Aristasia talks to the Goths!

In any case they asked some rather more interesting questions than most interviewers, so we thought you might like to see the result:

How did you get into Aristasia? Were you disillusioned with contemporary society’s mores?

I found the Pit banal, repulsive and contemptible from the age of ten. Of course, I didn’t call it the Pit then, but I would have done if I had known the word. I met Aristasians in my teens and was amazed to find people at last who felt the way I did. Lots of young Aristasians have this experience.

What does the Aristasian empire mean to you?

It is my home, my world, my nation. I have no loyalty to anything outside it. It is also the jolliest place imaginable. It combines high seriousness with elegance and idiocy. We can be talking about Transcendental philosophy one moment and lipstick the next, and then making silly, outlandish jokes. The Aristasian Empire means High Purpose and high jinks. It means cinemas and coffee-bars. It means tennis in the summer (with white dresses and white balls) and mulled wine in the winter. In short the Aristasian Empire means everything.

What is the most inspiring thing about Aristasia and why?

Many things about Aristasia are inspiring, so I shall have to pick one. Let me think of a nice unpopular one.

Yes.

In a world of tawdriness, cheapness and coarse vulgarity, Aristasia dares to be innocent.

Astonishing, inspiring and wonderful.

How is the empire organised? I know there’s the empress, which is hereditary, but who else is there? How does this differ from a contemporary democracy, like the USA?

It is important to understand that there are two Aristasias. There is Aristasia Pura and Aristasia-in-Telluria. Aristasia Pura is a parallel world. It is an Ideal. It is the “background” we choose to adopt and to us it is something far more than a fiction. In Aristasia Pura, blondes and brunettes are two biological sexes, which have babies together. Hair-colour is a secondary sexual characteristic. In Aristasia Pura there is also an hereditary Empress who is descended from the Sun. The Queens of the Seven Nations are descended from the seven Planetary Angels. The Empress is not manifest in Telluria (and blondes are as likely to be raven-haired as platinum), but then we do not at present have the necessities of large-scale political organisation!

How Aristasia Pura differs from a democracy like the U.S.A. is how any traditional society tends to differ from a modern one. Aristasian politics are not adversarial, neither are they seen as a way of continually messing about with society. If a monarch were to pass one law a year that would be a lot. Most institutions are traditional and customary. Most laws are not passed until they have become so customary that most people thought they were laws already.

Government as a “dynamic”, continually interfering, thing — like a bad motorist who steers too far one way and then has to steer too far the other: constantly over-correcting — is very much a phenomenon of the modern West and especially of its 20th century ideologies, democracy, bolshevism and fascism. Of course it has much to do with the doctrine of “continual progress” which we shall come to in a minute.

Why an empire? Why not a republic?

Because the Empress is descended from the Sun Herself. What Principle of Legitimacy could a republic have?

On your website, I’ve noticed you have your own argot (like any subculture). One word, bongo, springs to mind, because of it’s racist connotations. How did this term come about?

Aristasia contains Indian, African Chinese and Jewish girls. We are exclusive and elitist and our criteria are pretty strict, but race has never been one of them. On the other hand many Aristasians have never been averse to tweaking the nose of the po-faced bongo “anti-racialist” Establishment and its Policed Consciousness.

The term for the social & political changes of the post-1965 era you use is “The Eclipse”. Why do you use this term?

The term Eclipse was meant to signify a relatively sudden darkening of the world. A change took place in the 1960s/70s that was not simply a normal and legitimate progression from the world that went before it. An Eclipse is something that passes over, so I suppose the term implies that the changes will not be permanent. Whether this means that the Pit will rectify itself or will disappear into the quicksand of its own degeneracy is anybody’s guess.

8. In the way it treats the post-1965 world, is Aristasia reactionary?

The term “reactionary” begs a very important question. It assumes the 19th-century doctrine of “continuous progress” bolstered by a mythologised notion of “evolution” as a vague and woolly “upward” movement. “Reactionary” is a theological term that grows out of this mythos, meaning a Wicked Opposer of the Great God Progress. We do not subscribe to this mythology.

On the other hand, we have no interest in reviving any particular era of patriarchal history. We are not unduly keen on patriarchy in any form, and we see the Eclipse as freeing us from patriarchal history. It might be said that we plunder the ruins for stones to build our enchanted castle.

It can be argued that the changes of the 1950’s-70’s were much needed, but we’ve lost the best of what went before. What do you think we’ve lost and, in your opinion, how can we regain it (if at all)?

Some changes were good, some were bad. The good ones (and even some of the bad ones) could have happened without a general collapse of the culture. But they didn’t.

Aristasia is another country, and it is not our business to tell you what to do with yours. But if a hint were asked for, I would say that there is no value in being what the Marxists would term “reformist”. Twiddling with this bit or that bit of the Pit will not solve anything. You require a total revolution; and not a political revolution either. The rot lies a lot deeper than mere politics. You require a New Sensibility.

I know the terms “blonde” and “brunette” are metaphorical terms for the type of personality, how do they correspond to male stereotypes?

Recent research into sex-based personality differences shows that while there is one basic type of man, there are two basic types of woman. Blondes and brunettes appear to be a scientific fact as well as a fact of observation.

Male stereotypes tend to be derogatory about blondes, probably because blondes are further from male personality-types than brunettes are. While there are (decent) “dumb-blonde” jokes in Aristasia, the Golden Sex is regarded as being more spiritual and in some respects superior.

Are you parodying patriarchal ideas of femininity, reclaiming them or doing something else entirely?

Traditional ideas of femininity are not in themselves patriarchal. The idea that they are is based on the most extraordinarily hyper-patriarchal and andocentric assumption: that masculinity is “normal” and “natural” while femininity is artificial and “socially conditioned”.

Vast amounts of research continually confirm that the absence of testosterone, in both animals and humans, produces a female type of brain, and behaviour patterns that are precisely those “conventionally” associated with femininity. It is also the case that the brain is originally female. Only testosterone-exposure produces masculine characteristics.

So why is masculine behaviour treated as “normal” and feminine behaviour as “artificial” and “socially conditioned”? Because we live in a hyper-patriarchal, androcentric society.

I know it’s based on hyper-femininity, but are you parodying the patriarchal world you reject by constructing an empire?

Matriarchal Crete seems to have been the heart of an empire. Not one of conquest, but one of culture, influence and spirituality. Patriarchal empires, being ruled by Mars and the masculine principle, tend to be based on conquest. Since all the main forms of political organisation — the tribe, the city-state, the empire, the nation-state — have been both patriarchal and (apart — as far as we know — from the last-named) matriarchal, and since they were matriarchal first, the question clearly arises as to who is imitating whom.

Who are the important icons of the empire and who are your favourites?

I am not entirely clear what the term “icon” means in bongolese. Could it simply be a singer one likes, or would it have to be a person with a particular sort of “image”? Some figures we like are Marlene Diethrich, Greta Garbo, Diana Dors, Marilyn Monroe, the singers Ruth Etting and Annette Hanshaw, Catwoman (if played, played by Eartha Kitt), Emma Peel, Betty Boop, Princess Peach, Disney’s Snow White — the list could go on!

I’m a fan of Wonder Woman & Dita Von Tesse, two Aristasian icons. What makes a good icon, in your opinion?

I understand that the best icons are made by hereditary Russian craftsmen. But using the term in the bongo sense, I think for an Aristasian the key is that she personifies very strongly one aspect of the Essence of either blondeness or brunetteness.

What’s the best thing The Aristasian empire can offer a girl?

A world, where formerly there was none.

How do the wider public react when they see you?

I rarely notice. I didn’t even see how wide they were until you mentioned it. I suppose it depends how we are dressed, which could be anything from a smart jumper and skirt to full crinolines. In theory, we should get some reaction from the anti-fur nuts, but we don’t seem to. I imagine we don’t look like people who will stand for any nonsense.

I’ve noticed the Parallels with Anton La Vey’s “The Satanic Witch” in Aristasian aesthetics. Do you think La Vey was getting towards an aesthetic you share with Satanism? Where do you get your inspiration from?

I’m afraid I can’t be much help here as M. La Vey was, for me, until the last half-hour, in the same category as Mauritano Frumpfbucket — in other words, I hadn’t heard of him. I am now told that he is a Satanist. Oy Vey!

We are not Satanists. When Aristasians are religious (which they often aren’t) our religion is that of the Universal Mother, though, as you can imagine, we are a long way removed from feminist earth-mother types.

I cannot but acknowledge René Guénon as an influence on Aristasian thought, but most of it comes out of our own pretty heads.

Do you ever come up against other hostile subcultures? If so, which ones?

Less of the “sub” — we are a super-culture. And no.

Are there any famous pit dwellers you feel sorry for? Why?

I really am not aware of any famous Pit-dwellers. I don’t watch television or read newspapers and the Pit does not interest me. The only person who comes to mind is the late lamented Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the Queen Mother. It seems unfair and hateful that she should have seen her fair country turn into such a cesspit in her later years.

I’ve noticed the Pit is a term of derision for “the natives”, which implies savagery and degeneracy. Are you just like every other empire that’s come and gone in terms of contempt for the “bongos”? In what way are you different?

Many empires (and tribes and city-states) have regarded outsiders as barbarians. In fact, that is what the word barbarian means (from Greek barbaros = non-Greek). You speak as if this tendency in some way contributed to their demise. I submit that the Chinese Empire probably lasted a millennium or so longer than the Pit is likely to. Contempt for the outsider can under some circumstances be a healthy means of preserving cultural integrity.

However, it is not a means adopted by Aristasia. We have every respect for traditional Chinese culture, traditional Indian culture and even untraditional pre-Eclipse Western culture. We regard bongo culture as a grotesque aberration and an unsightly blot on the face of the universe simply because that is what it is.

Reading our website, I notice a use of images with fascistic overtones. The flag you use looks like the Celtic Cross that some Neo Nazi groups use. Yet your subculture’s analysis of contemporary Pop culture echoes Frankfurt School Marxism as well as fascism, saying it’s beneath contempt. Can you explain this dichotomy?

Aristasia is not influenced by either Marxism or Fascism. The Fora (known in Telluria as the Celtic Cross) is a very ancient symbol. You will see it in half the churchyards in Ireland as well as in most world-cultures. If bongo Neo-Nazi types have taken it up, that is none of our affair, and we were not especially aware of it.

Do you think Red Indians are Neo-Nazis because they have swastikas on their tepees? Do you think Hindus are Neo-Nazis because most Indian religious pictures incorporate swastikas? It is time the modern West woke up to the fact that the rest of the universe is not ruled by its particular obsessions. And that rest of the universe includes Aristasia.

Hip-hop’s now a radio & marketing format, high & low culture are indistinguishable from each other, tattoos and piercings other counter-culture imagery are used to sell artefacts of corporate America. Looking at type 3’s, 2’s and type ones and the octopus metaphor for the way the pit works , do you think there is now nothing to conform to any more yet nothing to rebel against?

This is what we have been saying for years. The “rebellion” of the Pit is a pseudo-rebellion. “Rebellion culture” itself is a contradiction in terms. Every other advertising hoarding tells people to “be different and individual” by buying this or that mass-product. Jeans are sold pre-torn over the counter of high-street shops. “Anti-Establishment” culture is big business, in fact there isn’t really any other culture. The main television stations pride themselves on their “anti-Establishment” attitudes, as if they weren’t the Establishment. The Government commits itself to tearing down a “reactionary society” that was dead before most of us were born.

So what lies behind this anti-Establishment Establishment? We Aristasians call it the doctrine of the Cardboard Enemy. The Pit has nothing positive of its own; it is just a revolt against genuine culture, so the only way it can survive ideologically is to prop up the mouldering corpse of the world it killed years ago and pretend the Great Revolution is still on.

St. Augustine, as a Platonist, spoke for all tradition when he said that evil is simply privatio boni the privation of the good; just as cold, however sharp and biting it may feel, is nothing but absence of warmth. The Pit in itself is nothing. It is merely a rebellion against something, which is why, even when that something is long dead, it cannot admit it and must continue its perpetual pseudo-rebellion.

The Pit is, in fact, a continuous whole. Its “alternatives” and internal oppositions are all part of the same thing. From its pseudo-radical fringes to its pseudo-conservative postures; from its multi-national “right” to its multi-cultural “left”; in every colourful but tasteless variety served up on its ideological supermarket shelves, all we really get is more Pit. The Pit thrives on its permitted oppositions, alternatives and tensions. You speak of counter-culture. Quite right. It comes over the shop counter.

Aristasia is building something different from this plastic pseudo-rebel culture. That is why it seems strange, different, “reactionary” and so forth. Why it is so difficult to pigeon-hole and so hard to grasp. In a world where everyone is bending over backwards to be different, Aristasia actually is different. People aren’t used to that.

If you can sum up the Aristasian world view in 50 words, what would you say?

Love, Beauty, Splendour, Magic, Honour, Valour, Nobility, Style, Elegance, Wit, Glamour, Superiority, Aristocracy, Truth, Order, Harmony, Fun, Gaiety, Laughter, Sensibility, Intelligence, Innocence, Purity, Kindness, Wisdom, Daring, Champagne, Cigarette-holders, Furs, Mystery, Moonlight, Aetheriality, Chivalry, Delicacy, Jazz, Foxtrots, Motherland, Shields, Banners, Tradition, Babycham, Lipgloss, Oysters, Tea, Muffins, Kisses, Tears, Exhilaration, Profundity, Life.

What’s the funniest thing you’ve noticed about the pit monsters? Is there anything about them that makes you laugh?

It is hard to find light relief in a clown-show. Either you find clowns funny or you don’t. If you do you’ll never stop laughing in the Pit. I suppose there was a time when I used to roll down the High in fits of uncontrollable merriment, but the joke hasn’t changed much over the years, and is starting to wear a bit thin. However, you might enjoy this story from a friend of mine:

“I remember a time when the Lady Alice's mother did an interview for a bongo wireless programme and we were listening-in. Every time the interviewer opened his mouth and let out a blast of his pseudo-pleb accent we dissolved into absolute gales of laughter.

“There was some bongo there at the time, whom the Alice-Mater was trying to reform or something, and she sat through the whole performance with a face like a boot set in concrete, completely unable to fathom what the hilarity was about.

“Which, of course, just added to the mirth. Ah, merry days!”

Guilty secrets: Is there any bit of pit culture you secretly love as a guilty pleasure? Is it because it’s forbidden?

Well, not really. Once I was in a hotel room with a brunette and we were a bit bored so we decided to be very naughty and watch the television, just to see if there was anything to tempt us. We scrolled through countless channels and they were all full of banal idiots with absurd accents. Nothing remotely tempting, even though we wanted to be tempted. So here is the answer to a question you must often have wondered about: Even forbidding it can’t make Pit-culture interesting.

What can a girl from the pit learn from Aristasian ideas?

They have told you femininity is weakness. They have lied. It is strength.

They have told you innocence is weakness. They have lied. It is strength.

They have told you ugliness is better than beauty, chaos better than order, slovenliness better than elegance, the low and inferior better than the high and superior. They have lied and lied again like the stunted dwarves they are.

Whether you become an Aristasian or whether you do not, dare to live the glory of your femininity, your innocence, your beauty and your superiority. Cast back the lie in their foolish, grinning teeth.

And do it with style.

Rayati Raihiranya
Hail (as the incarnation of the Sun) the Empress