Compiled by Church of the SubGenius founder Rev. Ivan Stang, "High Weirdness by Mail" is more of a slam book and vehicle for SubGenius humor than a guide to fringe literature. This is especially true now that the book is 3 years old and many of these groups don't stay in business very long.
Billing itself as a directory of mad prophets, crackpots, kooks, and true visionaries, "High Weirdness" contains hundreds of reviews, excepts, and vicious, often hysterically comments by Rev. Stang. It covers the outer limits of science, religion, politics, and the occult. As Firesign Theater would say: "It's bound to bring out the curious and the kooky, Ray."
This was my beach book several summers ago. A friend and I sat on the beach and took turns reading it out loud. We laughed 'til we had to p....er...ah...go swimming.
(G. Branwyn)
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High Weirdness by Mail
Rev. Ivan Stang
Fireside Books
1988, 333 pgs., PB, $10.95
Here is the TEXT POPUP for High Weirdness by Mail:
If you desire a truly well-rounded education, you must study the extremists, the obscure, the "nutty." You need a balance! Your poor brain is already being impregnated with middle-of-the- road crap, twenty-four hours a day, NO MATTER WHAT. Network TV, newspapers, radio, magazines at the supermarket... even if you never watch, read, listen, or leave your house, even if you are deaf and blind, the telepathic pressure alone of uncountable Normals surrounding you will insure that you are automatically well-grounded in consensus reality. But screw consensus reality; what we all need more of that ill-named common sense stuff...not such a common commodity at all.
MIRACLE DEVICE RENDERS ALUMINUM HARMLESS!
Ministry of Dietetic Law
Box 825, Vacaville, CA 95688
These concerned citizens sell a Polarity Pillow that negates the toxic effects of that deadly poison, aluminum (the "Valium" of metals), which has been introduced into the environment to sap our wills.
I'LL DO THE COOKING, THANKS
Eat My Shit
Eat..., PO Box 12504
Raleigh, NC 27605
First issue had an interview with the Butthole Surfers, an essay on Freudian Scatology, another on torture, and other unpleasantries. You get the idea. Scrumptious! Free, but only if you send some excretions of your own. Be creative. It's fun! I recall how fun it was to be creative, way back when, before I had to do it as a living. Don't put the magazine's full name on your envelopes; the P.O. won't deliver it. "Eat" will suffice.
MUSTA BEEN THE BEST TUCK-'N'-ROLL JOBS IN THE WORLD
Outcry!
Justice for Nazi Sex Experiment Victims
6714 Selma Ave.
Hollywood, CA 90028
The little-known Nazi castration, sterilization, and especially sex-change operation victims finally have their voice. The author's theory is that the Nazi's didn't actually KILL three out of the six million, but changed the sex of many. They were sent to the U.S. after the war, BUT WERE BRAINWASHED FIRST SO THAT THEY'D NEVER REMEMBER THEIR ORIGINAL SEX!! One gets the impression that this is the most elaborate rationalization yet for uneasy homosexuals.
