''High Weirdness By Mail – A Directory of the Fringe: Crackpots, Kooks & True Visionaries'', by

Ivan Stang Ivan Stang (born Douglass St. Clair Smith; August 21, 1953) is an American writer, filmmaker and broadcaster, best known as the author and publisher of the first screed of the Church of the SubGenius. He is credited with founding the Church wi ...

() is a 1988 book dedicated to an examination of "weird culture" by actually putting the reader in touch with it by mail. The book is divided into sections—"Weird Science," "UFO Contactees," "Drug Stuff," and others, and each section contains a variety of mini-articles describing organizations. Each organization article concludes with a mailing address (and in some cases, phone numbers), with many entries referencing publications and (in some case) merchandise that at the time of the book's publication could be requested free of charge or for the cost of postage. Several years after the book's publication, Stang reported on the

newsgroup A Usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from users in different locations using the Internet. They are discussion groups and are not devoted to publishing news. Newsgroups are technically distinc ...

alt.slack that his inclusion of entries for

white supremacist White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White s ...

groups in the book caused his name to be mentioned by those groups as a possible target for retaliation. (The book's commentaries on various hate groups were less than flattering.) Stang reported this incident to the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

, but did not receive any actual harassment or threats from the groups in question. The Association for Consciousness Exploration produced a follow-up lecture by Rev. Stang on cassette entitled ''High Weirdness by Mail'', recorded live at the 1993 WinterStar Symposium.

Controversy

Bob Black claims that his review of ''High Weirdness By Mail'' was the cause of his being sent a small 'prank' mail bomb

Updates

In 2008, to mark the 20th anniversary of the book's publication, the official Subgenius website posted "The Return of High Weirdness by Mail", an updated listing of many of the organizations featured in the original book that now had websites, combined with additional links for other websites that fit in the spirit of the book (see "External Links", below).

External links

Home Page of the Church of the SubGenius

1988 non-fiction books Church of the SubGenius Directories American non-fiction books {{Nonfiction-book-stub