Customer Reviews

HIGH WEIRDNESS BY MAIL

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The true SubGenius Holy Books are "The Book of the SubGenius" and "Revelation X: The 'Bob' Apocryphon," but "High Weirdness by Mail" was the book that truly opened my eyes for "Bob." Published in 1988, it was a groundbreaking book that opened the door to the widening field of crackpotology, and a number of more "serious" books looking at the fringe elements of society have all credited High Weirdness as their inspiration. The addresses in that book are now more than ten years out of date, but the book is still worth reading for the vicious, hilarious, and outrageous reviews of all of the addresses contained therein. The writing reveals a great part of the true purpose of the Church of the SubGenius, and it was the writing of High Weirdness that inspired me to send my money to "Bob" and become a fully ordained (and paid-up) SubGenius minister.

Yes, the above title is what many readers would call this book
after perusing its fascinating and repelling pages. I got my copy
soon after publication and was tempted to contact some of those groups, but demurred at the prospect of recieving shovel-fulls of
mail and packets as related by the author. I have browsed through
this book from time to time, and I recommend it as a natural depression cure-all: if after reading a few pages, you're not laughing hysterically, there's no hope for you. What's truly weird
is some of the wackier groups sound suspiciously like our current
Administration nominees - well, YOU be the judge. Well worth checking out, readers.

an amusing compedium of chaos that, although now dated, makes for a highly entertaining, informational read.

Very original stuff!

Rev. Stang is a priest in the "Church of the SubGenius" -- a tongue-in-cheek "cult" popular among technology geeks and other bright types, which *pretends* to believe in the world coming to an end every day now and that one is only saved if one believes in "Bob" and acts in a way that increases the amount of "slack" in the universe. This "church" asks for no money or time from their members, mind you, but occassionally declares the world is going to end as an excuse for a party (e.g., after the first "X day" had come and gone, they declared "Dos Equis" day, and when THAT didn't end the world, they declared -- you guessed it -- "Triple X day". I leave to one's imagination how the church recommended those days to be celebrated...). Still, as Stang notes, the church is a joke, but it's not ONLY a joke -- it satirizes the many REAL cults and crazy organizations that are out there. Stang, using the mail, contacted practically ALL weird clubs and organizations in the US at the time. The book is a fascinating read.

First of all, it describes people, organizations, and weird societies you probably never knew existed: e.g., "Christian Technocracy", which makes the Nazi party look positively benign; "Weirdo" magazine for absurd, psychotic, yet genius-level, underground art; Jack Chick's lunatic (if seriously-meant) Christian comics; numerous strange cults, such as the breathetarians, and numerous sci-fi UFO cults (with their weird publications); and all sorts of far-left tiny "real communist parties" who believe everybody except them is a Nazi; conspiracy theorists of all stripes (anti-IRS folks, people who think Reagan was a masonic communist zionist tool -- seriously -- and so on.) You might THINK you know how strage people's politics or religion can be. Read this book and discover you're seen nothing yet.

Second, Stang's sense of humor is precisely the right attitude. First of all he is fair: he doesn't just quote conspiracy theorists, but also tells the reader how to find groups of skeptics, such as the Committee for Scientific Invesitgation of the Paranormal (CSICOP). Not just fundamentalist cults -- but also "Fundamentalists Anonymous" (for those leaving fundamentalism). Second, his headlines and description are perfect. He obviously despises the racists (and for good reason -- the racists he describes aren't even the Klan, but people who consider the Klan to be whishy-washy), he also has no patience with pseudo-revolutionary "peace activists", noting they are mostly insufferably self-important and act as if they're the only people on Earth who don't like war. Second, his sense of humor shows in his headlines: the racist rants of the late Dr. Peter Beter are headlined "Yes, that really was his name"; CSICOP is (tongue-in-cheek) described as "Party Poopers". There is almost no page in this book that didn't have me laughing out loud.

Third, despite it being outdated, many of the organizations in this book are still around -- on the internet, naturally -- only you'd never have thought of looking for them if you don't have this book. It's quite fun to read where some group was in the 1980s and then check out what happened with them later on!

Naturally this book isn't for everybody. If you're not into "weird" stuff you'll hate this book. But if you're reading this you're probably "into" this sort of thing -- and in that case, this book is (still) the bible, although I wonder what Rev. Stang would think about that comparison!

You should know, The SubGenius Must Have Slack. This includes temporal slack.

These days, "High Weirdness by Mail" wallows in temporal slack. It fattens itself upon such anachronistic dissonance and preens and poses and presents itself as a pristine document soaking in such temporal slack.

A snapshot worthy of fascination. Play-by-snail-mail wackiness. Some circa 1988 pre-eMail deliciousness that turns in time...highlighting its fading wacko personal touch against the coming e-fection we continually breathe today.

A timestamp document, at the dawn of the bulldada of the web -- about the bulldada off the web. Which seems a purer form of bulldada, yet watch out for nostalgic self-deception.

Bulldada = Bulldada. It's a constant. (See George Carlin's work, the master of observation, RIP, damn.)

Oh, brave new world.

"The Whole Earth Catalog" has a similar effect today. Yet not so slacky and less fascinating. Too crunchy, less funky.

You know. You do. And it can be had for cheap so get some High Weirdness now. You'll wish it was 20-years ago and you had a lot of stamps and time to spare. And an anonymous PO box.

This book is filled with totally strange and crazy type of stuff. Very interesting how many crazy and kooky things there are in the world. Since this book was wrote back in 1988. You may still be able to find info. on some of the stuff in this book online but who knows. This is a must have book for those who love kooky stuff.

Are you dissatisfied of this world? Do other people think you are different? Well your not alone. The Church of the Subgenius is for you! You'll learn how J.R. "BOB" Dobbs used his psycic powers for financial gain since the age of six! You'll learn that you are not alone in your thinking, and its just that everyone else is brainwashed. Order Today!