Today's Topics:
SubGenius Digest #439
Ah, the good old days of 1988...
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Message-ID: <9005091416.AA22071@psyche.mit.edu>
Date: Wed, 9 May 90 10:16:14 EDT
From: Michael Turyn <mturyn@psyche.mit.edu>
To: SubGenius%MC.LCS.MIT.EDU@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu
Subject: Re: SubGenius Digest #439
GREENSLACKS:
Huhn..., ha-ha, I like a man who likes an alcoholic milkshake. But now to
the business at hand. If you will be so kind as to drop that machine pis-
tol, Wilma will not distress all of us by prematurely exposing your cranium
King Bullet 's Cranial Guided Tour.
WILMA: SubGenius MYS-tery Movie! SubGenius MYS-tery movie!! SubGenius...(etc)
GREENSLACKS: Capital. [Gesturing] Now if you will be so kind, we will delve a
little into the...Worm.
Sam C. DOBBS: What worm? I 've heard every one talk about this worm, and I
want some answers.....
WILMA: Yee-haw!!! Gimmee them answ-ers! And some of those beat-up-the-good-guy-
in-an-alley-after-an-important-plot-revelation-ers, too! Buckets of
them attached to my face attached to a moose attached to an enamelled
bust of...
GREENSLACKS: The origins of the Worm are to be found in History, sir---not
Mr Stang 's history indeed, but in the true history ignored by
the scholars...
WILMA:[cont.] ...ignored by the scholars, peed upon the wise, worshipped by the
pee-shy, spat upon by the unholy-in-the-sight-of-HUNH, attached
to the following words from our sponsor with BIG RED STR---
[Insert commercial here]
(from Hammethustians 19:37)
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Message-ID: <9005091808.AA10694@juniper>
Date: Wed, 9 May 90 14:08:57 edt
From: Eric Haines <eye!erich@wrath.cs.cornell.edu>
To: cornell!subgenius%media-lab.media.mit.edu@wrath.cs.cornell.edu
Subject: Ah, the good old days of 1988...
Cleaning up some dusty files, I found this - thought I'd pass it on for
historical interest. Does anyone know the current size of the Church?
--Eric Haines
Posted by Andrew Rogers, way back whenever:
The current (cover date: 11/14/88) issue of US News and World Report
features an article, "On the trail of high weirdness", devoted to
various cults and nut groups. It discusses Ivan Stang, _High Weirdness
By Mail_, representative cults, etc. - concluding with a few paragraphs
about Church of the Subgenius:
Stang discovered long ago how to fight fire with fire,
cofounding his own parody cult called the Church of the
Subgenius. Its 3,500 dues-paying followers, mostly baby-
boomers reared on the '60s counterculture, "worship" a
smiling, pipe-smoking salesman named J. R. "Bob" Dobbs,
and proselytize with such slogans as "Eternal salvation -
or triple your money back." Despite its comic intent,
the church has been plagued by some overzealous followers
mockingly dubbed "Bobbies" by church leaders, who urge
them to rebel instead and form their own schisms.
_Like wrestling_? Ironically, the church is as big as
many genuine cults. The group's "bible", _The Book of
the Subgenius_, has sold about 30,000 copies. Cult-
monitoring organizations even report occasional worried
inquiries about it. The group's most sacred ritual:
Hitting a plastic bust of Arnold Palmer across a room
while prostate members listen to an impassioned minister
inveigh against the "anti-Palmer", Lee Trevino.
"The church understands that the spiritual thrust of
America is essentially like professional wrestling,"
says novelist Ken Kesey, one of many writers and
artists who are members of the group. But, amid the
laughs, Stang is genuinely pessimistic about what he
sees as the growing gullibility of Americans. "The
kooks are our future," he says.
--
AWR
{decvax,linus,wjh12,mit-eddie,masscomp}!genrad!teddy!awr
PS: A sale flyer from Building 19 (a Boston-area chain of
surplus/salvage stores) features a Dobbshead with the caption
"Cut your wallet some slack!"
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End of SubGenius Digest
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