Remember how one day, working in a used bookstore, I encountered The Book of the SubGenius. Pure weird doesn’t begin to describe the experience of flipping through those pages, and I wasn’t sure at all what to make of it at first.
This strange mashup of drawings and ideas incorporates a whole host of better and lesser know belief systems, organized into a fairly well developed religious parody. The revered icon of their faith is pipe smoking J. R. “Bob” Dobbs, purportedly one time 1950s salesman, now serving as a figurehead and prophet for the Church. The Sacred Smoking Head of Bob is accompanied in his pantheon by seemingly familiar sub-deities, mostly sourced from ancient religion and mythology, plus a few extraterrestrials and mutants, along with a peculiar mix of characters heavily drawn from popular fiction.
Reading through Church of SubGenius scripture reveals their belief in a grand, alien inspired conspiracy, seeking to brainwash all human kind into slavery, and thus unjustly oppress Bob’s faithful followers. To prevent this unfortunate takeover of humanity, brave Church leaders have instructed their followers in strict avoidance of mainstream commercialism, consumerism and culture, and instead offer belief in absolute, if entirely unverifiable truths. Most significantly, the group holds the quality of “Slack” is of utmost importance – and yet essence of this quality is never clearly defined. (If you have to ask, you just don’t get it…)
Think I’ll limit my involvement with this Church to infrequent Prayers Before the Head of ‘Bob’, and on rare occasion, consulting this ancient oracle of the internet, at least when I don’t have my trusted eight-ball handy.
