HIGH WEIRDNESS BY MAIL (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This hysterical hobbyist's guide belongs in every hip library. Coot cat Reverend Ivan Stang, high holy of the Church of the SubGenius, has compiled a bestiary of American creeps and crazies so that you can write to them and receive mail that is weird, horrible, wonderfully absurd, or a combination of all three. Each entry has a paragraph or two and the last known mailing address of some fringe loonies. The book is only current through 1988, though; the only thing wrong with it is that it's high time for an update--with URLs, of course. Let's see ... there are catalogs of perpetual motion machines; brochures from South American flying saucer cults; something called "The Battle Cry of Aggressive Christianity" (Christian, not likely--aggressive, you bet); and bizarre roundups such as "News of the Weird," the Church of Beaver Cleaver, and so on. What makes this book so funny is the author's willingness to list (and ridicule) any group, no matter how repulsive. This means, too, that High Weirdness contains a group to offend everyone; consider yourself warned. In fact, if you aren't offended by some of these groups, you must be pretty offensive yourself. So there.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Fireside (May 15, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067164260X
• ISBN-13: 978-0671642600
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #436,368 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious, eye-opening, out of date but still worth reading, October 2, 1998

By	Modemac (Cambridge, MA United States) - See all my reviews

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 The addresses in that book are now more than ten years out of date, but the book is still worth reading for the vicious, hilarious, and outrageous reviews of all of the addresses contained therein.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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Land of Fruit and Nuts Directory, November 11, 2004

A Kid's Review

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars uniquely weird, April 23, 2004

By	Author Brian Wallace (Mind Transmission, Inc.) (Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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

Very original stuff!