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| Matthew Remski and Scott Petrie's new book is a must-read |
"The doors of life must be broken to test the hinges and the doors."
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| Andre Breton, 1922 |
wrote eccentric, dissident artist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, in the
Futurist Manifesto of 1908, as he announced a brand new art movement that was daring forward at breakneck speed into the unknown. In a wholescale rejection of the past, he affirmed that the basic structures of the day must be destroyed in order to be put to the test. In 1924, Andre Breton put out an inflammatory piece of writing called
Le Manifeste du Surrealisme in which he proclaimed:
"The purest surrealist act is walking into a crowd with a loaded gun and firing into it randomly"
In
Yoga 2.0, Mala 1: Shamanic Echoes, authors Matthew Remski and Scott Petrie declare:
"...all yogis must resist Yoga. If you meet the "Yogi", kill the "Yogi".
In the art-world, this kind of hyperbole may be commonplace. But in the tenderfooted, deferential, and well-mannered world of contemporary yoga, this kind of statement carries a tenor decidedly more sweeping and incendiary. As if that is not warning enough, this book comes with an additional warning. Namely, that this is not a book at all.
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| Matthew Remski |
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| Scott Petrie |
It is not a textbook, or a guidebook, or a warm and fuzzy personal account of the trinkets and prizes hard won by the soul through earnest yoga practice. There are no anatomical drawings; or prescriptions for specific asanas. In fact, by the latter part of the book, the book admits it does not want to be a book. In fact, it's suspicious of book culture altogether. Then you notice that all its careful observation is countered by equal proportion of wild hypothesis and adventurous suggestion. Well then, you think, this is not the work of a neutral observer, or a cool academic, or worthy scientist, is it? And, from the quote above, anyone can see that it doesn't shrink at provocation. So what is this colorful piece of writing... this delinquent, prodigal text written in grand hyperbole and rich allegory?
Yoga 2.0 is nothing short of a yoga manifesto, replete with similar hallmarks, props and literary devices. By the time Matthew and Scott are done with their narrative of yoga, as it ticks through the timeline of evolutionary biology, "Capital Y" Yoga, as a permanent entity, with appeals to scriptural authority and authenticity, is, if not demolished, at least knocked around a bit. By the end of the book, contemporary yoga practice looks rickety enough that it might be little more than an elegant acropolis built from toothpicks.
