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192 pages, Paperback
First published May 15, 1987
Wow. My interest was pricked when I learned of this book because I remembered a character much like J.R. “Bob” Dobbs from the old National Lampoon magazine cartoons. On a whim, I immediately ordered a used PB copy in good condition from Amazon for $10.00 on 4/30/23.
This is one of the weirdest volumes of lampoon and parody that I have ever run across. It is incomprehensible - every single chapter, every single page, and every single black-and-white illustration is….weird, but weirdly entertaining. The entire volume is written and styled as though the final version had been hallucinated by a heroically-dosed editing staff during a full-blown schizophrenic episode.
Here are a few highlights from other descriptions of The Book of the SubGenius:
“...a twisted work of satire and subterfuge…”
“Your mind needs an enema, and this book is the nozzle…”
“...[a] huge, modernized zen koan with surreal pictures and organized like a propagandistic religious pamphlet mixed with a snake oil catalog..”
“[T]his book…and the SubGenius Foundation which produced it back in the 1980s, were in reality the handiwork of the CIA on behalf of the shadowy “elite” the book itself talks about.”
This strange book advises that the information contained therein had originally been published as a series of pamphlets during the '50's and '60's.
Could that possibly be true?
It’s probably best not to think too much about it.
My rating: 7/10, finished 5/12/23 (3788).
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