"What I do is try to give readers something that is interesting, something they might not have explored before. That's what floats my boat."
December 10, 2010 10:33 AM Subscribe
For Adam Parfrey, Publishing the Unabomber's Book Is All In a Day's Work. The owner and operator of notorious publishing house Feral House and a partner (along with his wife Jodi Wille) behind Process Media discusses his life, work, and what he will not publish.
Bonus beats: Reason interview with Parfrey from 2002.
Bonus beats: Reason interview with Parfrey from 2002.
Freedom of speech is meaningless if all you are allowed to say are things that everyone finds pleasant or agreeable.
Governmental attempts to shut him down are the definition of unconstitutional action (1st amendment anyone?) and should be resisted.
posted by lalochezia at 11:36 AM on December 10, 2010
Governmental attempts to shut him down are the definition of unconstitutional action (1st amendment anyone?) and should be resisted.
posted by lalochezia at 11:36 AM on December 10, 2010
In the late 90s, right as I had started undergrad, I stumbled across Parfrey's Apocalypse Culture tucked away amid a stack of Anne Rice & John Grisham novels in a nonassuming Southern flea market.
I read it, completely absorbed, in one sitting. And I felt nauseous for the next three days, as though I had been psychically assaulted, never to recover.
I haven't read too many books that have had that kind of effect on me, but for that reason alone, it earned a place in my permanent collection.
posted by Hesychia at 12:24 PM on December 10, 2010 [3 favorites]
I read it, completely absorbed, in one sitting. And I felt nauseous for the next three days, as though I had been psychically assaulted, never to recover.
I haven't read too many books that have had that kind of effect on me, but for that reason alone, it earned a place in my permanent collection.
posted by Hesychia at 12:24 PM on December 10, 2010 [3 favorites]
Very interesting article. Thanks for posting this.
In 1989 an old girlfriend loaned me her copy of High Weirdness by Mail. From that day onward, I've been fascinated by these sort of "notes from the fringe". It wasn't long before I found my way to Amok, Loompanics, Flatland (and many more). I would scour every edition of Factsheet Five and send off for anything that looked like it might have belonged in the pages of those catalogs.
When I finally came across Apocalypse Culture, it was like finding all of that weirdness and savagery and other-ness that I'd been reading about distilled into one concise guidebook. The book actually felt heavy to me, as if it was denser than it looked. The best description I was able to give to a friend was that it was like "reading a Throbbing Gristle record". I've bought other Feral House books over the years, but none have really has as much of an impact on me at Apocalypse Culture did.
posted by ralan at 2:25 PM on December 10, 2010
In 1989 an old girlfriend loaned me her copy of High Weirdness by Mail. From that day onward, I've been fascinated by these sort of "notes from the fringe". It wasn't long before I found my way to Amok, Loompanics, Flatland (and many more). I would scour every edition of Factsheet Five and send off for anything that looked like it might have belonged in the pages of those catalogs.
When I finally came across Apocalypse Culture, it was like finding all of that weirdness and savagery and other-ness that I'd been reading about distilled into one concise guidebook. The book actually felt heavy to me, as if it was denser than it looked. The best description I was able to give to a friend was that it was like "reading a Throbbing Gristle record". I've bought other Feral House books over the years, but none have really has as much of an impact on me at Apocalypse Culture did.
posted by ralan at 2:25 PM on December 10, 2010
I bought a copy of AC years ago at a used bookstore and every time I cracked it open it almost felt like I was delving into things I wasn't supposed to know about. A very strange feeling, very..."other". Needless to say I still have it in my bookcase.
posted by MikeMc at 4:11 PM on December 10, 2010
posted by MikeMc at 4:11 PM on December 10, 2010
Apocalypse Culture was the only thing I recall bringing back with me on my first trip to the USA. We surely didn't see many books like *that* in UK bookshops.
Could that really have been twenty three years ago?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 2:49 AM on December 11, 2010
Could that really have been twenty three years ago?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 2:49 AM on December 11, 2010
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posted by penduluum at 10:36 AM on December 10, 2010