Paranoia is a heightened state of awareness

bodywithoutorgans — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:07:16 -0800

The fringes of knowledge Amok publishers specializes in collecting the finest of esoterica. Back before the Internet had everything, people with deviant tastes would have to rely on mail order catalogs such as Amok. It has published a compendium of bizarre books known as Dispatches since the 80s. I managed to bump into this book at the University library. I also wasted half a day savoring the ridiculous annotations and drawings. Here are some reviews that hype it: "The Amok catalog is required reading for all information junkies, mutants, lunatics and anybody else interested in exploring worlds and ideas never seen... A side effect of reading the Amok catalog is that it could make you reconsider the very nature of imagination, freedom and possibility." – San Francisco Chronicle "Amok is the research guide to all the sordid thoughts you'd never discuss at lunch... the index of all that we hold obscure, perverse, and dear." – Esquire "You think you're postmodern. You give to your local National Public Radio station. You write letters on behalf of prisoners of conscience. Jesse Helms makes your knee go into involuntary spasms. You are primed for First Amendment battles and believe you stand squarely on the side of the purists. Until you start to leaf through the Amok Fourth Dispatch." – Publisher's Weekly "The benchmark sourcebook on deviant literature." – Vanity Fair "An impressive collection, absolutely definitive in many ways – one can almost say that there's no need to read anything that isn't in this catalogue." – J. G. Ballard "A reading list from Hell that is a must for any serious oddball bibliophile." – John Waters

Murder will out itself

GrammarMoses — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 14:29:05 -0800

Krystian Bala has been convicted of murder in Wroclaw. Bala, the author of the grisly 2000 crime novel Amok, claimed to have taken his book's plot from news reports about the killing of a local businessman. Police were skeptical after learning that the novel contained details known only to the investigators and the killer himself. Bala was arrested in 2005, interrogated, and eventually released for lack of convincing evidence; he finally went on trial this past summer. His lawyer claims the case against him was circumstantial, but e-mail sent from Indonesia and South Korea gave Bala away.

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Paranoia is a heightened state of awareness

Murder will out itself