Occult America. It was great to talk with Mitch, who's a very decent soul and unusually knowledgeable, too. Total runtime, an hour and twelve minutes.