Customer Reviews

A Consumer's Guide to the Apocalypse: Why There is No Cultural War in America and Why We Will Perish Nonetheless (Religion and Contemporary Culture)

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The academic literary critic has been described as a eunuch ... yearning to produce powerful art, yet incapable of more than commenting upon the production of others. Velasquez breaks this academic mold and has accomplished the impossible.

"A Consumers Guide to the Apocalypse" begins at the level of every pop-culture consumer. Velasquez simply reads what's on the page, the stage and theater screen and patiently listens. What emerges is our fascination with apocalyptic themes. There is no conspiracy afoot, just the plain simple fact that unrelated and widely consumed `art' is itself consumed by the same issue.

Velasquez takes each artist in question in earnest. This is not an academic parsing, but rather the attempt to understand the artists as they express themselves. Don't worry about your favorite song becoming fodder for a sophomore research paper, but do be prepared to question exactly why you like these artists in the first place.

Velasquez is different than the academic eunuchs, because he does not assume pop-culture is different than his culture ... and our culture too. This book is first rate and should become the model for all honest reflection on our times.

This book is controversial. If you don't have a thick skin, don't read it. If you're at all mildly interested in modern culture and you can take the heat of controversy, give it a try. You may get something out of it if you are open-minded enough.

A Consumer's Guide to the Apocalypse deals with the two topics of academic and daily life that shroud 21st century America: science and theology. It seems as though the struggle between these two apparently juxtaposed fields pits individuals against each other as they choose one over the other, but this book has no place for dogma. The close-minded evolutionary biologist and the Catholic bishop find themselves absent from this book. And for good reason.

CGA's first half devotes itself to the failure of science as a means of explaining human existence. The author refuses to accept that the study of cell structure and the activity of molecules define humanity, and in doing so, he may step on a few feet of those working in laboratories who devote their lives to atomic structure. But reverence is not the theme of the book. Self-understanding is. And self-understanding may at times be necessarily ruthless.

CGA's second half devotes itself to the failure of theology as a means of explaining human existence. Drawing from the anti-Christian lyrics of Dave Matthews, the nihilism of Fight Club, and the rebellion of Tori Amos, the author manages to repulse every right-wing Bible-believing Christian since Saint Augustine. And even though the Christian reader may be far from amused, he may appreciate the wildly opposing viewpoint. The interesting part is that on many occasions, the author does not state his own opinions, but analyzes the artists' views and lets his own conclusions speak for themselves through the artists. Some may call this cowardice; others, brilliance.

And then we arrive at the grand conclusion. Laying science to one side and theology to the other, we pick up a new mentality that finds itself to be a happy medium between these two, and although not specifically stated, appears to be "spirituality."

The connection with various modern philosophers is apparent and Velasquez pays homage to them in the bibliographic essay at the end of the book. The reader will discover many flirtations with existential and nihilistic philosophers throughout--the words "beyond good and evil" seem to make an appearance every now and then. And the book of Genesis also finds its place throughout, especially in the conclusion, which is entitled "A New Genesis."

Do not read this book for answers. Read it for questions. CGA manages to pose thought-provoking queries of relevance for today's society that seems overly immersed in aesthetics over existence. Socrates would be proud.

A newfound view upon the world of pop culture has been unearthed in Eduardo Velasquez's A Consumer's Guide to the Apocalypse. Instead of simply viewing modern works as plagues upon society as is commonplace with the educated writers of our day, Velasquez chooses instead to explain the effects these works have upon society. His focus is primarily upon the works of Coldplay, Tori Amos, Dave Matthews, Michael Frayn (in Copenhagen), Chuck Palahniuk (in Fight Club) and Tom Wolfe (in I am Charlotte Simmons) as example of popular culture. The effects of these works are being measured in both philosophical and religious contexts. Velasquez questions the act of humans becoming gods, or as he says "We are Prometheans without punishment and without gods--self anointed lords and masters of nature" (xviii). Velasquez does not claim to be all-knowing of the ways of the world, he simply makes his own analysis of human society, the society he claims is full of "creators and destroyers," both existing within each of us (xix). The book is split in two sections, one focusing upon science, the other focusing upon theology. However, as is his point, it is impossible for one to be present without the other in popular culture and therefore theology makes many guest appearances in the science half and vice versa.
The most compelling argument for science came, in my opinion, from the chapter entitled "Beyond the Edge of Reason," where Coldplay is studied. As Velasquez studies, in depth, each of Coldplay's albums, he also shows his research into the artists by commenting on events within their personal lives that support his own argument. An example of this is when he discusses Chris Martin (Coldplay's lead singer) and Gwyneth Paltrow's (his wife) decision to name their first children Apple and Moses in an obvious connection to the famous Bible stories (60). He also continues his research by discussing Coldplay DVDs, music videos, concerts, in addition to the music on the albums. This proves that compelling research into the topic has taken place; these conclusions are not simply floating around in Eduardo's mind. The topics from other artists include similar levels of research and analysis. His analysis of Fight Club includes numerous editorial comments, quotes, and responses. These allow the reader to see the impact of this work upon the public, to put it simply; it caused a great deal of controversy.
As to religion, one of the most compelling chapters was focused upon Tori Amos. This chapter showed that her views upon religion were not only of great impact, but predated the recent pop culture "god," Dan Brown. Her main point was to make Mary Magdalene out to more than just a "demeaned prostitute" (121). Velasquez is not afraid to tackle controversial topics, adding to the allure and fun of reading his book. He chooses to challenge himself with the question of "What is a powerful male, a powerful female? (123). As in all of his chapters, the chapter on Amos, involves numerous circular manners of thinking such as "The profane is sacred...and the sacred profane" (124). He also advances to speaking of sexuality and its place in the world today. The world today is full of images of sex and many would argue that culture is being corrupted but Velasquez argues that authors such as Amos are trying to find a middle ground between sexuality and spirituality.
In the realm of conclusions to his arguments, Velasquez leaves much to the reader. This allows the educated mind to take his points and run with them, whether they choose to agree or to disagree. A major point that is brought up in each of his chapters, as well as his conclusion, is that none of the authors of popular culture are able to find a true "distinction between good and evil" and this explains why he has so many examples of circular thought, for conclusions of this level are not possible in today's culture, and may never be possible (150). Velasquez knows that culture does not need to decide whether we are, we know through science that we exist, the question is what can we do with our existence? Can we become gods through creation of something from nothing? Can we change the world to make it what we would prefer for it to be? Can we surpass God in creating a world we can truly be satisfied with instead of being forced to accept flaws as God was forced to do in Genesis? These questions are not answered by Velasquez, he does not prove to be so bold or so ignorant to attempt answers to questions that have no true answer. Only time can tell what the limit to the human is, to the limit of the technology the human can harness. Is there a battle coming, will humans challenge gods to become the supreme beings in the universe? That is the question that comes to mind after a reading of Eduardo Velasquez's intriguing and gripping book, A Consumer's Guide to the Apocalypse.

Velasquez's A Consumer's Guide to the Apocalypse is a collection of commentaries on various aspects of modern popular culture, specifically the dark religious undercurrents of the song, movie and novel industry of America in the last decade. A fascination with Nihilism permeates American culture that is most easily seen in an assessment of these modern "artifacts," as Velasquez calls them. These artifacts include Tom Wolfe's I am Charlotte Simmons, which depicts the deconstruction of human individualism, soul and spiritualism, at Dupont University. Velasquez then looks to Michael Frayn's Copenhagen as an "illustration of the gap between Word and Self"(36), a continuation of the discussion of science and its affect on the human. From there we are led to an encounter with the British rock band Coldplay. We travel through the cosmos, to the tops of trees, searching for the beginning, for God, and for answers. The reader is then confronted with Dave Mathews' demonic and suicidal obsessions. Then, looking at Fight Club, God is found in the basement of a church at a men's support group. Sexually ambiguous, somewhat female and somewhat male, Bob, the testicular cancer survivor, shows us the confused, chaotic God of today. Coming through the fog of confusion we find ourselves faced with Tori Amos describing the divine feminine. The fascination with demonic imagery, with the "progress" of science turning us into machines to be disassembled for inspection, the confusion about God, and the longing to return to a beginning, are elements of American culture, or a Jungian collective subconscious even, that Velasquez lays out on the table for discussion.
Both Frayn and Wolfe's work deal with conceptions of scientific progress. Wolfe deals with reductionism that goes on not only in the field of science, but also in our institutions of education. Our passions and desires turn into synapses in the Amygdala. "Neuroscience redirects our attention back to the body" attempting to "prove" in a matter of speaking, the soul does not exist (6). Wolfe's protagonist Charlotte looses her identity in the classroom as well as in the flow of the university. She is reduced from a thinking being to an ID number on a university swipe card. "Wolfe's reduction of the various protagonists to animals...is his way of deliberately evoking a reaction against the scientific reduction of human beings to their bodies"(19). Frayn's commentary in Copenhagen on the uncertainty and complementary principals of physics lays next to uncertainty and complementary in human actions. We "do not know ourselves fully" and therefore require outside perspectives (xxii). From this uncertainty comes the possibility for a "negative theology"(xxii).
Velasquez takes us to the lyrics and images of Coldplay and Dave Matthews. Coldplay sings of the modern interaction with technology that is so much a part of our lives today. They sing of "the predicament that afflicts us as children of the modern world"(57). The struggle between humanity and science, human searching for our origins as humans, and a search for some sort of religion or spirituality are topics Velasquez confronts using Coldplay's own lyrics. From the Genesis aspects of "The Scientist," wishing to go back to the beginning, searching for some illusive answers, to "The Speed of Sound" looking at evolution for the same end, we see the theme of the Cosmos and the human state of being therein lost. In the same way we are lost with Dave Matthews between Jesus being crucified and the devil. Matthews aggressive confronts God on several occasions, by calling into question the expectation of Heaven. "the solution to our internal conflict" Velasquez suggests "is to abandon, release, even surrender"(85). Here again is the haunting Nihilism, giving in to the idea of nothing-self annihilation as Velasquez puts it.
From the Godlessness and confusion of Coldplay and Dave Matthews comes further confusion about the role and even gender of God and a "yearning for rebirth"(102). In Fight Club we find God at a support group. With newly grown breast and lacking intact male sexual genitalia, Bob or "God[,] appears as an emasculated male"(115). Here the narrator "returns to the womb" in Bob's embrace (116). What a confused depiction of God! We must further examine the female aspect of this newfound deity. The narrator also makes visits to female support groups. These images of the divine feminine brings us to Tori Amos' discussion in her works of the just that topic. Amos examines the two Marys, the virgin and the prostitute and wonders what it is about societies conception that disallows a unity of spiritualism and sexuality. Velasquez goes on to bring out her words to the affect that "we need a new genesis to go with our contemporary apocalypse"(136). Which is what he, Velasquez, proceeds to give us. He suggests where to go from here, accepting our current relationship with religion and the so-called modern enlightenment of science -- "We seek renewal"(148).

A Consumer's Guide to the Apocalypse, by Eduardo Velasquez, comprises an insightful examination of several works of popular culture intertwined with reflections on the affinity between faith and science, good and evil, and something and nothing. The book is divided into two parts, Science and Theology, which, curiously enough, serve to elucidate the innate bond between the two. Velasquez endeavors "to restore what has been torn asunder in order to arrive at a premodern or Platonic conclusion"; that is, reason and technique are inherently tied to creation and intuition (xxvi).
Part I consists of three chapters, treating I am Charlotte Simmons, Copenhagen, and the music of Coldplay, respectively. The chapter on Copenhagen contains a particularly discerning appraisal of the role of faith and intuition in the apparently rational fields of mathematics and science. A conscientious reader comes to understand that uncertainty is inevitable, as science can be no more perfect than the language and observation which describe its phenomena. As uncertainty has moral benefits, morality is necessarily interwoven in empirical results. As with morality, intuition invades rationality. This is demonstrated when Velasquez quotes Heisenberg from Copenhagen: "Decisions make themselves when you're coming downhill at seventy kilometres an hour. Suddenly there's the edge of nothingness in front of you. Swerve left? Swerve right? Or think about it and die? In your head you swerve both ways..." (41). One cannot apply a rational, scientific model to decision-making in this situation. No driver, having found himself in this situation, would proceed to consider the cost-benefit analysis of each of his options. He will think fast and do what he "supposes" best. He puts faith in his ability to make a decision.
If science cannot be independent of faith, then the converse is also true. Part II's three chapters consider the music of Dave Matthews, the novel and film Fight Club, and finally Tori Amos' struggle to reinterpret Christianity. In the chapter on Fight Club, Velasquez notes protagonist Tyler Durden's belief that "to die is not to die (105)." He adds that "we are the past and must therefore usher the past back in order to annihilate the past (107)." We must seek emptiness to free ourselves from the fettering chains of our progenitors' burdens. But what is this emptiness that we seek? And how to attain it? Velasquez's reference here to Charlie Kaufman's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is fitting. If our search for the provenance of mankind will bear fruit, it must defeat evolution and creation, science and theology. As Velasquez puts it, "Fight Club the book is an attempt to take us back to that beginning, the beginning in which chaos, creation, destruction, love, and hate exist in peculiar relation to one another (117)."
The conclusion of this book is the seduction introduction of a replacement for the question of "To be or not to be." We are, concludes Velasquez. "But what does it mean to be and live in between?" He addresses the problem of the beginning, noting that we seek this nothingness, this origin, as the vehicle for something. Nothing is not nothing, but the inception of something?
This book will repay the time you put into it, so don't begin it until you have the time and desire to think about the possibility that Velasquez might not be wrong.

I feel that one of the overarching themes of Velasquez's book is faith. Throughout his book, Velasquez seems to question what exactly is faith, what should we have faith in and what are the purposes of faith? Is faith useful, or good, or enough to sustain us for the long road ahead? I think that throughout this book Velasquez makes us question our faith (or at least wants to make us to question our faith) in religion and society. In fact, he seems to want us to question faith in anything. However, he also seems to want us to question science and how much confidence we should put in scientific findings. Velasquez (if I do not misconstrue his meaning) wants to make us take a step back and examine all the facets of our lives, see the truth (or lies) in our lives and develop the skills to see the "big picture." I think that this book may be quite daunting for some readers; after all, most people do not want their before-bed-reading to make them contemplate deep moral and societal issues. For example, in the second chapter of his book, Velasquez writes about having "knowledge of ignorance," or knowing that we do not know something. The message of this entire chapter seems to be: question what you know until you know everything that you do not know. Only by doing this thorough inventory of your knowledge - or perhaps lack thereof - can you achieve true wisdom. This chapter is full of the ever-pervasive theme of questioning, something Heisenberg and Bohr, the characters of the play Copenhagen who are under scrutiny in the chapter "Knowledge of Ignorance," must themselves come to terms with. By the end of the play, they have both come to see the perspective of the other party and have begun to question what they at first thought was the absolute truth.
The theme of questioning our knowledge also seems to occur in the first chapter citing Tom Wolfe's book I am Charlotte Simmons. Velasquez interprets Wolfe's message to be something to the effect of "highly educated people, especially those in the sciences, will eventually try to explain away any mystery and will cause us all to lose faith in God, or at least take all the fun out of life." Here we not only have to question our knowledge but we have to question the necessity and the morals of knowledge. Do we really need to know something that will remove some of the enrichment from our lives? Again, this chapter makes us question every feature of our existence. Reading this book can be tiring, but enriching.
Velasquez's book wants us to question our faith, our knowledge, and perhaps even our faith in knowledge (and our knowledge of faith?) This questioning could become highly circular, in depth and just generally confusing, possibly another theme that Velasquez wants us to think about, or it is something that could help us understand the deeper levels of meaning in his book. However, that is a question for another day.

I bought this book thinking I was going to get some treatise on a REAL apocalypse, end of the world and renewal type thinking among the populace, and its connection with modern culture. The subtitle about cultural war and perishing in spite of everything that relates to it caught my eye. Well the dissertation was there with regard to pop-culture, but the "Why" was never answered. What I found was a regurge of Philosophy 101, repackaged in terms of teen and early adult angst and existential questions. Eduardo even admits as much in his Biblioraphic Essay. I also had to ask myself the same question, "So?" as I did when I finished Philosophy. As taught, these ideas are just a colossal introspective session, asking questions for which no answers can be obtained. Tori's lyrics reminded me of the Moody Blues singing about Timothy Leary and looking at oneself in the mirror. Eduardo states that Philosophy is the "love of wisdom". Well I was none the wiser after Philosophy 101 and having read this book also. Anyone can ask probing questions until you're blue in the face. That certainly isn't wisdom, nor is it the beginning of it. I have been on a life-long quest to obtain a meaningful definition of wisdom, and in particular why it was considered a feminine aspect by the Ancients. Only through examination of the Ancients' perspective can one acquire some sense of wisdom's "gender." Solomon is reputed to be a wise man in the Bible, but like many other stories from that tome, they are all suspect of corruption as further historical information comes forth. Solomon was a necromancer, but did that warrant the ascription of "wisdom" to his reign? Genesis is known to religious scholars as a rework by the Deuteronomists (600BC) of older Sumerian creation stories, which of course are a derivation of others even older. So of what value is it to ask existential questions within the context of the Genesis creation? Useless angst.

I have grown to appreciate the simple philosophy of my grandparents. They accepted the fact that life is full of unanswered questions and replete with mistakes. They looked at living as a grand adventure; to experience the world in all its wonders, and live each moment to its fullest value. Introspection was only useful when mistakes or lack of progress interrupted the flow.

I'd turn the existential questions back at Eduardo with, "What culture war? Why should there be a culture war?" And who is the "we" that will perish and why?" It is no use to stipulate such things exist and expect the reader to figure it out. To that end, reading the book was a waste of the remaining time in my life. It added nothing of value which I can take with me at crossover.

Why? This question arises more times than one can count in A Consumer's Guide to the Apocalypse. This is a book about tension and contradiction in American pop culture, namely, between our hearts and minds. To put it differently, how do we reconcile our beliefs with our reason, faith and ratiocination, philosophy and theology? There are two ways of illustrating these dichotomies and their collapse: The cult classic Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk and the lyrics of the Brit por-rockers Coldplay.

Let us begin with Fight Club. "Within the soul we find Tyler Durden... He is nothing. And he has a gun in our mouths." (112) It is stark sentences like these that that make A Consumer's Guide to The Apocalypse worth reading. Velasquez reads Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club as an apocalyptic novel, as much about destruction as it is about re-creation, a man's quest for himself that ends up in nihilism. He reads deep into Palahniuk's novel to show he is not just writing about a group of guys who like to beat each other up. Velasquez highlights Palahniuk's "murder-suicide thing", which the author shows is Palahniuk's mediation on the crucified God. We are in the grips of an image of self-slaughter,
which Fight Club exploits in the service of our own personal not Godly redemption. We must be nothing before we can be something.

There are echoes of Fight Club in Velasquez's examination of the music of Coldplay. Before you listen to your copy of A Rush of Blood to the Head again, read the Chapter "Beyond the Edge of Reason." Coldplay reaches beyond the here and now, longs for some transcendent emancipation, which at times ends in love and at others in nothing. Love and self-forgetting are intimately related. Love is not a means for an end in itself. But Colplay lingers on mania as a way of life. And it is here that Velasquez takes Chris Martin and his gang to task. "We are not responsible for our irresponsibility" says Velasquez of Chris Martin's (the lead singer and mastermind) struggle with the meaning and reason for our existence. Though couched with beautiful ballads that at time elevate our souls, there are glimpses of "Destruction, death, and suicide," in Coldplay's music says Velasquez. This urge to destroy is "precipitated by meaninglessness." Velasquez uncovers the rage that permeates much of popular music. As to the question of meaningless, consider the
words: " `Running in Circles / chasing our tails / Coming back as we are.'" Here is a reference to the eternal return of the same, with allusions to our biological endowment. The music video for The Scientist is backwards. He starts in a city, and rewinds to him in nature, concluding with his car wreck. Are we perhaps no more than an accident? Is this a meaningless universe filled with unsolvable puzzles?


What Velasquez wants to point out is that if you look deeply, today's artists are Not simply "entertaining." The artists deftly examined in this book highlight a recurring theme; the self-destructive human propensities, the curious affinities between this propensity and Christianity - So where do we go from here. Reasders looking for easily packaged answers will not be satisfied. The answer is untold because it is unknown. It is hard to find answers when you don't know what to ask. A Consumer's Guide to the Apocalypse proposes put us on the right track, for at the very least we now know what questions to ask.

In A Consumer's Guide to the Apocalypse, Velasquez chooses not to take the easy path as commentator, but rather chooses to summit the peaks of understanding along with the reader. Velasquez chooses, boldly, to leave many conclusions up to the reader himself, and although some may find this a dodge on his part to be descisive, it charges the reader to think, rather than the common voice of today's common American reader, who repeats the opinion of an author and calls it his own.
Velasquez chooses to make observations and ask questions, rather than make definitive answers. In "Beyond the Edge of Reason" especially, Velasquez simply notes the names of Chris Martin's children (Apple and Moses) and creatively suggests a tie between it and the play on theology in many Coldplay songs, such as "The Scientist" and "Amsterdam"
Velasquez does not play the role of a professor in A Consumer's Guide to the Apocalypse, he is part of the audience. While reading, it almost seems that the book is a built-in book club of sorts. Eduardo Velasquez is in attendence, asking questions for discussion, pushing his own limits as well as those of the reader.
Velasquez successfully has written the book of things not to talk about at the dinner table. He pushes the reader into the zone of uncomfortablity. He refuses to keep the reader in his "safe zone". His observations about Tori Amos in "The Da Vinci Code" and her use of using Proverbs 31:1 and turning it on God himself can leave a conservative Christian reader squirming, even when reading alone.
The "man of the hour" closes his literature pleading the reader to not let popular culture simply reflect the whim of a person. Perhaps the things we dismiss as frivelous and unimportant are in fact the ones we should be paying attention to gauge humans in the world today. Popular culture, Velasquez argues in his book, isn't just about the here and now; popular culture of today reflects the same inner demons that humans battle with in Genesis.
A Consumer's Guide the Apocalypse is not for the decisive and definitive reader. However, one who can read the book platonically will in no doubt find himself surrounded with enduring questions and will, hopefully, exist more carefully in the world. In A Consumer's Guide to the Apocalypse, philosophy is not confined to Locke and Rosseau, but extends to the every day person. This book may help to establish a reader who does not simply "hear" music, but listens.

If you read one book in your life, make it this one.

Life-changing, bold, and unabashed.