Customer Reviews

The Book of the SubGenius : The Sacred Teachings of J.R. 'Bob' Dobbs

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

In 1993 I received an unexpected surprise: my brother and I were browsing through the Buck-a-Book discount bookstore in the Cambridge area (Buck-a-Book is a prime source for Slack!) one day, when he found a copy of the Book of the SubGenius on sale for one dollar. He showed it to me, knowing how I had pointed out "Bob" a few times in the past. I snatched the book up and bought it...after all, what's a buck these days? Plenty, as it turned out. I enjoyed the book immensely, and I thought the message of the Church of the SubGenius was a good one. This was back when memberships in the Church were still $20, and every so often I would look through the Book and say, "I should really send in the money and get ordained." But I didn't...because I didn't GET IT.

But the pivotal day came in February, 1994, when Buck-a-Book came through again! This time I was browsing the store in the business district of Boston during my lunch hour, when I came across the book that was to change my life: "High Weirdness by Mail." ("Three-Fisted Tales of 'Bob'" was also on sale for a buck that day, but I didn't get it yet.) I picked it up and said to myself, "I really should get this - it's only a buck!" and I bought it. A good omen occured right there at the cash register: the cashier saw the book and he said, "That is such a GREAT book! I've gotten so much weird stuff from that book...my neighbors think I'm crazy!"

So I read the book...and I WAS STRUCK BY A REVELATION! The rightings within this Sacred Tome were as much of an eye-opener as Rick had been! The chapter on dangerous hate groups alone was worth the cost of the book (the full cost, that is - not just a buck), and the book's musings on the philsophies of life and what is good (and what isn't) helped me to truly read between the likes of the Book of the SubGenius at last. YES! I was struck by the reality of the true meaning of the Church of the SubGenius...and it was good! It was something I already believed in! It was a cause worth sending money to! I finally GOT IT! Within the next week, I finally wrote out my $20 and mailed it in to the Sacred P.O. Box. I also went back to Buck-a-Book and got "Three-Fisted Tales" before it vanished, though I thought (and still think) that it wasn't as good as first two books had been.

When you first read "The Book of the SubGenius," you may not GET IT. Only those of true Yeti heritage will be blessed with the vision that is J.R. "Bob" Dobbs...and one of those rare souls could be YOU. You MUST see the Book of the SubGenius. Even if you don't GET IT right now, you will one day...if it is right for YOU!

"Bob" Dobbs is a madman and must be stopped!

He is defiling the hearts, eyes, ears, and intestines of our nations' children! His insidious "slack orgies" and "suicide competitions" can turn your normal child into a deranged, slackjawed robot who pursues nothing but the teachings of this lunatic pornographer! If your children are acting "abnormal", are physically "ugly", or have been recently diagnosed with "ADD" or "HERPES" chances are they may have joined Mr. Dobbs' fraudulent sex-death-cult!

Buy this book so you can learn to protect your family from the teachings of this devilish and dapper man! THEN BURN IT!!!

At first, I thought this book was pure EVIL. So I burned it, only to have it appear that night (in perfect condition, yet still warm and a slight smokey odor) under my pillow. So I burned it again the next morning. Yep, you guessed it, under my pillow the next night. I began to read and spent the majority of the next 3 months with gut-wrenching laughter and tears of joy as this confusing world was clearified and classified into an eternal perpetual joke for which only BOB has the punchline. YES!, Brothers and Sisters, You too can be saved by the Grace of BOB. Eternal Salvation or triple you money back!!! No other religion can make such a hefty promise! This is the world's only admitted "for-profit" religion. This book has changed my life. Before, I was a low-life loser who never had any money, women, fun, or slack. Now I am a low-life loser who has no money, women or fun,.... .... BUT I HAVE PLENTY OF SLACK!!!!! PRAISE BOB!

The question has oft come up as to who is the greatest writer of all time. Shakespheare, Dickens, Joyce, Aristotle, the writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls? Those guys... couldn't write their way out of a WET PAPER BAG. This I have learned after reading The Book of the Subgenius; razor-sharp wit, profound insight, and social commentary that is the TRUEST THING YOU WILL EVER READ. We need to airdrop thousands of copies of this thing across the USA like CIA leaflets over an impoverished Nicaraguan town. At first I thought perhaps Thomas Pynchon, Robert Anton Wilson and Hunter S. Thompson collaborated on this book, until I realized - IT'S STILL TOO GOOD! And that's when the horrifying, apocalyptic, pipe-smoking, grinning chaos of truth hit me like a Mack truck - BOB IS REAL!!! There is no alternative explanation.

The Book of the SubGenius is a devastatingly astute dissection and indictment of our society and all the socio-political, religious and commercial institutions that sustain it masquerading as sheer nonsense. You will hate this book if you are a Neo-con or a radical Liberal and you will be scared witless if you're a comfort driven, conflict avoiding middle of the roader. If this is the case, then you are part of the Con and ironically most in need of Slack and therefore must buy this book and read it just as you would surely submit to the most extremely painful but life saving medical procedure.

The notion that the figureheads pushing and representing any ideology even those as contrasting as communism and capitalism have your best interest in mind has never been revealed so plainly and humorously as fallacious. Our post 9-11 society has not only failed to diminish the teachings of The Book of the SubGenius it has in fact reinvigorated them with a renewed sense of relevancy.

If you buy into the idea of language as a virus then The Book of the SubGenius is a computer virus for the human brain. It fits comfortably between your old collection of "Mad Magazine" and your well worn copies of "Brave New World" and "!(*$" better known as "1984". If it fails to reprogram or even mildly impress you, you can at least gawk at the funny pictures before returning to the comfort of the illusory environment that has been fabricated for both the benefit of your sanity as well as your unwitting cooperation in the continuation of the Con.

Assuming you never heard of the Church of the SubGenius, and their horrible, discordian, and nerdish beliefs...I'd say it's about time you did. BUY THIS BOOK.

A true remedy for all the [junk] that clouds the minds of modern man. You might think you think, but you WON'T think the same after this thought provoking 'reveal all' tale. Life begins AFTER you look at this book for the first time. A true mind opener. Ever felt the popular, and organized religions are missing the boat, or that TV ad media are hiding the facts, or maybe that people are just looking at you weird because THEY just don't GET IT? The answers are here. This is truely a guide to fill in every missing crack, especially yours. Stang and Drummond (with the help of Bob Dobbs) have burst open the doors to a unique INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH CHURCH that will clear the cobwebbs from your eyes so you can replace them with a wool of your own choosing.

Filled with passages fusing together the histories and religions of mankind's blatantly pointless path, the SubGenius detail how you can be freed from the bounds of this horrible present life style of common possession and launch yourself headlong into THEIR HELLISH HEAVEN of individual, spastic, self expression. Filled with plenty of illustration, clip art collages and snappy sayings meant to confuse the unworthy! You can read it in bits, or all the way through; it doesn't matter because you can't go back from this experience.

A great organization, a ground breaking book, I still won't pay MY [money] to these guys. It might be TOO much Slack, but I'd just call it laziness, or prudent money management.

There is nothing, and never will be anything, like the Book of the SubGenius. It is a one-of-a-kind tome that reflects the ridiculous and arbitrary nature of pop-culture consumerism, with a healthy dose of patriarchal institutional mind-control parody thrown in just for good measure. If you have any interest in sharing in the absurdities and humor of the mixed up and misdirected belief systems of our society- or if you just want to have a good time- then this book is for you. It's a 6-star (with a rubber bunny).

Yes, I'm a card-carrying member, but that won't prevent me from trying to have an honest opinion about The Book. In short, it's a great piece of history that members must own, and that nobody else will probably care to, which is precisely what the book was made for.

If you don't know what the Church of the Subgenius is already, don't grab this book trying to find out. You'll get a much better introduction from a general internet search and existing wikis. The Book is intentionally made in a very provocative manner, meaning you either "get it" or you don't. Odds are that if you aren't already ordained, or if you haven't at least talked to a friend in the Church, you're only going to be confused by the work. The probability that you won't understand the book is even outlined in the opening pages, and you'll probably put the book down right where it tells you to.

The Book of the Subgenius has to be viewed as more than just a comedy book now, both due to its age and content. It serves as the cornerstone of the literature of the Church of the Subgenius (the "prescriptures"), and sure, it's spawned a couple of sequels that have done well for itself, but it does is best job doubling as a reference work. It opens up with a visually modified version of "Pamphlet #1" aka "The world ends tomorrow and you may die!" and contains several other rants and raves and prescriptures that have appeared elsewhere over the years, alongside some fairly unique material and some really excellent visual work with all the remixed pictures and classic use of clipart.

Church members who have spent some time reading their Ordainment materials will probably see a lot of familiar stuff in here, meaning that the book probably doesn't have the impact that it once might have in terms of being a raw experience that makes you want to read the whole thing through- members will probably need to skip to the end of things they recognize while noting the excellent art.

But it seems very much like The Book wasn't really intended to be read straight through in one sitting. It does in fact read much more like the religious texts it parodies, and walks that fine line that the Church walks between parody and true absurdist cultism.

So if you're a member, you owe it to "Bob" to offer your money in exchange for this enlightenment (and buy it new so "Bob" gets your money directly). If you're not a member, but you've heard some things and want to find out of this is all for you, buy this book and see if it catches your favor. If you're totally unfamiliar with the Church, buy this book, look at how it's all gone wrong, and never read it again, knowing well that "Bob" still has your money. And if you still don't get it, don't bother.

One word: brilliant! Many words: This book is equal parts scathing indictment of conformist thought, a sincere exhortation for the free-thinking individualist to not lose faith in himself/herself, an amusing cosmogony filled with sundry gods, demons, yetis, aliens and more, a free-spirited religious/philosophical treatise on the merits of self-indulgence, an ego-maniacal, self-aggrandizing rant and a blatant attempt to "cash in" by Ivan Stang, a satire on mainstream American culture AND seemingly "counter culture" types (cults, hippies, punks...; in short any "followers" of any stripe or creed), and one long, self-satirizing, not-at-all-to-be-taken-seriously joke.
If all this sounds like essential reading for any sane person in an insane world, then...your right! If all this sounds like a stupid, rambling, jerk-yer-chain-jape, then...your right!
Based on all that, if you cannot conceive how this book could could be so ESSENTIAL, then you're *SO PINK* you can't think straight anyways.

Here's what they didn't teach you in school. The answers to life happiness and slack. Who knew it was so easy? Bob did. You may now stop reading forever.