This Friday, Terror House Press will release its 33rd book: Full Moon Reaction by Justin Geoffrey, a humorous and dark examination of American culture, drawing on Geoffrey’s personal life and extensive knowledge of history and alchemy. Bill Marchant, author of Northern Reaction and editor of Ending Bigly: The Many Fates of Donald Trump (released by Terror House last year), described Full Moon Reaction as “like a long walk through a dark forest with an old friend. As insightful and compelling as it is unexpected. Highly recommended.” I recently sat down for an interview with Geoffrey to discuss his book, current events, “secret history,” and other topics.
***
Matt Forney: Full Moon Reaction is your first published work, the product of a lifetime of study and thought. What inspired you to write the book?
Justin Geoffrey: A combination of ego and curiosity inspired me to write the book. I have always wanted to see my name in print, plus I do feel that I have a unique perspective on a wide variety of matters. I am also curious to see how this book is received; will people hate it? Love it? Accept it? It’ll be fun to watch.
MF: As a Canadian who was raised in the U.S., you have a unique perspective on America as someone who is both part of it and an outsider. How does your dual heritage influence your writing and perspective, if at all?
JG: Well, on the one hand, as an Anglo-Canadian, I am aware of how similar U.S. and Canadian cultures are. We speak the same language, and of course English-speaking Canadians are only in the Great White North because they fought for the British during the Revolution. On the other hand, being foreign-born gives a different perspective than my American peers. For instance, I know how bad things can get if you give up on a country’s unique identity, or if you decide to embrace negative nationalism, i.e. nationalist pride based on being what you are not, in this case American. I will also add that being Canadian has given me a greater menagerie of cryptids to study too.
MF: Your work is steeped in Americana; when reading Full Moon Reaction for the first time, I saw the unmistakable influence of H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, and other greats of horror. What writers and thinkers have most heavily influenced your work?
JG: Definitely Lovecraft and Poe, plus British luminaries like Bram Stoker, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, and Robert Louis Stevenson. I am also a big fan of George Grant, who diagnosed Canada’s political problems all the way back in 1964. These days, I primarily read indie novels, especially those published by self-proclaimed dissidents. That is where the energy is.
MF: Core to your book is its exploration of “secret history”: the hidden currents and eddies that have shaped America since its inception, with a particular focus on the occult. Occult influence can be found to some extent everywhere in the Western world, but in essays such as “To Cast Fortunes is to Cast Judgments,” you argue that occultism had a uniquely central role in shaping American society. Why do you believe this is the case?
JG: Because occultism and magic have been here from then start. Both the Puritans and Virginians found a magical wilderness populated with demons that challenged their Christian beliefs. In a similar vein, the commingling of different Northern European bloodlines in the colonial era created occult syntheses, wherein, say German and Dutch myths mixed with English ones. The same occurred in Canada, albeit not to the same extent. In the U.S., you really had multiple societies based around interpreting divine symbols. This was especially true in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, owing to their strict Calvinism.
MF: Full Moon Reaction is not purely a history or political book; it also dedicates a significant amount of space to personal memoir, tying the book’s disparate strands together. In “Wagie Life,” you sardonically narrate a typical day in your life, while “Dating” is an exploration of the relationships you’ve had with women. What made you opt to insert your own story into the book and how do you think your personal anecdotes relate to the concept of Full Moon Reaction?
JG: I put those in there to counterbalance the occultism and weirdness. I show, through writing, how dull and milquetoast the contemporary world has become. We are surrounded by incredible cybernetic technologies, and yet most do not use them for much more than vapid entertainment. Also, with “Dating,” I wanted to pull back the curtain and display just how charmless modern romance has become.
MF: As mentioned earlier, your dual heritage—born in Canada, raised in the U.S.—makes you somewhat unusual among writers in dissident circles. Canada and the U.S. are two countries that spring from the same origin, but dramatically different at their cores, with Canada defining itself in opposition to the U.S., or at least what Canadians perceive the U.S. to be. What are your thoughts on the differences between Canada and the U.S. and the divergent paths they took? And aren’t you glad that you don’t have to suffer the rule of Justin Trudeau?
JG: I wish nothing but bad things to Trudeau. He is a useless popinjay that accurately shows the unseriousness of Canadian politics. I feel bad for the truly great Canadians like Kevin Michael Grace and others, as Canadian conservatism is actually more intellectually robust than its American cousin. That said, Canada has no dynamism. It’s a dying country that is selling its soul to the Chinese. The worst part about it is its complete social conformity. Canadians tend to do what they’re told. It is really pathetic.
MF: To expand upon the last question, one of the essays in Full Moon Reaction is called “The Twilight of the Anglosphere,” focusing on the seeming implosion of the U.S. and other English-speaking nations. What do you believe caused the slow-motion suicide of the U.S., Australia, and other Anglosphere nations, what would you propose to right the ship, and what future do you see for the Anglosphere absent a serious course correction?
JG: Give up on liberalism is the first thing. Second, the Anglosphere needs a complete gutting of their elites. The ruling classes of America, the U.K., Canada, and Australia are venal, risk-averse, and increasingly hysterical. Another worthwhile endeavor would be to shrink the size of the central governments. Most of the rot in the Anglosphere comes from the decades-long bloating of the central governments. Finally, the Anglosphere needs to reverse course on the unstated “strategy of tension,” where the elites maintain power by creating tension and agitation among the populations along racial, class, and religious lines.
MF: Finally, do you have any future books or projects in the pipeline?
JG: I have a few articles kicking around my head, including one about my experiences with Santeria. Besides that, I am returning to my study to further my knowledge of the arcane.
MF: Thank you for your time.
***
Full Moon Reaction is out now: you can buy it by clicking here. If you want to learn more about the book, you can read excerpts at Terror House Magazine here.
