This translation of the famous Cavalcare la Tigre (1961) is from noone less than Joscelyn Godwin (1945-) the famous scholar on paganism, music and Renaissance occultism. The name of Godwin might remove the sharp edges of this book, which is a good thing in my opinion. The translation is very well readable and Evola’s writings are again an interesting read. I might not agree with several things Evola says and in this book he proves why I do not really regard the man as a Traditionalist, but the nice thing about Evola is that he is practical. The things he describes are recognisable, the things he suggests can often be worked on yourself. Also in several regards he is less pessimistic as Guénon and takes the situation for what it is. This “situation” is of course the degenerate state of modern society and it is exactly that which Evola writes about. Sometimes I find him a bit too down-to-earth. Chapter after chapter is dedicated to proving philosophers and more particularly existentialists wrong, while the note that philosophers work on another level than metaphysicians would have been enough for me. I do not need this philosophising that I cannot follow anyway. What concerns me what lays beyond that sphere. Further Evola describes excesses in society in the form of modern art, music, drugs, sex, nationalism, relationships, etc. and it is very clear that time did not stop after Evola. While Evola is concerned with people smoking “hashish”, people in swiming cloths on the beach, beatnik music based on African rhythms, etc. I sometimes find myself smiling to what Evola already regarded as offensive of degenerate. Would he have survived another 40 years, he might have wanted to rewrite this book entirely. In any case, Ride The Tiger has plenty of food for thought, a nicely radical look on modern society and even some more ‘metaphysical’ theories. Another nice and not all that controversioal read of this controversial author.
1961 -2003 inner traditions, isbn 0892811250
Quotes from this and other books by Evola can be read here, a biography of Evola that I wrote many years ago here.
