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With
The Bombast Transcripts, Christopher Locke (a.k.a. RageBoy, that iconoclastic cybervoice of dissonance, disdain, and all things provocative) is leaping from your screen to your bookshelf. Look out. The scathing rants from the creator of
Entropy Gradient Reversals--probably the most wittily outrageous, cryptically observant, and eagerly puzzled-over Web zine ever to pollute the airwaves--are explosive.
As a tag, screed is only partly accurate for the contents of this volatile collection; they're long harangues, all right, but by no means monotonous. Listen in as Locke lets his alter ego loose in friendly chat with IBM's Lou Gerstner (well, actually an exit interview with Lew Firstner, pompous and clueless chairman of the 666 Corporation). As he not-so-clearly illustrates what "getting it" means (by pondering T.S. Kuhn, voodoo ceremonies, and a sacred space you can't enter with your mind on, let alone your shoes). And as he gleefully admits that most of his readers "seem to enjoy abstruse and obfuscatory exegeses on themes that utterly elude them" but apparently "alleviates their anxiety about not knowing anything that wasn't covered by Geraldo." Don't be insulted; be alleviated. Locke may indeed be the Web's most acerbic gonzo journalist and techno-semiotic social critic, but he's also written for Forbes; worked for MCI, Ricoh, and the Japanese government's AI project; and been named one of the top 50 business thinkers in the world. If you missed out on this cyberpundit's irreverent rants the first time around, catch him now (if you can). As Locke himself reminds us, "Being totally insane is hard work. People don't realize that." They should now. --S. Ketchum
From Publishers Weekly
RageBoy, the cyber-handle of gonzo-journalist Locke, has collected here his online columns, mostly from his Web zine, Entropy Gradient Reversals. Entries range from the autobiographical (his LSD and drinking years, followed by his own weird version of sobriety) to mock-interview (his chats with TV horse Mr. Ed or "Moe Ron Hubbard, father of Diuretics and Sayonaralogy"). Favorite targets include corporate culture (which he'd consider an oxymoron) and academic posturing (his "Snack with Andr‚" imagines situationist philosopher Guy Debord as Port Authority panhandler DeMerde; his piece "deriding Derrida" exposes French postmodernists as so many "petty control freaks"). While his rants take potshots at a variety of cultural sacred cows (including a wicked analysis of America's fondness for the Weather Channel), it's Locke's own history as an early artificial intelligence/cyberspace pioneer that informs his most damning critique the co-optation of the Internet. In the early days, people who knew how the Internet worked "were mainly using it to fuck off We thought it was important to fuck off." They wanted the Internet to be different from all the other media, a place to "tell stories" about things that mattered, like "heaven, earth, man, woman." But it wasn't long before the "marketing boys" took over, reducing the Net to just another way to sell product. Resurrect William Burroughs, Charles Bukowski and Ken Kesey, add a dash of Dilbert and that's RageBoy. Though it's not for everyone, this "browser-free format" may bring in new audiences. (Feb.)Forecast: This work will be popular with college kids at places like Berkeley readers of Locke's earlier Gonzo Marketing may not get these rants.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
