The Bombast Transcripts: Rants and Screeds of RageBoy [Paperback]

This is the crash course in understanding the fundamentals of the necessity of change as seen through the eyes of the author, Christopher Locke. Everything you previously thought was lore is turned on its head in riotous fashion in The Bombast Transcripts. Each chapter takes apart some standard you thought was a given, an immutable and constant attribute of practically every aspect of life in the western world.

The best part is that Chris does it in so many different ways in one book. There's flat out ranting and there's cutting ridicule including interviews with himself, Rupert Murdoch and the famous one with Mr Ed. (Yes, the horse.)

Using those cliched critic's terms of rollercoaster ride or rollicking good yarn don't do this volume any justice whatsoever. In fact, this book defies any label you might care to ascribe.

In fact, I defy anyone to come up with a label for this book.

That was my introduction just over a year ago to Entropy Gradient Reversals and the evil genius mind(s) behind it, Christopher Locke/RageBoy. From that first mind-blowing, breathless reading of his newsletter, I was alternately charmed, alarmed and disarmed by the decidedly unpretentious Chris Locke. His new book, the Bombast Transcripts, a collection of essays previously published to the Entropy Gradient Reversals mailing list, contains that first newsletter that caught my imagination, and so many more.

As I've read through this book, I have found myself again reacting to it in the visceral way that I had to become accustomed to as one of his faithful Valued Readers at EGR. While some may call him pompous and crass, I find him to be merely open and honest. Then again, I've always had a soft spot for intelligent, over-indulgent, semi-vulgar Don Quixotes. His chosen windmills are big business that don't have a clue (IBM et all, no small potatoes here) and, while a book about business practices would normally make my eyes glaze over while putting me in a semi-catatonic state, I find this book to be human and engaging at every turn. Each essay stands on it's own as either a rant or a screed, yet each could also be expanded into its own little book. Irreverent, engaging, transforming, contemplative, hilarious....and each page is more of the same.

While I read Locke's words, I get the feeling that I am a part of something much bigger and more important than anyone can guess, especially those that think the internet is nothing more than a collection of chatrooms and porn sites. No, I get the feeling I'm getting a glimpse of a creation, a rapturous inferno of truth and emotion, two key elements that, when exposed to each other under the heat of RageBoy's passion, cause a brilliant flash of evolution that could change the world as we know it. What a wonderful world that would be.

Idealistic? Maybe. Bombastic? Hardly. Evil Genius?? Indeed.

I've liked reading Chris Locke (aka Rageboy, aka Chief Blogging Officer) since he and fellow authors Rick Levine, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger showed how the Internet was turning business upside down with their original publication of The Cluetrain Manifesto about a decade ago. They had argued that commerce should be about conversations, no matter what the medium, and should not be about transactions. This was pretty heady stuff a decade ago, and this book did cause a number of CEOs to examine their own businesses... but maybe not enough of them.

I was working for a now-defunct "Internet Super Carrier" (google that one) located in Northern Virginia about the time of the paperback release of that title in 2001. My associates and I quoted regularly from our copies as we watched our 'Net worlds sinking around us in that strange financial collapse of so many of the telecoms and ISPs during that year.

Shortly after getting and reading my original hardbound copy of Cluetrain, I found that Chris Locke had a number of regular online journals to be found, especially his "Entropy Gradient Reversals" and his "Mystic Bourgeoisie." Google them and you'll see that they are still running to this day. (The author of these is also the Chairman Emeritus of "The Titanic Deck Chair Rearrangement Corporation" NASDAQ:TDCRC, but that's another story in itself.) Chris was already quite experienced at publishing on the Web when some were asking "What's a blog?"

He provided diversionary enlightenment to a number of us as we watched the collapse our so-called 'Net empires that year. Many of the thoughts that the author was noting on his various Web pages and blogs proved to be prophetic.

When The Bombast Transcripts: Rants and Screeds of Rageboy came out in early 2002, I bought my first hardbound copy, one that became the merciless victim of a yellow highlighter and numerous Post-It tabs as I furiously noted sections that I felt were worth referencing for future use. All of this was taking place during a frantic search for a new IT project management leadership position and a personal domestic relations meltdown.

That book was "borrowed" by a colleague last year and never returned. As it's a critical one on my IT reference shelf, was pleased to find it still listed here in the Bargain Book section. I grabbed it, and reading it again has proven to be a pleasure as I've become quite accustomed over the years to RageBoy's gonzo-journalist style. As Publishers Weekly once put it, "Resurrect William Burroughs, Charles Bukowski and Ken Kesey, add a dash of Dilbert and that's RageBoy." I'll add a dash of Hunter S. Thompson to that.

But now authors Chris Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger have released The Cluetrain Manifesto: 10th Anniversary Edition, with a new introduction and chapters by the original authors, and commentary by Jake McKee, JP Rangaswami, and Dan Gillmor. A decade after its original publication, their message remains more relevant than ever. Am personally finding this new book to be truly essential reading for anybody interested in the 'Net and e-commerce, and it's especially vital for businesses navigating the topography of the wired marketplace.

But if you want an even broader understanding of Cluetrain, try The Bombast Transcripts: Rants and Screeds of Rageboy as a companion volume of sorts. It's not for everyone, and some may even find him irreverent and slightly offensive (I did not). He'll either charm or alarm you, but Chris has a way with words that is unforgettable.

Calling this one a 5-star read. And apologies to the author for again bringing up the TDCRC.