H. L. Mencken and Götterdämmerung

September 11, 2018 | Posted by Peter Jakobsen | LIFE, METAPHYSICS, Non-Fiction | 0 Comments |

Wotan's ravens (by Arthur Rackham)

H.L.Mencken, 12 September, 1880

Mencken buried lots of idols, icons, and foolish ideas.  He also buried a swathe of gods:

Huitzilopochtli…was born of an apparently innocent flirtation that [his mother, a virtuous widow] carried on with the sun…But to-day Huitzilopochtli is as Marie Corelli. Once the peer of Allah, Buddha and Wotan, he is now the peer of Father Rasputin, J.B. Planché, Sadi Carnot, General Boulanger, Lottie Collins, and Little Tich.”*

Mencken goes on to list some 114 gods and comments:

They were gods of the highest standing and dignity – gods of civilized peoples – worshipped and believed in by millions. All were theoretically omnipotent, omniscient, and immortal. And all are dead.”

“they all withered and died…”

[* “Funeral March”, 1922.] [“With an alien people clutching their gods.

I should be glad of another death.”

T. S. Eliot, Journey of the Magi]

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