Book Description
With the publication of 21st Century Revolutionary: Collected Works 1984-1998; the radical iconoclastic author unleashes a collection of his best works. This book traces the crooked line from psychedelic drugs to Virtual Reality to the Internet, to the beginning of a new political party called The Revolution. It is a unique collection of interviews, essays and extracts on progressive social and technological development at the end of the 21st Century.The book is illustrated throughout with appropriate drawings and photographs, including work by Eve Berni (aka Videobrain). 21st Century Revolutionary offers a new perspective on the extreme edge of post-modern digital culture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Patchy, but the highs are worth it
When Bruce Sterling and Douglas Rushkoff like your work, you have to be doing something right. This is a collection of essays and interviews from Sirius' considerable writing career, jumping from recent years to themid-eighties and back again. Some of the pieces are humorous, somephilosophical, some just stupid (some all three). The whole thing's veryfirmly rooted in the psychedelic-cyberpunk literary scene, and some of thepieces really fall flat, but the ones that work are brilliant. A greatcollection overall. ... Read more

Book Description
R. U. Sirius has won a devoted following for his brash, insightful writings and daring media pranks. Packed with bite-sized strategies for improving life on the planet, this collection of his latest dictates and musings will jar any complacent mind into decisive revolutionary action. Eliminate taxes for incomes less than $100,000. Legalize pleasure drugs. Stop policing the world. Put environmental concerns before profits. Stop censorship and defend privacy on the Internet. Always on the edge, Sirius is now at the helm of radical reform. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

good ideas, bad timing
If I were to make a list of books which turned out to have profoundly influenced my sensibilities, one of these books would be the Mondo 2000 book, A User's Guide to the New Edge, edited by Rudy Rucker, R. U. Sirius, and Queen Mu.Packed full of weird ideas at a time when I was hungry for weird ideas (1992), this book's ultimate gift to me was the knowledge that information could be psychedelic and that technology could be used for transcendental ends, lessons which set me on a set of investigations that I will probably never tire of conducting.

Partially out of gratitude, and partially out of genuine interest, I've always kept one eye on whatever Rucker and Sirius have been up to in the post-Mondo era (Queen Mu, alas, appears to have vanished into obscurity).Although they rarely tap into anything which gives me the same "whoa" factor that Mondo 2000 gave me, their current exploits are often pretty interesting (Sirius' Neo-Files site, for instance, is usually worth exploring).So when I saw, a few years back, that Sirius had formed a political party and published a little red book of quotations, I was intrigued.I put it on my Amazon wishlist and it finally came this past Christmas, roughly two months after George Bush won (or possibly stole) the 2004 elections.

Perhaps bad timing.Sirius' plan to run for President may have seemed like a giddy long-shot stunt back in 2000, when this book was published, but today it just makes me nostalgic for a time when we felt optimistic enough to try giddy long-shot stunts-aka the Clinton era.The both-parties-are-the-same argument that undergirds a lot of Sirius' rhetoric here-the same argument, you'll remember, that provided for much of Nader's groundswell-has gotten a serious trial-by-fire over the past four years, and no longer really holds much sway with me: if there were ever a time where lesser-evilism looked like an attractive philosophy, it's now.

All the more disappointing, because I mostly find myself in agreement with Sirius' basic political credo.The book opens with a "Nineteen Point Party Platform for National Politics," which nicely codifies that peculiarly Californian blend of beliefs: part anarcho-libertarian, part old-guard Leftist.(Sirius is enough of an idealist to say "we will repeal five times as many laws as we pass" but enough of a realist to say "you can't have the withering away of the State until you've built other defenses against total rape by the multinationals.")

The book is witty, insightful, and occasionally provocative, but there's no getting around the fact that recent political events have made it feel powerfully dated.Sirius exhorts us to fight the right evils-the National Security State, the prison/industrial complex, the global trashing of civil and human rights-but it seems to me that we're officially past the point where the daffy pranksterism of a faux Presidential campaign might qualify as a viable weapon.

Mock the Vote!
The must-have guide for anyone who wants to evangelize the electorate into asking the only rational question during the Y2K presidential campaign: R.U. Sirius?

Carry it with you. Launch into randomly-timed readings fromit on street corners. Buy extra copies and leaves them under people'swindshield wipers or in their mailboxes at the office. Give them to harekrishnas at the airport.

Maybe you won't like all his answers. But youhave to admit his name asks the right question. ... Read more

Book Description
This is the first book to use photos and personal case stories to show the human cost of the US Drug War. It is art-quality in its 8-1/2 by 11" presentation, with a full color, laminated cover and containing more than 150 photos. The pages are printed on 80# gloss paper, 118 black and white plus 12 color pages. This approach highlights the dignity, warmth and humanity of its subjects, contrasted to the stark statistics and harsh penalties of the Drug War. It is perfect to open up the eyes of even the hardest-hearted drug warrior, showing how the children and families of the prisoners are also hurt, how circumstantial hearsay evidence is used to construct cases against low-level or even innocent defendants, how family homes and property are seized with no evidence whatsoever, innocent people killed by law enforcement, and policies used for cultural and racial suppression. One of the most powerful books ever written on the unintended consequences of the drug war, this is a book that can change people's minds, and it also offers hope as it discusses policy alternatives to help drug addicts, control drug use and promote tolerance. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

The Failure of Modern Day Prohibition
"Shattered Lives: Portraits from America's Drug War", is a collaborative effort by three writers: Mikki Norris and Chris Conrad, who are members of the Family Council on Drug Awareness; and Virginia Resner, member of the activist group Families Against Mandatory Minimums. These individuals joined together to write this book as a means to educate the public about the myriad of problems that the war on drugs has caused.

This book was written in a very personal way, with most of the pages dedicated to the individuals who are Prisoners of War, languishing behind bars as the result of America's unethical war on drugs. These people are not criminally- minded in any way and many of them were falsely imprisoned in the first place. But our political leaders in Washington do not seem to care at all. They continue to send non- violent individuals to prison and continue to fight the War on Drugs even though all indicators show the war was lost decades ago and can never be won.

Some of the cases depicted in this book will shock the average reader. One good example is millionaire Donald Scott, who was shot dead by U.S government drug enforcement agents after the agents received false information and proceeded to raid Scott's home without a warrant. The real motive behind this, it seems, was the seizure of Scott's property. He owned a parcel of land that the government wanted, but he refused to sell. By creating a phony drug charge, government police had an excuse to raid his home and seize his property. Of course, there were no drugs found because Scott was not a drug user at all. But government officials seized his property regardless and refused to return it, or to make any apology to the family. Yet another case of outrageousness involved Melinda George. She was caught trying to sell a tiny amount of cocaine- one- tenth of a gram, to be precise. But because of mandatory minimum laws, she has been sentenced to 99 years in prison. Convicted murders get shorter sentences than this.

Then, there are sentences that are unjust and tragic. The best example here is Mr. Lonnie Lundy. He is spending decades in prison, as part of a false testimony. Another person who was caught with drugs was offered a lighter sentence if he agreed to snitch on someone else. So, the man falsely accused Lundy, and got his own sentence reduced, while Lundy, an innocent man, was sent to prison. Later on, this other man openly admitted that he lied, but government authorities will still not let Lundy out of prison.

The purpose of this book is to make people outraged by showing the reader the tragedies of America's War on Drugs. Most of the book contains pictures of Drug War POW's, many of them with their families. Each photograph includes the victim's age, the sentence they are serving, and the "crime" they committed. Some also include stories of how the government unethically sent them to prison and how drug laws have destroyed their lives and the lives of their families. And there are often quotes included from children who want their mother or father back. The book is intended to invoke emotion by letting people see and get to know some of the real victims in the drug war- the members of the families of those who are sent to prison each year for committing a victimless crime.

This book is a quick read, with only 118 pages. In many ways, its size and emphasis on photos makes it seem more like a magazine than an actual reading book. It's a quick and easy read because most of the pages are filled with pictures. It doesn't contain much debate or anti- drug war education as other books of its genre, mainly because it is too brief and because the pages are covered mostly with pictures. Its goal is to get people outraged by showing dozens of examples of lives that have been destroyed more by drug laws than by the drugs themselves.

The last two pages of Shattered Lives include resources for activist organizations, complete with addresses, phone numbers, and the web site address for each. Interested readers can call or logon to the web site to begin their activist work. It's an appropriate ending to a book that has an obvious agenda: To stir readers' emotions by showing them the innocent victims of the failed drug war and to gain new anti- drug war activists in the process.

Overall, Shattered Lives is an effective book that could have been even more effective with more written words on the costs and failures of America's longest war. It would also be nice if it was a little bit longer. But this is still a good book for everyone that vividly illustrates what happens when government attempts prohibition.

about time
Mikki Norris has done a remarkable job with her book, "Shattered Lives".Though irredeemably heart-rendering, it is the book I had always wanted to write.The other side of the story of the hidden, cruel, inhumane tax $ milked Drug War.
I trust her Guardian Angels are the top of the top! To know that any of us, could be innocent victims of planted evidence put by someone else could cost us our lives, our children, our animals, our property, is beyond what our American forefathers intended who wrote the Gettysburg address on hemp, and way beyond what the original land owners of North America could perceive, the Native Americans who treasured this blessed land.

Unbelievable!What kind of justice is this?
This is by far the saddest book I own.I cannot believe that the U.S. government would allow such cruel and unusual punishments.Murderers and child Molesters don't even serve half the time as most the people in this book are or will be serving.189 years, 8 months charged with conspiracy to transport cocaine.I'm not saying I agree with with the crime committed but I have to admit that the sentences are far from just.Non Violent Drug Offenders, Not Rapist, Not Serial Killers.24 years charged with conspiracy to possess marijuana with intent to distribute.Many, many more stories and lots of them are first time offenders...What kind of country are we?No wonder the UN voted us off.I just can't believe this kind of ignorance is happening right under our noses...and maximum sentencing for many convicted murders is less than 30 years for Violent crimes...does this make sense to you?Early parole for them to make room for these drug prisoners.I am appalled.The authors did an outstanding job presenting these tragic stories.Hats off to them.I will share this book with everyone I know!That is the only way to change this unrelenting system called justice!United we stand, divided we fall, and that is a bummer!The authors of this book are giving these people who are locked away a voice that will hopefully reach people like you or myself that might read this book and want to do something to help change these uncivilized laws.

A True Tear-Jerker
In addition to agreeing with most of the other reviews of this book, I think the main mission is to show this nation's harsh mandatory minimum sentencing. Also, a lot of people shown in this book are in prison solelyfor being associated with someone (usually a boyfriend or husband) who wasdealing drugs. A lot of times, these people receive larger sentences thanthe leaders of the drug rings because they refuse to testify against theirloved ones.

Recently, Amy Pofahl, (who is featured in this book) wasgranted sentence commutation by President Clinton. She had already servednearly ten years of a no-parole 24-year sentence on conspiracy chargesrelated to her ex-husband's participation in an Ecstasy production anddistribution ring. He got three years of probation in the US, but alsoserved a four-year sentence in Germany.

Overall, this book is veryimportant and well laid out. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who isoverly emotional because it's incredibly sad how our own government treatsthese people.

unfair review inspires attempt for balance
I just finished a most incredible book, Shattered Lives. It succeeds in putting a very human face on "the big ugly", the US drug war. Reading the review on this book by someone called Newtiger it becamepainfully obvious that this reviewer had a political agenda in trying toturn off potential readers. The power of Shattered Lives on an unbiasedreader to be sickened by the actions of the government in its drug war roleelicited what is likely to be Newtiger's self promoting review. It wouldnot surprise me to learn that Newtiger is someone directly profitting bythe drug war insanity ie. prosecutor, politician, prison guard,etc. Anyonewho sincerely wants to understand what is happening in America should readthis book- after finishing the book they might read Newtiger's review tounderstand spinmaster illusions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

If you read mondo 2000, there are no surprises here, but...
If you have read Mondo 2000 before, then nothing in this book will be much of a surprise.In fact in 1998 this book is clearly retro.Still, to the new reader you will find much of the information interesting.The format is basically an A-Z of popular memes and cultural phenomena with a pseudo hypertext interface.
High gloss and flashy.Suitable for a coffee table, but you might want to keep it on your reference shelf.

Very '1990' look at the future
A very 1990 look at the future, but well done withgood graphics. Covers music, fashion, Industry,etc. ... Read more

Product Description
True Mutations: Interviews on the Edge of Science, Technology, and Consciousness looks at the wild changes that may be coming to the human species during the 21st Century. In a series of interviews, author/host RU Sirius explores a series of (r)evolutions in disciplines ranging from the evolution of clean energy to the possibilities of endless neurological ecstasy; from open-source free access to nearly everything under the sun to self-directed biotechnological evolution; from psychedelic culture mash-ups to the possibilities of a technological singularity that alters not only humanity but the entire universe. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

loved it
I just finished the last of the interviews in this book a few minutes ago, and it was one of the best reads I've had in awhile.I purchased the book mostly to read the chapters on familiar names I know and respect (Rheingold, Doctorow, RAW, etc.) but also found myself turned on to many fascinating new ideas and faces.

It seems like every few pages I found myself blown away by some new idea, or new way of looking at an old one.Although I don't agree with everything in here (some of the Transhumanists are waaay too Brave New World for my taste), I found the book to be a wealth of ideas that I'm going to have to go back through again to make a list of follow-up reading. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Reason, published by Thomson Gale on February 1, 2007. The length of the article is 2077 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Our right to death: how medical breakthroughs challenge easy answers about suicide.(Unplugged: Reclaiming Our Right to Die in America)(Book review)
Author: R.U. Sirius
Publication: Reason (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 38Issue: 9Page: 61(4)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Prophetic, marvelous, incisive, incendiary
Goffman indwells the dimensions traversed by the likes of Phil Dick, R. A. Wilson, Reverend Bob, Ken Kesey, Greil Marcus, Andrew Weil, Nareem Caroli Babi, und so weiter. From whence, like a character from Louis Carroll transmogrified by DMtation, this Prophetic, marvelous, incisive, incendiary, supersonic Howl holds forth the shining tool of The Fool, a timeless voice proclaiming: IT. IS. TIME.

Apart from that, Ken's a great guy, knows a lotta stuff, and knows what it all counts for. Siriusly.

podcast-mind
"Ken Goffman (R.U. Sirius) constructs the metaphysical brain of a drug fetus in this abolition world. COUNTERCULTURE THROUGH THE AGES installs the podcast-mind to the broken modem=cardiac of a chemical=anthropoid." - Kenji Siratori, author of Blood Electric

It's hip, hip. Hooray!
Alternative aficionados, hoist your flagons, pass your joints, heave your Molotov cocktails and give cheer! CCttA fills a vacuum you've always suspected existed but were too busy having sex, drugs and rock & roll to notice. Former underground historians have focused on only one era, one counterculture. Goffman/Day begin at the beginnings: Prometheus, Abraham, Socrates. They pay obeisance to heterodox religions--taoism, zen Buddhism, Sufism (where's tantra?). They execute a mad, four-chapter dash through a millenium or so--the Troubadours, the Enlightenment and American and French revolutions, the Transcendentalists, Parisian bohemians. Finally they get down close to home with the efflourescing rebel movements of the past half-century: beatniks, rock & roll, hippies, women's lib, punk, cyberpunk, the New Age, raves, hip-hop, hackers, environmentalism.
Andjust what is a counterculture, anyway? Sifting through their subjects from Alcibiades to the Zapatistas, the authors extract three central traits shared by them all: they're adamantly anti-authoritarian; they're iconoclastically individualistic; and they espouse lofty visions of personal and/or societal transformation.
We expect a history to be thoughtful and thoroughy researched, and CC fills the bill. We hope for--but seldom get--a history as anecdotally rich, as entertaining and enthusiastic as this. Pity poor James Joyce, despairing after nine consecutive women quit typing his manuscript of Ulysses in sexual huffs, "and one even threatened to throw herself out the window." est founder Werner Erhard is "a mix of Giurdjieff, Hitler and a traveling salesman"; JFK on LSD an "altered statesman." John Lennon, listening to Chuck Berry and Elvis in 1957, "knew something was happening although he didn't yet know what it ws."
If you have a jones for underground tomes, Bogart this one.

Very readable, informative look at a fascinating topic
This is a thoroughly enjoyable, intelligent and thought-provoking look at the phenomenon of countercultures through history. Ken Goffman (aka R.U. Sirius), without oversimplifying his subject, has a style that is very accessible and engaging. By necessity, as the authors (it is co-written by Dan Joy) admit, this is a brief and incomplete look at a vast topic, one that could fill an encyclopedia. Yet what is included here leaves the reader with a surprisingly comprehensive idea of what a counterculture is, how they have influenced history and interacted with mainstream cultures.

The authors start with ancient times, looking to Prometheus and Abraham as examples of early rebels, then go on to look at Taoists, Sufis, Zen masters and medieval troubadours (who are credited with providing a blueprint for our modern ideas about love and romance). This book is not, however, a mere cataloging of countercultural movements. It contains quite a bit of useful analysis, such as the internal contradictions that exist within many countercultures --for example, the authoritarian impulses that often arise within movements that are supposedlyagainst authority; the rather puritanical tendencies of transcendentalists Thoreau and Emerson; the ever-present danger of "selling out" or having the movement absorbed by mainstream society.

R.U. Sirius has been at the center of the counterculture himself for the last few decades, especially the cyberpunk/futurist wing of it. Here he contrasts the Promethean vs. anti-Promethean strains that exist within countercultures. This debate, over whether technology is primarily a liberating or enslaving influence, is an example of how complex and theoretical this topic can get. I think that the authors of this work do a very good job at getting beyond the dogmas that often weigh down alternative thinkers and point the way towards a truly freer way to look at life.

Why Be Normal?
Here Ken Goffman (apparently coauthor Dan Joy worked at the conceptual level only) has created a fast-moving and fascinating discussion of countercultures throughout history and what they have in common. The most interesting aspect of this book is the locating of ancient groups, like followers of Socrates and even the original Jews, that fit the modern definition of counterculture. Goffman even includes the Enlightenment thinkers of Europe, who even though they ended up being the establishment, definitely started out by countering the dominance and dogma of the Catholic Church. Goffman finds that these and modern countercultures, such as hippies and ravers, share an anti-authoritarian worldview and a love for individualism and nonconformity, which are central to the human condition in all regions, time periods, and political environments.

Unfortunately there are some problems with this book, inherent in the methods followed by Goffman and Joy. Goffman states in the introduction that it would be impossible to describe all the countercultures the world has ever seen, so representative examples have been chosen that most illustrate the basic arguments being advanced. This works reasonably well, to the extent described in the last paragraph, but still leads to a somewhat distracting sense of arbitrary and fragmented history. More specifically, the inevitable coverage of the hippie/new left movements of the 60s and 70s is highly politicized and personalized (not a problem for most of the rest of the book), and Goffman even accidentally says "we" a few times when describing the countercultural participants of that and the current era, damaging the observational integrity of some portions of the book.

On the writing side, Goffman has fun playing with the academic language that this kind of study engenders, and can sound funny (and purposefully ironic) when spewing professor-speak like "a complex exegesis would be required to do complete justice to this peculiar conundrum." But on the other hand, he is also prone to that same type of over-analysis, such as describing an off-hand onstage comment by Janis Joplin as "subvert[ing] the very division of time into discrete units." Goffman tends to make gigantic postmodern connections, such as 12th century French troubadours to Jefferson Airplane or Picasso's cubism to hip hop beats; he's prone to incessant name-dropping (see the index for dozens of names that appear on one page only); and he can't stop quoting Bob Dylan. Luckily, these pervasive flaws in method don't significantly damage the main points Goffman is making about countercultures, and his book is a fascinating treatise on those of us who will never be happy with normal conformity. [~doomsdayer520~] ... Read more

Amazon.com
Timothy Leary, high priest of psychedelia and former Harvard psychologist, spent decades enthusiastically investigating the meaning of life with the boundary-breaking, consciousness-expanding assistance of hallucinogenic drugs. It seems only natural that when "Mademoiselle Cancer moved in to share [his] body," he seized the opportunity to examine the nature of death ... and throw a big party. He didn't, as threatened, commit suicide on the Net or have his head cut off and frozen, but instead surrounded himself with good friends at an extended wake in his Beverly Hills home, where he drifted peacefully away.

In Design for Dying, his newly released book, Leary shows people how to die happily and well. "There are common-sense, easy-to-understand options for dealing planfully, playfully, compassionately, and elegantly with the inevitable final scene," he states. "Face it. At this point in human history, we're all terminal. It behooves us to focus some time and energy and courage on regaining personal and group autonomy over the dying process.... Talking about death is the last taboo in our society. And as we've learned, the way to overcome taboo is pretty straightforward. As the man says, 'Just Do It!'" The book includes contributions from R. U. Sirius of cyberculture magazine Mondo 2000; a guide to death and dying resources, online tools, and further reading lists; and an addendum of "Timothy Leary's Dying Performance as Remembered by His Friends." Timothy Leary vowed to "give death a better name or die trying," and Design for Dying attempts to do just that. Irreverent, original, and funny as ever, Timothy Leary urges us to face death with courage and joy, if not with laughing gas and a lava lamp. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Leary's Last (Ego) Trip
I think that the basic premise of this book, that you should die in style, have a party, invite some friends round to pay respects while you are still alive, is a good one. However, once that's been said, then there really isn't much else to add, it seems to me. Leary fills the rest of the 140 odd pages with lots of boring technobabble about cryonics, nanotechnology and some cheery predictions about the creation of human/machine hybrids.

I was disappointed to see Leary recommend ketamine as a means of simulating a near death experience. He doesn't state whether he tried this himself and he doesn't mention associated health risks. I would recommend anyone thinking of dabbling in ketamine to look up on the internet to see what happened to author D.M. Turner after one too many ketamine trips. He also makes a ridiculous comment about how people who take drugs are more equipped to enter heaven.

intersting, but don't take all of it seriously
There are really two sides to this book: The part where he talks about his impeding death ("throw a big party!" "Do it in style") and the politics of dying is brilliant. The part where he talks about science is ridiculous and shows that Leary has no clue what he is talking about.

In the first part, Leary tries to give a synopsis of how he understands the world. There are some really uninformed statements and some extremely bold and plainly wrong comparisons. For example, he equates the medieval alchemists system of dividing all matter into earth, water, sky and fire with the periodic system of elements. According to Leary they are pretty much the same. Well, they are not. One is a superstition, the other is a table organizing scientific observations about electron orbits around nuclei. There are many blunders like this, which should make anyone who paid attention in science class in high school shake their heads. Leary's excursions into DNA, information and the universe lack any basis. He was old and sick, and can be forgiven for it, but please don't think you are learning anything about science here.

The second part is very uplifting, which must be one of the hardest things to do when writing about death. It is deeply humanist and advocates personal choice and an approach away from emergency high-tech medicine and together with friends for this last part of everyone's life. Leary argues that totalitarian, monotheistic religions want to take control about all fundamental steps in life (birth, sex, death) away from humans and that we should move on and regain individual control. His arguments should make sense to anyone who is not brainwashed by these religions.

There is an appendix where Leary's friends describe his dying experience.

Humanist Classic
a very hopeful humanist tome that enlightens and entertains, showing us that confidence and illumination go hand-in-hand.

Also serves as a loving tribute to the genius who inspired (and continues to inspire) many.

Absolutely a humanist classic that should be read many times.

an extraordinary book!
One of the few books Ive encountered that I can truly describe as life changing.Throghout his life Dr Leary was the ultimate individual, freethinker, and rebel, and the lives of the people he touched are no doubt much better off for his inspiration.As evidenced in this book, his boundless energy and enthusiasm never waned, even in the face of unimaginable suffering in the grip of a crippling terminal illness.In my humble opinion Learys final months(and probably his entire life)epitomized the primary concepts laid down by Viktor Frankl with his formulation of existential psychology, nothing in life has any meaning other than the meaning we attach to it, including death.As far as Im concerned the good doctor succeeded in his attempt to "give death a better name, or die trying".5 stars, highly reccomended.

Design Your Dying and Death -Throw a Party!
Timothy Leary's final media jump into the unknown world of death and technology. Famed LSD Guru, former Harvard Professor and author of some 20 books, Dr. Timothy Leary attempts to marry technology with the dyingprocess. Before doing this, he gives a brief history of his life, thetrials and tribulations. Once he discovers his own diagnosis of prostatecancer he then takes the step to make death a public and cultural issue.Attempting to have his brain frozen, or consider nanotechnology to"fix" himself, or perhaps have his ashes flown into space.Leary's job in this book to make the reader aware of the many ways one candie with dignity. I enjoyed this book because its the one book that Learywrote with the most accessiblity and clearity unlike his other chaos works.The book also has an addendum from all his friends. Certainly Timothy Learyfans will cherish this book, as well as those interested in the process ofdeath. ... Read more

Amazon.com
If you thought the media-cyberspace-information-overload techno Tower of Babel had reached dizzying heights before, you clearly never dreamed you'd be exposed to a novel that reads like someone tossed Douglas Adams,William Gibson, Mark Leyner and Thomas Pynchon into a Cuisinart and hit the puree button.This self-described "exploded post-novel" can be read front to back, back to front or grazed in snippets.Probably the first novel you can channel-surf.Book Description
OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS FOR AN EXPLODED POST-NOVEL
This is not a novel.
Don't think you can just hold your nose and jump into this.
You might get boiled or vaporized. Anodized.
THIS IS NOT A NOVEL
Before you start reading an exploded post-novel, you should think strategy.
While we do recommend reading this book from front to back--left to right--you can skip around as you please. It is disguised as a scrapbook. You can channelsurf it. Or graze through sections, munch munch munch. After you acquire the taste, you'll feel strong enough to start at the beginning and read through to the end, in precisely that order. Don't take too much at one sitting. Do not overdose. It's dense, fast. Things get technical. There's a relentless quality to the first-person narrative that may exhaust you secondhand. Read only until the vertigo overwhelms you. When you find yourself crying out, "For god's sake, give it a break!!!". . . well, exactly. Put the book down. . . gently. Rest. Watch TV. Read Ben Is Dead. Go somewhere watery and lie in the hard radiation. Read a nonexploded novel. Take up crime. Then. . .
Read a little at a time. Swallow it slowly like crème br-lée. Or hold it in your cheek like Copenhagen Smokeless. But do not rush. If you go slowly enough, by the time you're done, the made-for-TV movie will be out. Starring Steven Seagal as R. U. Sirius and Whoopi Goldberg as St. Jude. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Historical meta-document
This is St. Jude on Zoloft collaborating with RU Sirius to craft a terribly drole chronicle/send up of SanFran's cyberpunk climate in the mid-90's.If you didn't track the culture, you miss a lot of the references, unfortunately, so it has to be viewed as an extended series of inside jokes on a vanished movement.

Chicken
I loved it alot. It was much, much lots of funs. I give it number one for that reson. Thanks. For this review.

Strange weird and not to serious
R. U. Sirius and St. Jude have taken us all for a ride. This post-novel is a poke in the eye for want-a-be cyberpunks and cypherpunks. I'm sure the book is not to be taken seriously.

It is a mix of email between the two authors, interspersed with email to their publisher, news stories, book reviews (yes, reviews for a book in the book they review, and very poor ones too!), and interviews. We are left no knowledge of what is real, fake or somewhere inbetween. Some of the interviews (well, one because we see the credits for it at the start) may be real, and as for the editorial assistant Trudy, who knows?

The only clue is a note at the end telling us that the book does make fun of some of their friends, and their only consolation is that it makes fun of the authors as well. Also the Phil Zimmerman defence fund mentioned on page 26 is true, thus leading the reader to believe the rest is complete fabrication.

Where that leaves us is that it is a complete work of fiction. Which I suppose we should expect. As a work of fiction it meanders, walks around, tells tales and really doesn't get us very far. It is interesting as a story telling device, but you need to realise that R. U. Sirius and St. Jude are fictional characters created by each author. They are their online persona's that seem to leak out into the real world every now and then. The book is interesting for its own sake, and that's about it really.

mind-melting - this is what "Postmodern" means
For sheer paranoid frenzy power, this book is best read in turns with Shea & Wilson's "Illuminatus!" trilogy. This is brilliant stuff, I truly believe this is a fine sample of where writing can take us if we giveArt free reign. This is one colossal whack on the brain that makes acidlook like ginger ale. The complex layering of stories-within-stories heretoys with the rational mind, gradually drawing you in and distorting allperception until the barrier between real and not-real starts to bleed, andsorting what's going on from what isn't becomes frightening, difficult, andrediculous. For anyone struggling with literary catchphrases, this book iswhat they mean when they say "Postmodern." I have two copies, afriend of mine has ten. We take this seriously. Sorta.

Oops... missed the Deadline?
Hmm, did r.u. and jude miss the dealine on this one aswell. With the text below the title, "An Exploded Post-Novel", it can certainly make you wonder. The style is definitly wired, a precurser to english usage inthe digital age. a cybercultural tomb of email babble. more so that mostother books, i feel that 'how to mutate and take over the world' wouldreally depend on what the reader goes into the book for. for my purposes of'technology/culture' research, it proves an excellent resource.aesthetically, the book is quite beatiful; a variety of topography, acatchy semi-translucent cover-sleeve, the digitally altered photograph ofan anonymous head on the cover, etc. etc.. if your into the whole"cypherpunk" ordeal, this book will look good next to your'techgnosis'... ... Read more