a bit more buzz re: AfterBurn
V. Vale of RE/Search publications reviews AfterBurn. Vaguely depressing that the first item of note is the difficulty in finding said text. But if anyone reading this in the SF bay area wants a copy, I still have a big box of 'em sitting under the dining room table. Heck, for those of you outside the bay area, I could probably ship one to you. Anyhow, I added some links to the newsletter text pasted below, forwarded to me by MVP yesterday.
Mark Van Proyen and (myself), eds: AFTER BURN (Reflections on Burning Man). 6x9", 222, pages, photos & illustrations. University of New Mexico Press, 2005. A volume in the CounterCulture Series. Burning Man aficionados ("Burners") will probably have to work hard to find this book - we suggest trying www.abebooks.com or amazon.com after checking out City Lights Books or Modern Times in San Francisco. Why? Because University Press books are usually under-promoted and short-discounted, estranged from the backroom-marketing-deep-discount deals offered by the huge corporate publishing conglomerates. But, a general rule of thumb is: the harder something is to find, the better it is! (and vice versa) .
From an "obsession-with-mind-control" viewpoint, our favorite essay was Katherine K. Chen's "Incendiary Incentives: How the Burning Man Organization Motivates and Manages Volunteers." It's always distressing to learn how rebellious creative "rebels" can be as bamboozled as the mass of the allegedly-passive American consumers making up the populace. However, I doubt this was the intention of the essay writer, who indeed gave a quite positive "spin" on the "innovative" organizing techniques of the BM leadership. Call us cynical, but we consider ourselves the sons and daughters of William S. Burroughs, who can spot a con-man anywhere, anytime, anyplace. Or who at least tries to spot one...
Mind you, Burning Man is an amazing 35,000-member temporary-city experiment, as illuminated by Mark Van Proyen's essay, "A Tale of Two Surrealities." The chapter starts with a great quote from Marcel Raymond's "From Baudelaire to Surrealism": "The essence of the Surrealist message consists in this call for the absolute freedom of the mind, in the affirmation that life and poetry are "elsewhere," and that they must be conquered dangerously, each separately, and each by means of the other, because ultimately they coincide and merge and negate this false world, bearing witness to the fact that the chips are not yet down, that everything can be saved." Shortly thereafter another great quote: "Surrealism is based [on] the belief in a superior reality of certain forms of previously neglected associations; in the omnipotence of the dream, in the disinterested play of thought. It tends to ruin once and for all other psychic mechanisms, and to substitute itself for them in solving all the principal problems of life." (Andre Breton, Manifestoes of Surrealism)
Van Proyen's essay ends with: "Everything suggests the belief that there is a certain point of the mind where life and death, the real and the imaginary, the past and the future, the communicable and the incommunicable, the high and the low are no longer perceived as contradictions. It would be vain to look for any motive in surrealist activity other than the hope of determining that point." (Andre Breton, Manifestoes of Surrealism)
In between a number of dazzling quotes are descriptions of Burning Man "high points" and "stellar achievements." Both the editors have attended Burning Man annually since 1996, and there may have been equally "great" "happenings" beforehand, but these spotlighted events are probably enough to make any reader aspire to pilgrimage to Black Rock next, or rather, this year...even better, help create something dazzling and memorable and then destroy it, potlatch-style. There are many musings on the idea of "utopia" scattered through this book, but we try to keep in mind J.G. Ballard's warning that most utopias fail to adequately consider the built-in psychopathological tendency seemingly hard-wired into the human character/genotype. Which is why we love Groucho Marx's "I wouldn't join any club that would have me as a member."
This book has some of the "best" Burning Man photos ever seen by this reviewer. There is much "food for thought" in these essays, which together coalesce into a satisfyingly comprehensive consideration of the provocative social experiment known as Burning Man...an experiment which probably transcends the intentions and conceptualizing of its primary organizers. Humans, after all, are capable of exponentially greater achievements when working together complementarily.
Mark Van Proyen and (myself), eds: AFTER BURN (Reflections on Burning Man). 6x9", 222, pages, photos & illustrations. University of New Mexico Press, 2005. A volume in the CounterCulture Series. Burning Man aficionados ("Burners") will probably have to work hard to find this book - we suggest trying www.abebooks.com or amazon.com after checking out City Lights Books or Modern Times in San Francisco. Why? Because University Press books are usually under-promoted and short-discounted, estranged from the backroom-marketing-deep-discount deals offered by the huge corporate publishing conglomerates. But, a general rule of thumb is: the harder something is to find, the better it is! (and vice versa) .
From an "obsession-with-mind-control" viewpoint, our favorite essay was Katherine K. Chen's "Incendiary Incentives: How the Burning Man Organization Motivates and Manages Volunteers." It's always distressing to learn how rebellious creative "rebels" can be as bamboozled as the mass of the allegedly-passive American consumers making up the populace. However, I doubt this was the intention of the essay writer, who indeed gave a quite positive "spin" on the "innovative" organizing techniques of the BM leadership. Call us cynical, but we consider ourselves the sons and daughters of William S. Burroughs, who can spot a con-man anywhere, anytime, anyplace. Or who at least tries to spot one...
Mind you, Burning Man is an amazing 35,000-member temporary-city experiment, as illuminated by Mark Van Proyen's essay, "A Tale of Two Surrealities." The chapter starts with a great quote from Marcel Raymond's "From Baudelaire to Surrealism": "The essence of the Surrealist message consists in this call for the absolute freedom of the mind, in the affirmation that life and poetry are "elsewhere," and that they must be conquered dangerously, each separately, and each by means of the other, because ultimately they coincide and merge and negate this false world, bearing witness to the fact that the chips are not yet down, that everything can be saved." Shortly thereafter another great quote: "Surrealism is based [on] the belief in a superior reality of certain forms of previously neglected associations; in the omnipotence of the dream, in the disinterested play of thought. It tends to ruin once and for all other psychic mechanisms, and to substitute itself for them in solving all the principal problems of life." (Andre Breton, Manifestoes of Surrealism)
Van Proyen's essay ends with: "Everything suggests the belief that there is a certain point of the mind where life and death, the real and the imaginary, the past and the future, the communicable and the incommunicable, the high and the low are no longer perceived as contradictions. It would be vain to look for any motive in surrealist activity other than the hope of determining that point." (Andre Breton, Manifestoes of Surrealism)
In between a number of dazzling quotes are descriptions of Burning Man "high points" and "stellar achievements." Both the editors have attended Burning Man annually since 1996, and there may have been equally "great" "happenings" beforehand, but these spotlighted events are probably enough to make any reader aspire to pilgrimage to Black Rock next, or rather, this year...even better, help create something dazzling and memorable and then destroy it, potlatch-style. There are many musings on the idea of "utopia" scattered through this book, but we try to keep in mind J.G. Ballard's warning that most utopias fail to adequately consider the built-in psychopathological tendency seemingly hard-wired into the human character/genotype. Which is why we love Groucho Marx's "I wouldn't join any club that would have me as a member."
This book has some of the "best" Burning Man photos ever seen by this reviewer. There is much "food for thought" in these essays, which together coalesce into a satisfyingly comprehensive consideration of the provocative social experiment known as Burning Man...an experiment which probably transcends the intentions and conceptualizing of its primary organizers. Humans, after all, are capable of exponentially greater achievements when working together complementarily.