BOOK
Conspiranoia! is a perfect example of what might be called ironoia: the tendency of writers to pen breezy books acknowledging that certain conspiracy theories could be true, while deploying a pervasive tone of ironic detachment to insulate themselves from accusations of having totally flipped their gourds. The idea is to cram in so many conspiracies that the whole exercise appears quite mad.
Author Devon Jackson appears even madder, as he has willfully eliminated even the slightest hint of sourcing in his book. Hardcore conspiracists, ever conscious of their dodgy credibility, are usually meticulous (often fanatically so) when it comes to citing references - and even ironoids are generally careful to let their readers know they didn't just make this shit up. Jackson, on the other hand, hurls factoid after credulity-straining factoid footnote-free, "in the same way," he explains, "if not for the exact same reasons, E.L. Doctorow or Tom Clancy chose not to provide sources for books like Ragtime orThe Hunt for Red October." Those, of course, are novels.
The only thing that keeps Jackson from falling into the Art Bell abyss is irony. Chapters bear wink-wink titles like "The Manchurian in the Rye Conspiracy," "The Nefarious Aquarians Conspiracy," and "The Right Is Left Left Is Right Jews Are Christians Christians Are Jews Media Conspiracy." Each chapter starts with a goofy "map" of words and arrows purporting to chart the alleged connections between seemingly disparate elements. For example, the chapter "The Church-22 Conspiracy" connects Resorts International with Howard Hughes, Allen Dulles, the Mafia, and Disney. A 100-word paragraph explains the ties, and a pair of squiggles at the page's bottom cross-references Resorts International in "The Schizodelic Conspiracy." A triangle implicates it in "The KKK Conspiracy."
Serious conspiracy fans, ironoiacs included, will find little in Conspiranoia! that they haven't heard somewhere else (though I had never thought of connecting Amway with the Aryan Nations, or Charles Manson with the Manhattan Project). And yet conspiracies have never been presented as neatly between two covers as they are here. In fact, the book is the closest thing to hypertext I've found on a printed page. The incessant page-flipping necessary to mentally piece together all of the thought-bites in Jackson's opus is a thumb-numbing reminder of why hypertext was invented. Come to think of it, the rise of ironoia over the past several years coincides with the emergence of the Web. Coincidence? I think not!
Conspiranoia!: The Mother of All Conspiracy Theories by Devon Jackson: $13.95. Plume Books: +1 (201) 933 9292,www.penguinputnam.com.
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