Recently a young man asked me why I wrote the three View books - a very honest and up front question. I told him that if he bought me a beer or two, I would readily answer. He did, and this is what I told him.
It is a rare that someone asks an author "why" they wrote anything. Often it's assumed that the author wrote a book for some creative reason, or for the reading pleasure of the public. In other words, the author wrote the book to entertain a segment of the reading public, much like television writers bang out TV episodes for an adoring audience. As sure as the sky is blue on a bright sunny day, that was not my reason. The Views were written to ask a man (or for that matter a woman) a simple question or two. In the wake of political correctness and the numbing of the individual they ask, do you have the right stuff and ... are you a good man?
All three use the same work book type format: a written essay is followed by verses from The Havamal. What comes after the verses is/are one or several questions, along the lines of...... what is your opinion, how do you feel about that, what do you think, etc. These are probing questions with ample spaced provided for the individual reader to answer in writing. And, this is not a test; there is no right or wrong answer.
The essays first breathed life as individual blog posts, with my eye on bringing bringing them together under The View titles; in many cases, I was a bystander or an active participant. As they say, shit happens. But not every blog post I wrote found its' way into The Views; they did not fit the desired mold, although they do have the desired starch to stand on their own.
It was a painful experience to pair individual essays with the proper Havamal verses and then write out the appropriate questions - the results I wanted depended on this delicate pairing. A few of my readers have told me that they were surprised with the answers they wrote; it made them think. And thinking about do I have the right stuff and....am I a good man....should lead the thoughtful man to action. Action, deeds that will make him a force for good. Deeds that will be remembered long after he passes from this life. And while The Views are directed at Asatruar/Heathens, men and women of any stripe can find them useful. That is why I wrote The Views; there will not be a fourth. Three manuals about personal improvement are enough.
Copyright @2016 Terry Unger
