Stack of intriguing books from Feral House and Process Media
My friends Adam Parfrey and Jodi Wille are the proprietors of Feral House and Process Media, the world's most interesting book publishers. I had dinner at their house last night and they gave me a stack of fascinating books. I can't wait to read them!
Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA, By Richard C. Hoagland and Mike Bara
For most Americans, the word “NASA” suggests a squeaky-clean image of technological infallibility. Yet the truth is that NASA was born in a lie, and has concealed the truths about its occult origins. Dark Mission documents this seemingly wild assertion.
Moondog The Viking of Sixth Avenue, The Authorized Biography by Robert Scotto, Preface by Philip Glass
Here is one of the most improbable lives of the 20th century: a blind and homeless man who became a famous eccentric in New York, and who rose to prominence as an internationally respected music presence. Moondog’s compositional style inspired the work of his former roommate, Philip Glass, who provides the preface. BONUS CD includes compilation of Moondog records spanning five decades, containing a dozen previously unreleased Moondog recordings, including performances with Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Jon Gibson, Stefan Lakatos and Paul Jordan.
The Secret Source: The Law of Attraction is One of Seven Hermetic Laws: Here Are the Other Six, Edited by Maja D’Aoust and Adam Parfrey
The Secret Source reveals the occult doctrines and the modern equivalents that gave birth to “The Law of Attraction” and inspired the media phenomenon known as The Secret.
If you recognized the power behind “The Law of Attraction” but felt ambivalent about The Secret’s materially-driven, hard-sell approach, you will appreciate this deeper understanding and examination of the Law’s true nature and the wisdom required to use it effectively.
Tales of Times Square (Expanded Edition), By Josh Alan Friedman
This classic account of the ultra-sleazy, pre-Disneyfied era of Times Square is now the subject of a documentary film of the same name to be theatrically released this year. With this edition Tales returns to print with seven new chapters.
Big Dead Place: Inside the Strange and Menacing World of Antarctica , By Nicholas Johnson
Is it the pristine but harsh frontier where noble scientific missions are accomplished? Or an insane corporate bureaucracy where hundreds of workers are cooped together in hi-tech communes with all the soul of a suburban office park?
Welcome to Big Dead Place, a grunt's eye view of America's Antarctic Program that shatters the well-worn clichés of polar literature. Here the heroic camaraderie and romantic desolation give way to sterile buildings populated by characters like a crazed manager who fills his boots with antifreeze, the greasepaint obsessed worker Boozy the Clown, ghosts that haunt the food freezer, and horny employees who grab rare private moments coupling on the altar in the Chapel of the Snows.
The Foreword is by Eirik Sønneland, who claims the longest unsupported ski trek in the continent's history. Also included is a glossary of Antarctic slang and bureaucratese, and 16 pages of color photographs.
Sin-A-Rama: Sleaze Sex Paperbacks of the Sixties
Sin-A-Rama celebrates the forgotten world of erotic paperbacks from the 1960s, when sex acts were described with code words, writers used pseudonyms, and publishers hid behind mail drop addresses.
Sleaze paperbacks sold by the million throughout the decade. Their unorthodox content and inroads into the marketplace provoked new laws, FBI investigations, high-pitched court battles, and prison sentences for the crime of obscenity. Earl Kemp, the notorious Greenleaf Books editor, provides an insider’s perspective, profiling famous and little-known co-workers. In “My Life as a Pornographer,” science fiction legend Robert Silverberg divulges how he and other famous authors learned their craft and earned their keep pounding out softcore sin.
The bizarre glories of cover artists Robert Bonfils, Gene Bilbrew, Eric Stanton, Paul Rader, Ed Smith, Bill Ward, and Doug Weaver are seen throughout in lurid color.
Sin-A-Rama is the first book-length exploration into a shadowy but revolutionary industry. A useful appendix reveals the actual names behind the pseudonyms, and catalogues both established and fly-by-night sleaze operators.
Struwwelpeter: Fearful Stories & Vile Pictures To Instruct Good Little Folks, By Heinrich Hoffmann, Introduction by Jack Zipes
Since 1845, millions of parents have purchased Struwwelpeter, a book that threatens their children with the consequences that befall the disordered and disorderly. Thumbs are sheared off, eyes fall out of sockets, faces are pecked to death and bodies waste to nothing.
Though castigated in recent years for its sadistic approach to child-rearing, Struwwelpeter remains a cultural phenomenon … translated into many languages, the subject of a popular German museum, and the unmistakable influence of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which also disposes of wretched kids in rhyme.
The Feral House edition includes Sarita Vendetta’s macabre illustrations to Heinrich Hoffmann’s verse, the entire original edition in color, Struwwelpeter-inspired wartime propaganda titled Struwwelhitler, and a revealing introduction by Jack Zipes, an authority on folklore and children’s literature, whose journal, The Lion and the Unicorn, devoted an entire issue to Heinrich Hoffman and Struwwelpeter.
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SIN-A-RAMA is a great book, but it came out about 4 years ago, meaning some of the info is out-dated.
In the meantime, several other (much better IMHO) compilations of pulp paperback covers have been released, including: QUEER PULP (Susan Stryker) - plus pulp websites such as Judge a Book By It's Cover and the delightful Vintage Octopus Pulp Covers
Mark often has fun stuff. And the book, Dark Mission, is funny.
In fact it is absurd.
Which is more likely: (1) A government agency over a period of nearly 50 years has been able to keep completely secret the most significant discovery ever made by humankind. (2) Hoagland and Bara have simply made up all their assertions. There is also, I suppose, an outside chance that they are deluded and actually believe what they are claiming.
Big Dead Place is fantastic. I followed the website and really fell in love with the tales of high weirdness in an absolute froze wasteland. If the book is like the site I can't reccomend it enough.
Find it, read it, laugh.
I looked at the Dark Mission intro excerpt - it seems rather silly and doesnt really do itself any favours in propping up its own credibility with the tin-foil-hat-conspiracy-theory way it is written.
The big "shocking" revelations in the intro chapter - that NASA is a defense agency and NASA has been interested in extraterrestrial life - are not shocking at all.
Speaking as someone from the UK who has had no particular interest at all in space, space travel, NASA or science fiction, I've known that NASA was formally a military agency for a long time and assumed it was a widely known fact. And obviously NASA has been seriously concerned with the possibility of extraterrestrial life. It would be incredibly bizarre if it wasn't.
Please.
Richard C. Hoagland is a joke with zero credibility.
Phil Plait (badastronomy.com) has schooled his ass in the finer points of science so many times now its no longer funny.
dwight reads struwwelpeter to the kids in the "take your daughter to work day" episode of the office, season two.
I have a really old copy of Struwwelpeter at home in the original German. It's pretty creepy, so much so that you have to laugh at it.
Sin-A-Rama is fugging great! Outs all the famous writers who wrote early porn pseudonymously. Not just amazing covers, but a lot of original cover art paintings not seen elsewhere; has an amazing piece by sci-fi writer Robert Silverberg on his early porn days; discusses the early top-secret porn contests between the FBI and "dangerous" erotic book writers and artist. There's a lot of unexpected mind-blowing fun shit here.
Gee, and here I thought "Disneyfied" was a pejorative.
Times Square was even worse than that? Wow, I guess Giuliana WAS a hero!
Gee, and here I thought "Disneyfied" was a pejorative.
Times Square was even worse than that? Wow, I guess Giuliana WAS a hero!
There's an interesting review of Dark Mission on Amazon by someone who claims to be a former NASA employee, in support of Hoagland's claims -
From "Dr. Ali Fant, WB5WAF, 12DE2007"
The rest: http://tinyurl.com/2ub9ur
Whether or not this proves "credibility," it's a fascinating topic to explore - and checking out the other titles at Process Media/Feral - a conspiracy/alt-lifestyle fetishist's wet dream.
anything with Richard C. Hoaglands name on it is guaranteed to be absolute bullshit. This is not flame bait, this is just fact. the man has zero credibility in the scientific community, he's the definition of conspiracy nut.
spend 10 minutes on his site www.enterprisemission and see for yourself.
Is process Media connected to the Process Church? Aren't they the guys who regard Charles Manson as a prophet/spiritual leader?
I've always wanted everything Hoagland claims to be true. Aliens are everywhere, conspiracies run everything from the post office to the shuttle launches and Mars is just rife with big heads and faces.
Of couse, I also want Santa to bring me a million in unmarked bills. Let's see what comes first.
The Time Square book looks interesting though.
Uh... yeah. Because it makes so much sense that NASA discovered the extraterrestrial secrets to total world domination on the moon and instead of, like, totally exploiting them and bringing home as much alien tech as possible, abandoned the program after six landings.
i tried to read the hermetic laws pdf at work but it was blocked as category "pornography". now i really want to read it!
"anything with Richard C. Hoaglands name on it is guaranteed to be absolute bullshit."
I totally agree with that. Hoagland is clearly delusional, probably paranoid but he is interesting in a weird sort of way. There is always the possibility that those who are less than sane may never-the-less stumble over a truth of a sort. I'm not sure it's worth it wading through the mountains of BS though.
@Illuminatrix, I don't see why your fictional reviewer is all upset that the briefing tapes were destroyed. After all, isn't it true that Ali Fant's never forget?
The picture on the cover of Dark Mission purporting to be Buzz Aldrin holding a Masonic flag is audacious. It is almost certainly fake. Here is Alan Shepard in a strikingly similar pose, with the same dish antenna shadow that was not on Apollo 11:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Apollo_14_Shepard.jpg
Mark's credibility dives further. First the Glitter Lamb, now this.
Mark: in order to reinstate your standing, you'll have to vindicate yourself by posting something more serious and scholarly, like a recipe for making Hashish or something.
This is to ACB:
Process Media is a publishing company begun by Jodi Wille and me in 2005. We like the word "process" since it appeals to us to suggest that we enjoy the "now" as well as the end result.
Though we have no affiliation with the Process Church, I published an article about them nearly two decades ago in "Apocalypse Culture" and am working on a definitive book about the group/cult/phenom in 2009. Also one about the Lyman Family and another about the history of fraternal groups in America.
Regarding the Manson connection, the Process Church published a short interview with the man in their notorious "Death Issue," but the Process Church was about promoting apocalyptic ideas and stirring up the "greys" (the banal nowhere men of the mid'60s) and not about worshipping Manson.... they actually worshipped Mary Anne DeGrimston, the wife of Jesus-looking guy on their literature.
In regards to the cover of "Dark Mission": this photoshop job was entirely the publisher's idea. The American flag seen in the famous photo of Alan Shepard was replaced by the actual Masonic flag brought to the moon and back by Buzz Aldrin. This Masonic flag can now be seen in person at the Southern Rite Freemasonic Headquarters in Washington DC and in various official Freemasonic publications. Buzz also wears a Masonic ring seen in most official publicity photos at the time. Glad the image grabbed someone's attention!
Hope that Mark F. can withstand everyone's hatred for enjoying Feral House and Process books!
All my beast wishes,
Adam Parfrey
Feral House / Process
About Dark Mission:
http://www.almostscientific.com/blog/2007/12/13/rocket-and-rituals-part-1-dark-mission/
Did you guys even look up Hoagland's name before pimping that book? If anybody has been perpetuating a fraud, it has been him. My God, it's full of B.S...
Tales of Times Square was great! I read that years ago and for somebody who'd never visited Times Square pre-Giuliani it was particulary fascinating.
I don't understand Rick, I liked the glitter lamb and there is nothing wrong with appreciating Hoagland for his kookiness.
BTW, Big Dead Place
http://bigdeadplace.com/
is really interesting and worth taking a look at.
I don't care that Hoagland's book isn't true. I love this kind of stuff. It's fun to read.
"Hope that Mark F. can withstand everyone's hatred for enjoying Feral House and Process books!"
yes that's fair. because of one bullshit conspiracy nut, i hate all your books.
From Feralman: Hope that Mark F. can withstand everyone's hatred for enjoying Feral House and Process books!
I keep seeing the use of the word "hate" like this on BoingBoing. Disagreement is not hate, folks. We can and do chat, bandy about diverse opinions, expose our varied tastes, and so on without anything remotely resembling hate.
Now, deceitfulness is another matter. From the feralhouse.com Dark Mission book blurb:
"The Freemasonic flag seen on the cover was brought to the Moon by 32° astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and later ceremoniously presented to Scottish Rite headquarters in Washington D.C."
It is truly hard to believe that the juxtaposition of this remark with the photo was not intended to convey the idea that the Masonic flag was secretly raised on the moon's surface. I enjoy zany conspiracy theory as much as the next guy (maybe even more), but the fact of the matter is that this is rubbish decorated with cherry-picked facts.
And Feralman, this is not hatred. It is just idle chatter on the net.
For nearly 20 years, Feral House has been publishing top notch kookery, landmark conspiracy tracts and social research of the highest order.
If there were any justice in the world, Adam Parfrey would be President.
Feral/Process 2008.
Just wait, Hoagland will soon discover the Great Stone Ass On Mars, at the antipoidal point from the Face! (CF Futurama)
Zapp: "The great stone face of Mars. Hmm, the only known entrance to the marsian reservation."
Leela: "What about the great stone ass of Mars?"
Zapp: "Well, yeah. But it's way on the other side of the planet."
@Rick: It is truly hard to believe that the juxtaposition of this remark with the photo was not intended to convey the idea that the Masonic flag was secretly raised on the moon's surface.
There was actually a cottage industry of lunar astronauts where they'd take certain items with them to the moon on behalf of others, if for no better reason than so they could claim it had been to the moon and back. It's not hard to think Aldrin, as a Mason, would have performed that courtesy for the grand muckety-mucks of Masonry. Anyone who'd believe that obviously P'shopped cover image deserves their inevitable ridicule.
As someone who grew up in NYC but rarely got the chance to venture alone into the wilds of Times Square during its golden age of sleazery, I may just have to get that book. I remember the uproar, both indignant and hilarious, when it was suggested Times Square could be made hospitable to even the greenhorns. Of course, now it's intolerable to the people who have to live in the town.
Nice Rob Ullman sticker on the bongos, BTW.
As a kid, Struwwelpeter had nothing on Max and Moritz.
Funny how worked up people get about Hoagland without even looking at his book. The simple idea of Richard Hoagland pisses people off, like he's on a terrorist mission to destroy science, reason and credibility (while sprinkling poop on your evening pinkberry).
Confession: I thought the same about Hoagland before looking more carefully at the material. All the material. People generally don't know this, but Hoagland had and has disgruntled insider friends at NASA hdqts passing him images and information, info no one is supposed to know, images that were ordered destroyed. A NASA employee who ran the photo archives, a good Christian named Ken Johnston, even came out of the closet with his support of Hoagland to the abuse of many. Ken Johnston's story can be seen here: http://darkmission.blogspot.com/
Anyone with even minimal awareness could come to the conclusion that there's a hell of a lot more to the NASA story than the official version you may have read, as I did, with awe and respect, as a child.
The heretofore-obscured history of NASA that's brought out in "Dark Mission" is hard to deny, even by the hardest (honest) skeptic.
I find it easy to "deny" (read: dismiss). The author is obviously a complete crackpot. He might be right anyway, but his arguments are poorly put together and full of flaws and denials.
Struwwelpeter online: http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Der_Struwwelpeter
If you like Tales of Times Square, you should also check out Samuel R. Delany's Times Square Red, Times Square Blue (Amazon link), which is the venerable science fiction author's stories of the pre-Disney-ified Times Square porn theaters. He had both erotic and purely conversational relationships with people who went there. A very eye-opening read.
"without even looking at his book."
so this is a fair point. Let me gather more information.
Question: Is this by the same Hoagland who runs the enterprise mission website who posts crackpot theories fairly regularly and has been doing so for years?
Question 2: Is this book about the same stuff?
Question 3: If yes, is it really all that necessary for me to look at the book to make an informed judgment if i'm familiar with the other body of the mans work on these subjects?
I don't mind reading crackpot theories online, and they are crackpot theories no matter what Shills tossing out phrases like "hard to deny" say.
The books always bug me because peddling on lies never seems like a healthy way to make your money.
I can't recommend Struwwelpeter enough. I found it (as Slovenly Peter) at my grandmother's house when I was a kid and refer to it regularly. As I remember, the author came up with those stories for his own child because the existing moral tales weren't quite stern enough. I recently caught a stage adaptation of the stories (I think it was called Shock Headed Peter) that used early stage effects to tell the stories. Awesome. Remember the stage play (especially the rolling log as cresting waves) in the movie Baron Münchhausen? It's like that.
Get it. Read it. Pass it on.
Question 1: yes
Question 2: yes
Question 3: no
"Hoagland had and has disgruntled insider friends at NASA hdqts passing him images and information, info no one is supposed to know, images that were ordered destroyed"
That is one possibility, the other is that Hoagland is lying or deluded when he makes that claim. If NASA is hiding anything it is hiding military activity and not ancient alien artifacts on the Moon or Mars. I can understand Mark's interest though. This stuff is great material. It's already fiction.
i'm still going to go with yes on 3.
this is the guy who on his websites highlights pictures of rocks on the martian surface and explains what pieces of alien technology they are.
he never cites sources, never even explains how he comes to conclusions, just "Look, here is a picture of a bunny on mars. NASA is covering up mars bunnys"
seriously... there were mars bunnies on his site.
#30 - The Creamsicle sticker was the first thing I noticed. I've got the same sticker on the back of my Jetta!
An animated story from Struwwelpeter
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-538011027440158787&q=struwwelpeter&pr=goog-sl
I'd just like to add my voice to the chorus of readers who see Hoagland as a crackpot bullshit artist who has zero credibility.
The guy's a joke.
Thank you for your kind attention.
As the co-author of Dark Mission and lots of other articles for Hoagland's web site, I am always amused by the fear and loathing our work engenders. You guys are so over the top, vitriolic and mean spirited that I just have to laugh. Mentioning the name Richard Hoagland to the Space.com crowd is like holding up a cross to a vampire.
Our book stands on its own two feet quite well, as do the 171 scientific references and citations we make in it. By all means, I encourage anyone dropping by this post to go to the Enterprise Mission web site, just as so many of the posters recommend. Read "How to make a mountain out of a MOLA hill," or the "Great Crinoid Cover up" and all the other articles on the site. Then decide if our book is worth picking up.
As to Wil Weaton, Noen, et. al, it's truly amazing how you manage to attack us without getting one fact correct and totally distorting what we argue. Ah well, I guess there's no point in debating you. You guys actually believe the stuff on "Dr. Phil" Plait's web site. That makes you well beyond my ability to help you.
whereas i'd like to sidestep said chorus and say that moondog is one of my very favourite musicians and composers of all time.
there's no-one quite like him: his timbre and rhythms are often jazzy, but harmonically he's drawing on something much older.. he once said "all i ever do is follow the laws of counterpoint".
and sometimes he sounds like michael nyman or philip glass but his music has a lyrical lilt and swing to it that these capital-c composers never achieve, imho.
lots of it is rounds and canons in odd time-signatures like 7/8 or 5/8.. AAAAAAAH I CAN'T DESCRIBE IT PROPERLY! ON ACCOUNT OF HOW IT IS MUSIC FOR ONE THING AND IDIOSYNCRATIC MUSIC FOR ANOTHER! ALL I CAN DO IS PANT AND FLUSTER LIKE A PUPPY IN THE HOPE THAT MY ENTHUSIASM IS COMMUNICATED! IN SOME USEFUL FASHION!
ahem. sorry.. i got a bit swept away but honestly: he's great: check him out.
I think it's interesting that everyone is up in arms about the Hoagland book of wacky unprovable theories, but not the New Wage bullshit offered by a volume like The Secret Source. Saying that The Secret's Law of Attraction is part of a far older system of estoric beliefs rather than a stand-alone principle is one thing ... claiming that "the full package" of "laws" will actually have significant and positive impact on your life is completely another. Frankly, I think this sort of thing is a lot more potentially harmful, and even more intellectually dishonest, than conspiracy ravings about alien tech abandoned on Mars.
"The Secret Source" came about as an investigation into "prosperity consciousness" rackets and what they came from. Your critique, CRUNCHBIRD, is a little quick on the draw.
The book from this publisher that looks really cool to me is Sex and Rockets which is not featured on this list.
Here is my brief write-up on the books introduction:
http://www.almostscientific.com/blog/2007/12/14/rocket-and-rituals-part-2-%e2%80%94-sex-and-rockets-and-burning-man/
...Hoaxland's crap getting props on BB? Disgusting, kids, is what it is. The best thing that could happen to the space programs of the entire world would be not only for Hoaxland to die a very painful *AND* embarassing death with mutiple angles available on YouTube, but for his death to be preceeded by incontrovertible proof that every single one of his claims were not only false, they were *deliberate lies* concocted by Hoaxland just to bilk the gullible into buying his bound volumes of used foolscap and make him rich.
Bottom Line Richard Hoagland is the best example of what complete and utter scum is defined as. It's no wonder that Walter Cronkite truly wishes Hoaxland would not only drop dead tonight, but that he'd also quit claiming Cronkite was his "mentor" and that he supports Hoaxland's bullshit.
Funny how worked up people get about Hoagland without even looking at his book. The simple idea of Richard Hoagland pisses people off, like he's on a terrorist mission to destroy science, reason and credibility (while sprinkling poop on your evening pinkberry).
Confession: I thought the same about Hoagland before looking more carefully at the material. All the material. People generally don't know this, but Hoagland had and has disgruntled insider friends at NASA hdqts passing him images and information, info no one is supposed to know, images that were ordered destroyed. A NASA employee who ran the photo archives, a good Christian named Ken Johnston, even came out of the closet with his support of Hoagland to the abuse of many. Ken Johnston's story can be seen here: http://darkmission.blogspot.com/
Anyone with even minimal awareness could come to the conclusion that there's a hell of a lot more to the NASA story than the official version you may have read, as I did, with awe and respect, as a child.
The heretofore-obscured history of NASA that's brought out in "Dark Mission" is hard to deny, even by the hardest (honest) skeptic.
...#49, in order - or, when discussing Hoaxland, that's always odor:
1) Like it or not, that *IS* his agenda. He's a crackpot who deserves nothing but ridicule and derision, if not an outright painful and embarassing death.
2) I too know people at NASA. One of them is involved in digital imaging preservation. Hoaxland has received not one single image that actually shows anything to bolster his claims. What he has is either doctored by himself or his cronies, or contains generational artifacts created by the duplication processes of the tiime.
3) Ken Johnston, like Hoaxland, John Maxson, and even Keith Cowing, are disgruntled NASA and/or contractor agency employees who were fired, and are simply seeking vengeance against their former employers.
4) Hoaxland's blatherings have been successfully shot down in flames every single time he's tried to foist them on the public. Even with the Cydonia debunking, he continues to blather on and claim conspiracy. Well, he's right. Every rational, sane individual is acting in unison to keep the public informed of the truth that Hoaxland and his ilk would love to have muddled and altered to suit their own masturbation efforts - ego *or* physical.
Bottom Line: "Dark Mission" is total bullshit, and the sooner Hoaxland dies that painful, embarassing death the better off we'll all be.
Bah. Don't listen to Hoagland. Listen to Geoff Landis.
His short yet hard-hitting expose _What We Really Do Here At NASA_ blows the lid off the organization and reveals what's really beneath. And of course he really works there, so it must be true.
(or something like that, anyway!)
I wonder what is going on here, with these violent, fallacious, misinformed postings of mr. om....
TheSpaceReview takes a look at Hoagland's latest efforts.
http://thespacereview.com/article/1022/1
And I second the recommendation for "What We Really Do Here at NASA"! The truth is in there! That and the recent revelations at NASAWatch about a stargate found at NASA...