Tag Archives: Ferdinand

The Bookshelf: Three Years of Hate

The now defunct blog, In Mala Fide, (archive here) was a cornerstone of the manosphere and the linkage I received from Ferdinand was instrumental in building my blog’s reader base. While I didn’t always agree with Ferd, his posts always got you thinking and I enjoyed them thoroughly for the last few months of his blog.

So, when I heard that Ferd was releasing a book of his best posts, I immediately went to Amazon and purchased it. Three Years of Hate arrived a few days ago (Amazon.com takes forever to be delivered to Canada and .ca didn’t have it) and I read through it within 3 days.

The book is essentially one man’s cynical raging against the world. If you’ve read In Mala Fide, you obviously know the style. Ferd writes cogent essays that seethe with a cold, burning hate.  You can feel his animus, directed at everything and anything, as you read. This is nihilism distilled to it’s essence and applied to a random smattering of topics. If you are looking for positivity, look elsewhere. If you are looking to see a number society’s untouchable shibboleths virulently attacked, then you are in the right place.

His writing style is somewhat more in the style of academic/intellectual literature than most blogs in the manosphere, as can be expected from a literary major, but never veers into the realm of intellectual masturbation or unnecessary verbosity or complexity for their own sake. It also does not forsake the use of low humour or foul language. The humour section (particularly the aforementioned article on radio PSA’s) had me laughing to myself.

Ferd covers a wide variety of topics, from radio PSA’s to solipsism to America’s ‘War on the Catholic Church’, all divided into four major sections of the book: Sexuality, What’s Wrong with the World, the Tao of Ferd, and Humour. Sexuality is self-explanatory and includes an expanded version of the manosphere classic “The Eternal Solipsism of the Female Mind”. What is Wrong with the World is primarily socio-political essays. The Tao of Ferd is a random mishmash of articles that seem to be grouped together because they didn’t really fit elsewhere; it includes a few book reviews, some literary analysis (more enjoyable than it sounds), and other miscellania. Humour is self-explanatory and is most definitely humourous.

I only read IMF for the last few months of its existence, so I can’t say much about the essay selection chosen for the book and if any important ones were missing. The essays in the book were all excellent. Each one was well-written and thought-provoking (although, Ferd did criticize the use of thought-provoking in book reviews, so…). Because of this diversity of views, if you know a disenfranchised young man or someone new to the alt-right, this book could be nice intro, as long as they aren’t too easily offended.

Overall, the book is amazing. There are only two reasons I could see not to get it.

1) If you’re really cheap, you could all the essays on the archive free either now or some point in the future (I haven’t checked if they’re all available yet), but you should buy the book anyway to support those who do good work.

2) The book is offensive. If you are easily offended by, well, anything, this is not the book for you. As a random example, one of the essays is titled, The Necessity of Domestic Violence

Recommendation:

Read this book. It is thoroughly entertaining, and will give you a lot to think on. The only reasons not to buy it are if you are going to read the archives instead because you’re cheap (don’t you have a measly $5 to support the guy who wrote In Mala Fide for 3 years) or easily offended. And if you’re easily offended, buy the book anyway, it will be good for you to experience more beyond your narrow experience. It might get you thinking and questioning the socially-created assumptions you hold.

Lightning Round – 2012/06/05

Some sad news for the Manosphere: Ferd is shutting down In Mala Fide. I wrote on this already, but it bears repeating.

In other Manosphere news, the Captain is creating an intro guide with links.

INTJ’s seem overrepresented in the Manosphere. There must be something about analytical, socially awkward individuals that attracts them here.

CDM-N has some advice for Christian ladies looking to become marriageable.

Questions for budding patriarchs: do you practice and live what you preach? I haven’t, but I hope to create this.

The Captain finds a humorous video.

Interesting that this is coming from a mainstream magazine. Wonder if this will help change anything?

Waiting until her thirties can really reduce a women’s options.

Oh Spain. Too bad TNR doesn’t really connect their ideology with what’s happening there.

Only the government could lose money on a Timmies in Canada.

The social gospel types in the Catholic Church are reaping what they sowed.

(h/t Instapundit)

Goodbye Ferd

Ferdinand is shutting In Mala Fide and In Bona Fide down later this week.

He will be missed. I’ve only been reading In Mala Fide for half a year or so and I didn’t always agree with him but his posts were always thought-provoking. His exit will be a great loss to the manosphere.

In addition, Ferd’s linkage posts were a great help in getting traffic to my blog started, so I want to thank him for that. I’m sure he helped out many others in our little neck of the blogosphere with those.

So, head over there and wish him luck in his new opportunity.

******

Reading Ferd’s goodbye post, got me to thinking on the purpose of this blog and it’s future. It’s still new and there’s a lot to write, so there’s little chance of it disappearing any time soon, but I think the blog is unlikely to be a permanent part of my life.

I was an underworked cubicle drone with nothing to look forward to but high blood pressure and pawing at drunken co-eds on the weekend. I had escaped the hell of post-college underemployment, a familiar hell to white guys in their twenties, into a new hell of ennui and listlessness. I was miserable and cranky
….
My problem is that In Mala Fide no longer reflects who I am.

This sounds more or less like the reason I recently started this blog, but at some point this part of my life will be over, whether through acceptance of my lot, the success of self-directed changes in my life, or a change to my circumstances.

The specific purposes of this blog is for me to ascertain what kind of life I will pursue: whether it will be as a traditional Christian patriarch, an irresponsible alpha, a MGTOW beta, or just another beta going through the prescribed motions of life. I’ve given myself until I turn 30 to decide. That’s still a couple years away, but at that time, depending on what I choose, there’s a good chance this blog may end. Depending on what occurs in life, it may end before that.

I don’t plan on quitting blogging any time soon, but I’ve found that writing two or three big posts a week is eating too much of my limited free time. Between my full-time work, hobbies, and social life, I only have a couple free evenings a week, and if I spend every one of them writing 1000-2500 word posts I think I might burn out in only a few months. Now that I’ve established a base of content, future posts will likely either become smaller and/or less frequent.

*****

I’ve now spent 300+ words writing about and contemplating the future of my two month old blog in a post about saying goodbye. Ferd is right: “All bloggers are narcissists and attention whores, every single one.”

Check out his site while you still can.