"APOCALYPSE CULTURE 2"

The sequel to the seminal, shocking and subversive compilation "Apocalypse Culture" is of somewhat biblical proportions; indeed, that most misunderstood and indigestible of all books is repeatedly refried to as a point of comparison by the cover blurb.
  The rather unlikely host of latter day saints contributing to this volume includes Colin Wilson, Michael Moynihan, Boyd Rice, Peter Sotos and Parfray himself. As can be expected, the book is in much the same vein as its predecessor; a study of the most extreme and unpalatable aspects of human experience and behavior. Terrain covered, and mapped out not in sensationalist gloom but in unforgiving light, is primarily a lovely land of cannibalism, pedophilia, child murder, necrophilia, racial hatred and scatology. Transgression is the order of this (fatal) day, even if its contributors may be unwitting to an uncertain degree, as the words of Darwin, the mentally retarded, and anonymous psychopaths drift into a disconcerting context. Taboos are (at the very least) stamped upon. Thought crimes are committed. But I very much doubt if the creators of, and contributors to, this work care in the slightest who this sort of thing will shock. (And shocked you may well be, despite how liberal, jaded, or cynical you consider yourself.) Shock is not the objective. Instead, "Apocalypse Culture 2" serves to illustrate not only that this behavior exists, but also that in certain quarters it is celebrated and let flourish. In short, a disturbing, enlightening, essential and inspirational read. And I use none of these words lightly.