I got waylaid for about a year just
reading around the subjects involved in The Perfect Fool. Here's a
list of books that helped. If you only read 4 read….
Bourke, John G - Snake Dance Of The Moquis - Arizona
Doran, Jamie and Bizony, Piers - Starman, The Truth Behind The Legend
Of Yuri Gagarin - Bloomsbury
Wachhorst, Wyn - The Dream Of Spaceflight - Basic
Waters, Frank - Pumpkin Seed Point - Swallow
Click
here for a Bibliography of Audio Recordings
| ACID ROCK |
- Derogatis, Jim - Kaliedoscope Eyes -
4th Estate
Lively overview of the kind of characters that inspired Luther.
- Erickson, Roky - Openers II - 2.13.61
Collection of lyrics and writings by the former 13th Floor
Elevators frontman, with biographical stuff.
- Joynson, Vernon - Fuzz, Acid & Flowers
- Borderline
Borderline as in 'borderline autistic', this is the definitive
record collector nerd guide to psychedelic music. No comment.
No gloss. Just pages and pages of facts. Ace.
- Unterberger, Richie - Unknown Legends
Of Rock And Roll - Miller Freeman
Another lively overview of the kind of characters that inspired
Luther
- Watkinson, Mike and Anderson, Pete - Crazy
Diamond, Syd Barrett and The Dawn Of Pink Floyd - Omnibus
Press
Biog of acid-casualty frontman.
|
| AREA 51 |
- Campbell, Glenn - Area 51 Viewer's Guide
Available from http://www.ufomind.com/area51/links/
this is a sceptical look at the Airbase by a local sceptic.
- Piccard, George - Liquid Conspiracy, JFK,
LSD, The CIA, Area 51 and UFO's - Adventures Unlimited Press
This free-ranging rant is a great read, and due to the
number of subjects covered in the title alone, represents
good value.
- Thomson, David - In Nevada, The Land,
The People, God, And Chance - Little, Brown and Company
Good, dryly humorous descriptions of Area 51 fallout.
|
| ARIZONA |
- Frommer's 2000 Arizona - IDG Books Worldwide
USA The Rough Guide - Rough Guides
- McMurtry, Larry - Roads, Driving America's
Great Highways - Simon & Schuster
McMurtry is best known for his fiction but this book of essays
about driving around the USA is great, and includes lots of
good stuff about the South West. His book on Crazy Horse,
called Crazy Horse, is phenomenal and burns with a controlled
sense of injustice.
|
| FREEMASONRY |
| I used various real Masonic
ritual books to get the flavour of The Hampstead Man's way of
thinking and speaking. They'll probably sell you one if you
go to a Masonic Regalia shop. All the really secret bits are
left blank anyway.
|
| HOLY GRAIL/KING ARTHUR
ORIGINAL TEXTS |
- Anon - Pearl, Cleanness, Patience, Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight - Everyman
Nice edition of the text in middle english, as used, I suspect,
by the over-educated Marvel comics writer Dan Abnett for his
early 90's series The Knights Of Pendragon.
- Anon - Three Arthurian Romances - Everyman
Good translation of three minor entries in the cannon.
- De Troyes, Chrétien - Arthurian Romances
- Everyman
Sadly this densely typed edition of the thieving Frenchman's
1170's take on our stories doesn't include the unfinished
fragment, Perceval.
- Malory, Thomas - Complete Works - Oxford
Yeah, like I read all 810 pages of the rapist's complete works
in middle English? Matching up the bits I wanted with a translation
saved me some clearance fees. Mallory's out of copyright.
|
| HOLY GRAIL/KING ARTHUR
THEORIES |
- Ashe, Geoffrey - The Traveller's Guide
To Arthurian Britain - Gothic Image
A fun guide to Arthurian sites by Geoff 'King Arthur' Ashe
- Barber, RW - Arthur of Albion - Barrie
And Rockliff/Pall Mall Press
Sadly, this goes way back to my O Level history project (B+).
Published in 1961 it pre-dates the colonisation of Arthurian
study by crystal gazing Glastonbury types. Who did carve the
Arthurian scene on the Porta della Pesceria, Modena Cathedral,
years before any of the Arthurian Romances had been written
down?
- Berthelot, Anne - King Arthur Chivalry
and Legend - Thames And Hudson
Looks like a new age rip-off book but is actually really good.
Loads of great pictures.
- Dunstan, Victor - Did The Virgin Mary
Live And Die In England? - Megiddo Press
Privately published by a businessman who heads a £7,000,000
group of companies, in 1885, this book theorises wildly about
'the Jesus family' and their links to Britain. By the same
author - The Ultimate Personal Success Programme, and How
To earn Big Money Selling.
- Knight, Christopher & Lomas, Robert -
The Holy Grail - Weidenfeld & Nicholson
Flimsy easy to read pamphlet which concludes that the Grail
is in Roslin chapel and includes floor plans to prove it.
- Gardner, Laurence - Bloodline Of The Holy
Grail - Element
The usual madness
- Laidler, Keith - The Head Of God - Orion
Theorises that the severed head of Jesus, rather than the
Grail, is buried at Roslin chapel.
- Matthews, John - Elements Of The Arthurian
Tradition - Element
Spiritualist/symbolist study of the story.
- Phillips, Graham - The Search For The
Holy Grail - Century
Respectable looking tome claims the Grail is hidden in Shropshire
|
| HOPI CULTURE |
- Bourke, John G - Snake Dance Of The Moquis
- Arizona
Though obviously coloured by the attitudes of the time it
was written (1884), military man Bourke's 1st hand account
of his time with the Hopis is a brilliant read and often unintentionally
hilarious, as the ridiculous prig struts around busting into
places where he clearly isn't welcome, and then wonders what
he has done to cause offence. Emory Sekaquaptewa's introduction
to the current edition laments the fact that Bourke's text
made public a lot of things his people would rather were private,
but is philosophical and forgiving.
- Brugge, David M - The Navajo Hopi Land
Dispute, An American Tragedy - University Of New Mexico Press
This is hard going but makes those ITV documentaries about
Neighbours From Hell look kind of inconsequential.
- Courlaner, Harold - The Fourth World Of
The Hopis - University Of New Mexico Press
Waters and James (below) cover the same ground better.
- Erdoes, Richard & Ortiz, Alfonso - American
Indian Myths & Legends - Pimlico
All the Pimlico books about Native American Culture are pretty
good, and this one provided the italicised, quoted myth sections
dotted throughout The Perfect Fool which make it seem more
important and well thought out than it is. I don't see how
any credulous Western believer can read through the beautiful,
useful, functional myths contained here-in and continue to
assert that the bible is the best way of making sense of the
world.
- Jacobson, Howard - Seriously Funny - Channel
4/Viking
The book of Jacobson's freewheeling TV series about comedy
was the first place I ever found out about pueblo clowns,
and is full of fascinating, if tenuously linked, facts and
theories.
- James, Harry C - Pages From Hopi History
- University Of Arizona Press
James collates other source material in a history that runs
from the mythical emergence from the underworld, through invasion
by the Spanish, The Navajo and the white Europeans, to the
present day.
- Page, Suzanne & Jake - Hopi - Abradale
Large format book of amazing photos from couple who seem to
have had unprecedented access.
- Powell, Major JW - The Hopi Villages -
Filter Press
In 1870, the explorer Major JW Powell became one of the 1st
white men to meet the Hopis, and went on to plead their case
to the Bureau Of Indian Affairs. This is a reproduction of
the pamphlet he wrote about his experiences. In the period
illustrations, the villages look much the same as they do
now.
- Waters, Frank - The Book Of The Hopi -
Penguin
Waters is a brilliant writer who makes everything shine and
I'm glad writing the Perfect Fool helped me to discover him.
His study of Hopi culture and myths was done in partnership
with the people themselves and, despite being out of print
for years, remains the definitive text.
- Waters, Frank - Pumpkin Seed Point - Swallow
Waters' book about his time in the 60's spent researching
The Book Of The Hopi is absolutely beautiful, and is better
than any novels I've ever read about different cultures trying
to find a common ground.
- Whiteley, Peter M - Deliberate Acts, Changing
Hopi Culture Through The Oraibi Split - Arizona
In 1906, the inhabitants of Oraibi, the oldest continuously
inhabited settlement in the whole USA, split into Traditionals
and Progressives, the latter of whom cleared off to found
a new village, Hotevilla, which today has a very nice post
office. I didn't read all of this, but think of the story
in terms on New and Old Labour and it soon makes sense. Strangely,
I never saw this book in the USA, but there were 2 copies
of it in the same 2nd hand book shop on Stoke Newington Church
Street.
- Wright, Barton - Clowns Of The Hopi -
Northland
This has some great photos and a breakdown of all the different
classes of pueblo clowns.
- Wright, Barton - Hopi Kachinas, The Complete
Guide To Collecting Kachina Dolls - Nortland
Personally I'm not that interested in collecting dolls, unless
they are superhero action figures, but this is also a good
guide to the Kachina spirits the dolls depict.
- Various Artists - Parabola Volume IV,
No. 1 - Tamarack Press
This academic publication from The University Of Arizona contains
the essays, One More Smile For A Hopi Clown by Emory Sekaquaptewa,
Wisdom Of The Contrary by Joespeh Epes, and Boundaries of
Belief by Barabara Tedlock, which were the most useful articles
I came across anywhere for information about pueblo clowns.
|
| LAS VEGAS |
- Time Out Guide To Las Vegas - Penguin
- Anderton, Frances and Chase, John - Las
Vegas, A Guide To Recent Architecture - Ellipsis
All the Ellipsis books about the architecture of various cities
are great, and they're design classics too
|
| PEYOTE |
- Aberle, David F - The Peyote Religion
Among The Navajo - Oklahoma
This was good for legal info, but is essentially pages and
pages of dense documentation about how appalling American
treatment of the natives was, and continues to be.
- Gottlieb, Adam - Peyote And Other Psychoactive
Cacti - Ronin
A concise and readable guide to the art of cultivating peyote.
- Mount, Guy - The Peyote Book, A Study
Of Native Medicine - Sweetlight
Mount describes himself as 'Editor and Earthperson', so you
know what he's all about immediately.
|
| RELIGIOUS MADNESS |
- Godwin, Jeff - The Music's True Master
- Chick
Unintentionally comic overview of Satanism written by a man
who thinks Spinal Tap are a real band. Includes the following
sentence; "Homosexuality and Satanism are the two main reasons
you should burn any Hall and Oates records and tapes you may
own"
|
| SPACE TRAVEL |
- Doran, Jamie and Bizony, Piers - Starman,
The Truth Behind The Legend Of Yuri Gagarin - Bloomsbury
This is such a great book. Tells you all about the early days
of space travel and makes you weep for the failure of Communism.
Someone's probably optioned it for a film starring Ben Affleck
by now.
- Wachhorst, Wyn - The Dream Of Spaceflight
- Basic
This is a beautiful book of essays about attitudes to space
and spaceflight that reads like it's poetry.
|
| WANDERING JEW |
- Stableford, Brian - Tales Of The Wandering
Jew - Dedalus.
Great summary of all the Wandering Jew myths, which helped
me get the Peter Rugg character together.
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