Apocalypse Culture
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Apocalypse Culture description
For years I've been a little leery of this book. First published in 1987, this anthology of doomster essays has become a fixture on the bookshelves of every Tom, Pierced Dick, and Harry. After finally reading it, I have to admit that my prejudice against those who think that being cool means reading lots of ReSearch magazines kept me away from w ... review details
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Apocalypse Culture Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
A mixed bag of eccentricities, but I think that was probably the intent.
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Someone once said of this book (or maybe it was the second, I don't recall exactly) that if nothing in it offends you, then you aren't thinking. I think thats a decent assesment, and given the often conflicting material in the book, I doubt anyone is expected to agree with everything (or even anything) inside it. Some of the material is just curiosities, and some of it I find fills a place in my music collection (the entries by Monte Cazazza and so on. Sure, they aren't musical, but I like to collect everything I can, musical or not.)
Although its been a while since I read the piece, I recall finding the section on the Process Church quite fascinating, and it was the first actual in depth work I read on that subject. Same with the Jack Parsons piece, a subject I had heard about due to my prior interest in conspiracy theories, but had never delved too deep in to it.
The Monte Cazazza and Michelle Handleman piece is enjoyable and is in many ways a forerunner to much of the modern concerns over excessive consumerism and advertising, covering this ground long before Adbusters was formed, or Fatland and Affluenza hit the best seller lists.
Its actually surprising, now that I look back at the book and compare it to the world now, how some of the more political topics in it, such as the chapter titled "How To Kill" (regarding whether or not African Americans are subjects of a secret program of white supremacist genocide) have, in various forms, entered mainstream political discourse.
One of my favorite parts, since its just so unintentionally amusing due to the content, are the unusual letters to the editor, which elicit some decent laughter.
Also on a more humorous note are the Charles Fort quotes, since, despite the seriousness with which people take "fortean" phenomenon today, Charles himself was quite the humorist and approached often these matters with tounge firmly in cheek. Thats not to say he enver had anything serious to say; he certainly did, but as some fo these quotes show, he never wanted to say it as a prophet of doom or finger wagger.
The most serious, and I think "prophetic" section, (no pun intended) is the one titled "The Christian Right, Zionism, and the coming of the Penteholocaust." This essentially details, without going in to too much specifics here, how a small cadre of right wing christian fundamentalists wanted to trigger the end of the world. As insane as that sounds, its all too real, and the reality of it has become even more frightening in the 20 some years since the book was released. Back then, I'll grant that this may have been a fringe phenomenon even in the religious right, but the idea that christians must somehow "accelerate" the coming of Jesus has become much more common in the religious right. Its what drives fundamentalists to do things like pay for Jews to return to Israel en masse (as they think all Jews must return to Israel before the end of the world can occur.) This chapter was my first exposure to this frightening ideology, and I'm sad to say that no one has heeded the warnings, and these people who would try to bring about the end of the world are all the more powerful today. That piece alone makes the both worth buying, and I think its a good introduction to the myriad of writings on that subject.
Two more points of minutae;
1.The book, as is often claimed provided inspiration for Chris Carter of X-Files fame, and loving the X-Files as much as I do, that just adds to the books favor.
2.Content aside, the book is a great piece to own for the excellent Joe Coleman art that graces the cover. |
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