This Is Burning Man

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Summary: History in the desert
Review: A lot of people will tell you that Burningman isn't what it used to be, or that it's so commercial and mainstream etc. The truth is Black Rock City is still one of the most unique experiences in the world and you can still attend. Burningman has changed and Brian tells the story of how Burningman started, developed and became what it is today. To most people Burningman is getting better. Rumors and the Cacophonists et al specialize in disinformation. This book explains most of the people, events and stories that have made the event what it is today.

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Summary: This book ruined Burning Man!
Review: I went to Burning Man for the first time after reading this book and it was exactly like the author said! It ruined the surprise and I went there totally prepared. He must be stopped from spreading such accurate, detailed descriptions of this mysterious event.

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Summary: a bunch of blessed mind-fugging pranksters
Review: This is an intelligent page-turner about a strange people who spend a great deal of their time attending to arcane activities. These people constitute an underground community of sorts (mostly West Coast, mostly urban) and Burning Man is their annual X-Mass celebration. "Burners," as the milieu refers to its own, come in nearly every flavor but if I were pressed to generalize about them I'd insist that more than anything they taste like the grubby progeny of Merry Pranksters and Yippies. In other words, a bunch of blessed mind-fugging pranksters.

Kidding aside, this is an excellent book. It reminds me more than anything else of Tom Wolfe's ELECTRIC KOOL-AID ACID TEST. I say this not just because of the subject matter but because of Brian Doherty's prose. The big difference between Wolfe and Doherty though in regard to their respective books is that Doherty was directly involved in much of what he writes about. Wolfe was not. And, as far as the similar subject matter is concerned, what I said already goes: Burners (among many other things it must be said) are the offspring of the Merry Pranksters.

Oh, and by the way, I've never been to Burning Man and to be honest I doubt I'll ever go. But I loved this book. I think it ought to be of interest to anyone interested in contemporary culture and its permutations. And boy is Burning Man a doozy of a permutation.

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Summary: The best BM book ever, and guide to networking subcultures
Review: This is by far the best book on Burning Man to come out for those interested in the history, economy, politics and detailed life stories behind the event. I hear that there are more detailed studies of the event coming out in the next year or two. I hope this book inspires more people, especially academicians, to keep thinking about this global cultural phenomenon seriously.

What I found especially useful about this book is that the stories therein constitute a case history for subcultural networking and community building. If you are interested in building synaptic networks between subcultures, this book could be a powerful guide.

This book illustrates the power of synchronicity and simple friendship. If Larry Harvey and Mary Graubarger had not come to San Francisco, had Larry not met Mary at Baker Beach, had the Cacophony Society not discovered Harvey's beach burn, would any of this have happened?

Though much of what came together may have been accident (or destiny), it is clear from the book that Larry Harvey is a true subcultural Faustian (in Howard Bloom's [Global Brain] sense). Without Harvey's leadership, and subtle and intuitive grasp of the nascent unconscious symbolic substratum that he had uncovered, the spiderweb of networks and relationships that followed his work probably would never have developed into anything close to the Burning Man we know and love. In short, it takes leadership and luck to build community.

This book is more than a book about Burning Man. It is a manual to building communities of cultural creatives everywhere.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: This is the first comprehensive book that details the evolution and challenged existence of the annual Nevada event known as Burning Man. The author skillfully chronicles the history of Burning Man with deft insight into its principle characters that made the event what it is today. A true page turner for any Burner, and a great introduction for anyone with the slightest curiosity as to what is Burning Man.