Bad Wisdom: The Lighthouse at the Top of the World [Paperback]

A document of hate aimed towards the corporate take over of music, an analysis of the last 60 years of popular culture, a shody but effective handbook for aspiring zen masters, a vicious and pornographic account of justifiable excess, a call to arms against the tyranny of MTV, a hope inspiring reply to those who would say mankind has failed, and a return to fear and loathing.

Two very contrasting accounts of one brave journey. They should teach this in school.

Well for a start the structure is unique: it's apparently the accounts from two friends when three of them set out to take a picture of Elvis to the North Pole, "to release the divine Presley-esque vibes" onto a troubled world. These accounts however come at a chunk at a time and hence merge, twist and inter-twine in a fascinating manner. More importantly the two versions of what occurs are extremely divergent: Bill (Drummond, formerly of the KLF) tells a fairly straightforward report, mixed in with his passionate, iconoclastic, and sometimes bizarre theories and life-history. But Z (aka Mark Manning, formerly of Zodiac Mindwarp) takes this to the Nth level and vents fervent, vile, sexual fantasies and mindboggling descriptive passages upon the gentle reader.

It's as though Bill's version is heightened by a million times by LSD, pornography and the most lushly literate prose I've ever encountered. E.g. "Angel-white light and electric sunflowers cascade like slow-motion cheery blossom; the warm lightning of absolute comprehension runs through my veins like a morphine speed train; a hummming generator of enlightenment lights up every single nerve-ending in my body".

In all this is Z's evil sexual fantasies which take some stomach. However they are deliberately completely over the top, in a knowing postmodern way. In fact the very act of them keeping "logs" recording the journey emphasises the fact that they are writing their own versions of "reality", that this is a fictional account: Bill several times admits to lying to the reader. This deconstructs the act of writing and calls into question "literature". Naturally there are numerous in-jokes and running allusions to the Magi; and there's also Gimpo, sometime roadie for Zodiac Mindwarp who acts as the straight man for Z's imagination. His encounter with Oscar Wilde is one of the funniest things I've ever read. As is the execution scene with the Viking Bikers. As is the bit when they take ecstasy... and so on.

But this book is the funniest, best written, sickest, most OTT and passionate book I know. It's not for the faint-hearted but if you are not easily offended, BUY THIS!!