- Feral House - Press - Press Clippings
Previous in Press | Press Main | Next in Press
July 01, 2000
PANIK Magazine Interview with Adam Parfrey on Apocalypse Culture II
From PANIK Magazine
By Cletus Nelson
Q: What compelled you to embark on a second installment to the Apocalypse Culture anthology?
A: Apocalypse Culture, the first volume, comes from a different time and place ... a quaint analog world, in which my research was almost totally accidental and intuitive. Looking back now, I see that I treated researching the book as if it were an occult ritual. Coincidences and weird synergistic happenings would occur again and again when I was researching material. It was exciting to somehow encounter or receive material about was once totally obscure topics. I remember thinking that even it seemed like I was on some sort of path, and that all this strange material was provided to me as some sort of cosmic gift.
Books were especially stuffy and stale and academically redundant when Apocalypse Culture went to press, but I had no idea that it would expand the envelope so much in what became acceptable in style and subject matter. Chapters from the book suddenly became hot cultural subgenres, and the subject of movies, tv shows, ‘zines, journals and books. Unusual conspiracy theories, extreme body modification, unapologetic deviants and criminals. This is an apocalypse of western culture, and though I wasn’t considering this when putting the book together, Apocalypse Culture was seen as an apologia to Spengler, and later, the Unabomber Manifesto. People have written me letters saying that they’ve written books or started a publishing company as the result of Apocalypse Culture.
This is all quite nice, but the first Apocalypse Culture is now frozen in time and much copied. It is now an artifact of the mid to late ‘80s. My interest in putting out Apocalypse Culture II was to research the taboos and deviant manifestations of our technically-glutted digital world. What are the newest and largest hypocrisies, the areas that create hostility and backlash, the supersensitive regions? The material might be riskier in the sequel than the original volume.
Q: Apocalypse Culture II differs distinctly from its predecessor in both focus and content. Did you specifically set out to explore certain societal taboos (such as child pornography) or did the project evolve on its own?
A: The taboos of today seem to emerge from the bad conscience of our society. There is such an overwhelming degree of kiddie porn in mass culture today, that a hypocritical backlash has to occur. Filling corporate moneybags has turned the world into one great hypocritical lie.
Q: In my brief observations, I’ve noticed people are particularly uncomfortable reading the ruthless eco-philosophy of Pentti Linkola, and Peter Sotos’ unflinching discussion of child molestation. Is there a particular essay you find most provocative?
A: For me, the essays needed to be provocative and a product of an outsider1s sensibility to include in the book. What might be neglected here is the inherent humor in the book. Apocalypse Culture II should be shelved in the humor section.
Q: Irv Rubin (Chairman of the Jewish Defense League) was certainly an unexpected contributor to the book. Was he supportive of the project?
A: I find Irv Rubin to be quite fascinating, and he1s truly an outside figure. Hated by the Anti-Defamation League, Mr. Rubin seems to be an embarrassment to the more powerful and monied figures in Jewish culture. He’s quite an individual, and totally worthy of more considered attention.
Q: Feral House has certainly enjoyed a stormy relationship with the press. Do you predict rave reviews or hysterical cries for censorship?
A: Strangely enough, my publicist, Wendy Tremayne of Green Galactic, has found a uniformly positive response to the review galley of Apocalypse Culture II. Something could drop soon.
Q: Since we’re on the subject of censorship, what obstacles did you encounter publishing the book?
A: Censorship has actually come as a result of printers’ fears regarding the new vague child pornography law, which outlaws illustration or artwork that shows an individual under the age of 18 as being naked or engaging in a sexual act. Six paintings illustrating the article "The Late Great Aesthetic Taboos" now have some blacked-out areas, and that is the only way I could have gotten the book printed. We’re not talking about kiddie porn here, we’re talking about art and thought crimes. I don’t really understand how the British artists, the Chapman brothers, have big shows and have their work reproduced in magazines and books internationally, but I’m prevented from reproducing the work of Blalla Hallmann and Stu Mead and Beth Love. I’ll be putting the banned paintings on the Feral House website www.FeralHouse.com.
...
Share a link to this entry:
...
Comments
Post a comment
...
[ Edit ]