The Tribes of Burning Man: How an Experimental City in the Desert Is Shaping the New American Counterculture

by Steven T. Jones

Burning Man is the premier countercultural event of modern times, growing over 25 years from a strange San Francisco beach party into an experimental city of 50,000 colorful souls in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, which burns brightly for a week before dissolving into dusty memories and changed lives.
Longtime newspaper journalist Steven T. Jones embedded himself in this blossoming culture starting in 2004, a dispiriting year for American politics but the beginning of Burning Man's renaissance, when it exploded outward in unexpected ways. The result is the most in-depth book ever written on this intriguing social phenomenon - The Tribes of Burning How An Experimental City in the Desert is Shaping the New American Counterculture - which is being released in January, 2011 by CCC Publishing.
From covering the Borg2 artists' rebellion to learning how to make large-scale fire sculptures with the Flaming Lotus Girls, from helping Opulent Temple showcase the world's best DJs to cleaning up after Hurricane Katrina with Burners Without Borders, from regularly interviewing event founder Larry Harvey to covering Barack Obama's nominating convention speech, Jones gives readers an inside, meticulously reported look at a time when Burning Man hit its zenith just as the country hit its nadir.
Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world have made the dusty pilgrimage to Black Rock City to take part in this experiment in participatory art, commerce-free culture, and bacchanalian celebration--and many say their lives were fundamentally changed by this truly unique experience.
Tribes reveals how Burning Man has taken on a new character in recent years, with the frontier finally becoming a real city and the many tribes of the event--the fire artists, circus freaks, music lovers, do-gooders, sexual adventurers, grungy builders, and myriad other burner collectives--developing an impactful perennial presence in sister cities all over the world.
Tribes grew out of a series of cover stories that Jones wrote for the San Francisco Bay Guardian, where he has been the City Editor since 2003. But the project took on a life of its own as Burning Man's story took unexpected turns, compelling Jones, aka Scribe, to delve deeper into this culture's wide array of urban tribes.
"The physical landscape of Burning Man is a fascination - but of greater interest to culture watchers is the social landscape that forms there each year. What does this gathering mean to our modern times? Steven T. Jones is both a fearless explorer and the definitive guide to this astonishing terrain," says Ethan Watters, author of Urban Are Friends the New Family?
From its anarchic early days to its present dreams of world domination - and from the dark days after President George W. Bush's reelection to the inspiring creation of the Temple of Flux in late 2010 - this is the untold story of Burning Man. Wandering through Burning Man's renaissance years from 2004 to the present, this epic journey features some of the culture's most inspiring and colorful leaders, searching for meaning in the most unexpected places.

Genres: Nonfiction

312 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Steven T. Jones, aka Scribe, is a native Californian who has worked full-time for newspapers in this state for 20 years. Before becoming City Editor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian, he worked for Sacramento News & Review, New Times in San Luis Obispo, Coast Weekly in Monterey, Santa Maria Times, Auburn Journal, and Lassen County Times. Steve has won numerous writing and reporting awards along the way, including a Maggie and awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association, Society of Professional Journalists, National Newspaper Association, and Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (he also serves on AANs Editorial Committee). "

Reviews

[Amar Pai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not particularly well-written, but I enjoyed it. I'm biased though--I know half the people in this book! Well, ok I don't KNOW them, but I've met them on occasion. Andie Grace (aka action girl) is a Pot Hill mama. Charlie (one of the core Flaming Lotus Girl... uh... guys) is neighbors w/ my friend Jason. Chicken John is friends w/ my friend Dav. Ah whatever you don't care. But my point is, the rating I give this book can't be separated from the fact that it tells the story of some very beautiful and crucial years in my life. Sure the story could have been told better-- for my money one of the best pieces on burning man remains this one by my friend Julie:

http://www.burningman.com/whatisburni...

--but at least someone put something down. I started going in 02 and this book covers 04 onwards, so all the stories are familiar. (Yep it has the infamous Paul Addis mugshot.)

I've often tried to write about Burning Man -- any of the times I've been -- but I usually give up cos I feel like I can't do it justice. It's a bit like explaining a dream-- the significance and emotional import of things in your head isn't reflected when you describe it to others. But unlike a dream all the stuff out there is REAL. I'm sure someone with a properly poetic bent and a reporter's eye for detail could do better. Geoff Dyer touched on it in "Yoga for people who can't be bothered," but I must say I've yet to read any truly great writing on the topic.

So alls I have is assorted jotted notes ("FLOSS CAMP! Those people who dusted us with feather dusters as we biked by! [sex stuff] [drug stuff]") and I doubt this will ever make it into a form readable by, say, my daughter. Which is a shame cos it's like Woodstock-- if your parents went you'd wanna read about it right? More so then see stupid baby pix of yourself.

I feel bad about this lack of writing things down, but now Steven Jones has written something that at least gets near the spirit of those years. Sure the particulars of experience vary, but not nearly as much as any of us think. You could read one hippie's woodstock tale and extrapolate. To my daughter I say, read this guy's tale and do likewise

Nice to hear history of Flaming Lotus girls, they rock. Serpent Mother! Porno for pyros!

Also check out the entire run of Spock Science Monitor (issues 1-7). Funniest & most interesting of the Playa periodicals that were. They remain the best and most entertaining account of BM 2002-2008 in existence.

[Morgan · Rating 1 out of 5]

The subject is fascinating to me and yet the author writes so poorly that he manages to make it dry and boring. Looks like Steven T. Jones didn't learn his good writing lesson 101: show, don't tell.

[Dusty Waltner · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not well written, boring and dry. The book was assigned for a graduate course and most of the students agreed that it was not liked.

[Cherie · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF - I wanted to love this book but it was a bit rambling and felt patched together (various articles in a book). Despite it being abt my favourite place on earth, it was not my favourite book.

[Robert Mudas · Rating 2 out of 5]

C'est le cœur gros (parce que je le fais très rarement) que j'abandonne la lecture de ce livre... Je suis passionné par l'événement du Burning Man, mais l'écriture est ici vraiment soporifique, et les éléments relatés sont souvent inintéressants et ne correspondent pas à ce que j'espérais de ce livre : une vraie plongée dans l'univers de cet événement grandiose.
Quel dommage ! Je n'aurais pas dépassé la deuxième partie (et encore en m'accrochant).

[Klaudia Kowalik · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a waste of paper and time. Poorly written and just plainly boring.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book for learning about some of the history of Burning Man, who the movers and shakers were (are), and what the future might hold for this majorly important cultural event. Reading it makes me want to go really, really, really bad and wishing that I had already been. It doesn't get 5 stars because whoever proofread the book did a sloppy job and that doesn't sit well with me.