BOOK
When Adam Parfrey edited his first Apocalypse Culture collection back in the Reagan era, the word normal still had recognizable meaning. Now the term invites quotes, and Parfrey, the writer and publisher of matters bizarre, freakish, and sometimes nauseating, has helped this generation question what it considers normal. After 13 printings of the original anthology, Parfrey has assembled Apocalypse Culture II, an even deeper foray into what he terms the Forbidden Zone.
An audience for the weird has existed since Phlegon of Tralles wrote his popular Book of Marvels two millennia ago, establishing the whole genre of paradoxography, or marvel-recording. But Parfrey is actually doing something different with his cannibals, necrophiles, and would-be vampires. Barnum displayed physical freaks; psychoanalyst Krafft-Ebing categorized and explained mental freaks; carny Daniel Mannix showed that geeks were just like you and me. In contrast, Parfrey and his assembled authors let freaks speak for themselves. The result not only challenges many readers' points of reference, but suggests that, in one way or another, everybody may be some sort of freak.
"Apocalypse is crack," writes Parfrey. It amounts to "belief systems puffed on and puffed on until the smoker withers under a huge cloud of phantasms." At nearly 500 pages, the new collection offers a lot of phantasms. There's text from clonejesus.com, a site that calls for regenerating Jesus from the DNA in ancient blood found on holy relics. There are recipes for cooking children. There's the inevitable section on conspiracism; there are sex dolls, a whole section about shit, many bizarre images, and lots more from Colin Wilson, Jonathan Vankin, Parfrey himself, and many others.
Among the least successful of the pieces is a "Jews for Hitler" essay, in which Parfrey makes some mistaken assertions about Italian fascism. Among the best are a portrait of Bobby Beausoleil, whose life was intertwined with such figures as Charles Manson and Kenneth Anger; a look at the horror inspired by "little people"; and a two-page rundown of truth-suppression techniques.
Parfrey doesn't endorse what he collects, but certainly shows the world to be less simple and placid than it appears in common media depictions, which Parfrey believes to be controlling and infantilizing. But then, what about his effect? Edginess often thrives in isolation, feeding off the darkness that surrounds it. Enter Parfrey, who brings attention and empathy, and what is the result? Edgelessness? Or is the human borderland an infinite space with uncounted cultures and uncountable apocalypses?
Apocalypse Culture II edited by Adam Parfrey: $18.95. Feral House: www.feralhouse.com.
STREET CRED
Kvetch of the Day
Babes in Toyland
Jog-O-Rama
The Nuonvision Revolution
Memory Gardens
Alpha and Omega
The Zero Effect
ReadMe
Music
Surroundabout
Fear of a Freak Planet
Hasta la Vista, Baby
Just Outta Beta
Master of Vine Arts
Hooked on Symphonics
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