Having been to ‘Wahnfried’, Wager’s home in Bayreuth, I can attest to the far superior intellect of Wagner to Jos. Smith, Jr. Wagner’s personal library is on three sides of the central room, or ‘recital hall’ and there are morocco-bound copies of Rousseau, Diderot, Architecture, Music, Philosophy, etc. lining the shelves. No intellectual slouch, he!

Wagner’s “Gesamtkunstwerk” was his desire to re-birth the foundations of Western-Aryan Drama for the twentieth century, much as the Florentine Camerata did in the sixteenth, with the Orpheus legend, and the Operas of Caccini and Monteverdi.
But, as E. Michael Jones ALMOST makes believable, ['Dionysos Rising'] his concept of himself as an ‘artist’ whose morals were not bound to God’s Law in the Christian West, came through in his art, most specifically in “Tristan and Isolde,” where lust (‘love’) is more important than marriage- ‘arranged’ or otherwise! (and NO ONE remembers King Mark, after all!)

Wagner’s corpus of work cannot but be grounded in the West, even if his choice of matter in the Ring is from its furthest edges- or is it? As Vinci has recently noted, it seems ALL of the West’s culture, is derived from those “Aryan” types the children of the Antichrist (John 8:44) seem to ‘hate’ with an ‘everlasting hatred’- and we must never forget that it was Christ whom THEY crucified, not Wotan!

as to your post i think in simplistic terms Wagner just knows how to write a better story. I think this comes out in your observation of likeness to the “Truth” point. Smith does not write particularly well and his works are irksome to read through, because he is trying to subvert truth. One interesting point in his works he speaks of regions in North America but gives no maps or even basic drawings, landmarks. As to Mikes post i have seen in Blockbuster the “Book Of Mormon” on the shelf , not sure if it was they who produce it or not. There was one other i did see and it was on the life of the Smith Brothers and the founding of the Mormon cult. This video is again relaying all the mistruths of earlier versions of the Mormon story that have been debunked time and again. It is also funny seeing all those in the video that may be “religious” cast in dark dirty clothes, swaring, drinking while the Smith brothers are shown to be almost saint like, bright clean clothes( or well dressed if you like) always pious and upright, never drinking ,swearing and the like, hard working was another trait in the movie. If i remember the title i will reply back later.
steve hoffmeister

When listening to Wagner or even reading his librettos, one immediately recognizes that important questions are being asked. And though most are left unanswered, there is reward in the struggle. When reading the Book of Mormon (I tried once but couldn’t finish it) there is nothing to sink your teeth into. I wonder why Hollywood has not made a movie out of it yet. All the ingredients for a blockbuster are there: action, adventure, strange creatures, wooden characters, a general want of humanity, and bargain basement philosophy.