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The Apocalypedia: A Utopian Guide to What Is and What Isn't
The Apocalypedia is a scurrilous, lyrical, lunatic and friendly countercultural A-Z that satirises modern society through an original and revolutionary collection of flash-essays and comic vignettes, presenting an apocalyptically optimistic and deeply original way of understanding human nature and of living in a civilisation that is in rapid and terminal decline. Looking at a combination of common value-charged words and new words invented as observations of common experience, The Apocalypedia is a comic revelation of the kaleidoscopic twists and turns that ordinary consciousness makes throughout the day.
A delightful gift book for the radically-inclined, the romantically baffled, the psychologically broken, the fledgling creative genius, the reckless, the sensitive and the actually dying, the book is an entertaining and uncompromising satire of modern culture, looking at everything from romantic relationships, to psychology, religion, language, history and many more fertile fields of enquiry which did not have a name until now.
A delightful gift book for the radically-inclined, the romantically baffled, the psychologically broken, the fledgling creative genius, the reckless, the sensitive and the actually dying, the book is an entertaining and uncompromising satire of modern culture, looking at everything from romantic relationships, to psychology, religion, language, history and many more fertile fields of enquiry which did not have a name until now.
368 pages, Hardcover
Published September 1, 2016
7 people are currently reading
177 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 7, 2017
To fully understand, experience, and enjoy this book, an open mind is needed. Rather than get caught up on subtle words, names, or views that could be construed as offensive, instead take the book for what it is - a very funny, satirical piece of literature that holds up a different type of mirror to society.
You may be thinking, "not another black mirror", but before you hastily dismiss this book, I assure you that this is not like any other piece of writing out there. Allow yourself to be taken in with its wit, humour, and ingenuity. Take a step back and realise that this book is not only funny, but utterly beautiful.
It is laid out as a form of dictionary/ encyclopaedia (hence the name), but the author interrupts these sections to expand on certain words, topics, and ideas - and rightfully so. After reading certain words and definitions I felt myself wanting more explanations on certain things, which the author then rather helpfully describes a page later.
Some of these more in-depth sections that are extraordinary include 'Conscience', 'Mr. Cerberus', and 'The Fall'. The sections on 'For Play' and 'Oxyhebus' were incredibly poetic. However, this is not to say the author only details somewhat serious issues, sections such as 'A Kitaro of Phobias' and 'The Sorby Scale of Displeasures' are hilarious!
The sections on 'Relationships (Partnerships)', 'Love-Making', and 'The Shango Psychic-Civility Index' are completely divine. Whilst being funny and lighthearted, these particular sections made me feel hope, shame, enthusiasm, happiness, despair, grief, guilt, and utter joy. To do this in a few pages is not only a display of a gifted writer, but a gifted person - a real person.
However, while these sections (highlighted above) are some of the best parts of the book, the climax comes during the expanded and detailed section on 'Self'. It fittingly comes in the latter half of the book, but is extraordinary and ingenious. Words here would not do it justice, but it is exemplary of most of the other parts, words, and paragraphs in this book. It needs to be read multiple times for a full and complete understanding to be reached. In fact, this section in particular should be read every day, time and time again, until you are brought to tears - only then have you understood.
In fact, the book itself can and should be read over and over again - not just for its wit, humour, and satirical explanations - but for its ingenious writing style. Indeed, the sections on 'Fallacy' is well written and insightful. The author also displays interesting views on gender which, when the reader looks further and beyond the surface, are very astute.
Some of my preferred words include: "Enpupe", "Gringe", "If-Weed", "Jink", "Jujube", "Pabulate", "Q-Words", "Semminge", "Tather", "Tomawari" and my absolute favourite "Ming".
Overall, the author has clearly took the time to research the information he puts into this book, displayed through his extraordinary wide vocabulary, references, and further reading, listening, and visual suggestions. The layout has been thought about to the most meticulous detail, and the paper, colour, and font all exemplify an attention to detail on the author's behalf. The front cover illustrations are delightful and clearly come from an expert artist, which complements the book nicely. The attached bookmark is also very helpful!
If you initially struggle with the book, may I suggest you read on? If you struggle after finishing the book, may I suggest you read it again? If you look beyond the words into the author's deeper meaning, you will find understanding, laughter, and beauty.
You may be thinking, "not another black mirror", but before you hastily dismiss this book, I assure you that this is not like any other piece of writing out there. Allow yourself to be taken in with its wit, humour, and ingenuity. Take a step back and realise that this book is not only funny, but utterly beautiful.
It is laid out as a form of dictionary/ encyclopaedia (hence the name), but the author interrupts these sections to expand on certain words, topics, and ideas - and rightfully so. After reading certain words and definitions I felt myself wanting more explanations on certain things, which the author then rather helpfully describes a page later.
Some of these more in-depth sections that are extraordinary include 'Conscience', 'Mr. Cerberus', and 'The Fall'. The sections on 'For Play' and 'Oxyhebus' were incredibly poetic. However, this is not to say the author only details somewhat serious issues, sections such as 'A Kitaro of Phobias' and 'The Sorby Scale of Displeasures' are hilarious!
The sections on 'Relationships (Partnerships)', 'Love-Making', and 'The Shango Psychic-Civility Index' are completely divine. Whilst being funny and lighthearted, these particular sections made me feel hope, shame, enthusiasm, happiness, despair, grief, guilt, and utter joy. To do this in a few pages is not only a display of a gifted writer, but a gifted person - a real person.
However, while these sections (highlighted above) are some of the best parts of the book, the climax comes during the expanded and detailed section on 'Self'. It fittingly comes in the latter half of the book, but is extraordinary and ingenious. Words here would not do it justice, but it is exemplary of most of the other parts, words, and paragraphs in this book. It needs to be read multiple times for a full and complete understanding to be reached. In fact, this section in particular should be read every day, time and time again, until you are brought to tears - only then have you understood.
In fact, the book itself can and should be read over and over again - not just for its wit, humour, and satirical explanations - but for its ingenious writing style. Indeed, the sections on 'Fallacy' is well written and insightful. The author also displays interesting views on gender which, when the reader looks further and beyond the surface, are very astute.
Some of my preferred words include: "Enpupe", "Gringe", "If-Weed", "Jink", "Jujube", "Pabulate", "Q-Words", "Semminge", "Tather", "Tomawari" and my absolute favourite "Ming".
Overall, the author has clearly took the time to research the information he puts into this book, displayed through his extraordinary wide vocabulary, references, and further reading, listening, and visual suggestions. The layout has been thought about to the most meticulous detail, and the paper, colour, and font all exemplify an attention to detail on the author's behalf. The front cover illustrations are delightful and clearly come from an expert artist, which complements the book nicely. The attached bookmark is also very helpful!
If you initially struggle with the book, may I suggest you read on? If you struggle after finishing the book, may I suggest you read it again? If you look beyond the words into the author's deeper meaning, you will find understanding, laughter, and beauty.
July 29, 2018
Darren Allen channels Ambrose Bierce in this caustic romp through postmodern hypocrisy. From what I gather, he lives in a rural part of England with his wife reading books, watching films, and writing blog posts. Now you might ask what qualifies such a relatively anonymous, uncredentialed, and by most normative measures largely unaccomplished individual to make searing diagnoses of society and grand pronouncements about life, but just consider, maybe, ironically, that this is precisely the sort of person best qualified for said tasks. Allen—writing honestly—is as enlightened as you’re going to get these days. If we’re all unaware of the water we’re swimming in, he is the weird fish who can breathe fresh air, or the odd square in Flatland pushed through its 2D plane-home.
Allen-types are not without precedent: Henry David Thoreau, Friedrich Nietzsche, Ted (yup, we’re going there) Kaczynski. These individuals chose not to pry away their eyes from the nightmare existence fashioned by so-called civilization, and because they could not bear the burden of the oppression they could now no longer unsee, or sacrifice their personal integrity and tolerate, they chose, each in their own way, to martyr themselves for the utopian dreams in which they so desperately, existentially believed. Even if you cannot abide their ideas, take a moment and recognize the enormity of what it is to say, with the sort of subliminal conviction that comes only after the grueling process of self-abnegation, “This is me.”
To be fair, Allen is no martyr; he is, at heart, a Romantic and an optimist (though he would disapprove of the term) who, very respectably, practices what he preaches. Half of the book is fire and brimstone, yes, but its counterpart offers a vision for what life, writ large and small, could be, not only in the future, but now, right now, here, in the present—the only moment you and I ever, in the fullest sense, inhabit. And it is, provided you have the means and will to actualize it, energizing. It is a vision of play and possibility, of poetry and of magic. It is, dare I say, a reclamation of our long-forgotten, long-repressed universal heritage and as valid a guidebook as Meditations or 道德经 on how to be human.
Now it must be said that although Allen and I are largely in concert, I feel this veritable acid trip of a book will only reach those already predisposed to its ideas—thus taking the confirmation bias cannonball to the face—and, of the individuals who really (in my opinion) should be reading and internalizing this, I suspect “violent recoil” would be the (99.9%) majority response because the rhetorical effect would be for them like being shoved into a pool of ice-cold water. Naked.
Which is not to say this book isn’t for you. If you’ve read this far—and liked my description—this book is for you. There will be parts you violently love, others you outright reject. See if you can reverse the two. Enjoy the journey. Other people this is great for: fiction writers and memoirists (same thing when you boil it down). Allen, as any reader of this can attest, has an excellent command of imagery, a fluid understanding of language, and the ability to excavate those most obscure situational variants of emotion you always felt should have names.
Favorite Terms
Ack: to realise, with heartsick dreadhorror, that your life was created by a former self you no longer recognize, or even particularly like
Anglut (3): FUTILE attempt to get back the joy of a song, childhood or cake by doing it again
Apaphobia: fear of sentences which begin ‘there’s something I have to tell you…”
Cancer: institutions that will not sacrifice themselves creating selves that will not sacrifice themselves, creating products that will not sacrifice themselves, creating cells that will not sacrifice themselves; and vice versa
Extinction burst: when constant watchful concern to stop something happening crosses over into mad reckless desire to have it happen and happen again, heaped on to excess, and to hell with the monstrous consequences
Frismous: [descriptive of] letters, texts, messages and e-mails that your conscience silently urges you not to send, but which, by some odd force of gravity exerted by the post box (or the ‘send’ button, or the desert-island bottle) you dispatch in a blind, balls-to-the-wind pother
Hedgehog: a pig with swords
“Huxleyan propaganda is not the master telling lies, but the slave building his own counterfeit world from facts.” [p.320]
Jendrix Delusion: the belief that everyone is really a secret member of a secret society and that they are secretly exchanging secret messages about you and your secret initiation into the secret mysteries of a secret reality that everyone else has always secretly known about
News (media) (3): visual and textual fragments of contextless events used to create, in its consumers, a fragmented virtual image of remote problems so that they can forget about their nearby sadness
Orboing (2): dignity-thieving little A) run forced upon you by a departing train, or B) crawl forced upon you by an under-desk plug-socket
Pugla: a fabulously beautiful item of clothing that, the instant it is acquired, becomes hideous and unwearable
Scoffon: to dismiss a thrilling or liberating viewpoint (as unrealistic, pretentious, hippy, etc.) because its proponent doesn’t have a family, a mortgage, or decades of GRINDING UNHAPPINESS behind them
Spenth: to gently cement someone’s nascent inclusion into a social group by lightly taking the piss out of them
Wotnog: Inability to say ‘pardon?’ a third time, and so anxiously proceeding as if one has heard and understood
---
The star is lostbecause it died billions of years ago and only now are we witnessing the photonic ashes of its galactic corpse as a result of the text’s rather painful, repeated reminders of the what I would argue are truly fundamental human joys from which I have thus far been emphatically precluded from experiencing due to the aesthetic standards of a few toxic egregores and the terrifying ethical minefields laid as consequence. Those of you who argue that readers shouldn’t project themselves onto texts can just shove right on off now, right on off. (I agree with you. But it’s okay if I do it, see?)
Allen-types are not without precedent: Henry David Thoreau, Friedrich Nietzsche, Ted (yup, we’re going there) Kaczynski. These individuals chose not to pry away their eyes from the nightmare existence fashioned by so-called civilization, and because they could not bear the burden of the oppression they could now no longer unsee, or sacrifice their personal integrity and tolerate, they chose, each in their own way, to martyr themselves for the utopian dreams in which they so desperately, existentially believed. Even if you cannot abide their ideas, take a moment and recognize the enormity of what it is to say, with the sort of subliminal conviction that comes only after the grueling process of self-abnegation, “This is me.”
To be fair, Allen is no martyr; he is, at heart, a Romantic and an optimist (though he would disapprove of the term) who, very respectably, practices what he preaches. Half of the book is fire and brimstone, yes, but its counterpart offers a vision for what life, writ large and small, could be, not only in the future, but now, right now, here, in the present—the only moment you and I ever, in the fullest sense, inhabit. And it is, provided you have the means and will to actualize it, energizing. It is a vision of play and possibility, of poetry and of magic. It is, dare I say, a reclamation of our long-forgotten, long-repressed universal heritage and as valid a guidebook as Meditations or 道德经 on how to be human.
Now it must be said that although Allen and I are largely in concert, I feel this veritable acid trip of a book will only reach those already predisposed to its ideas—thus taking the confirmation bias cannonball to the face—and, of the individuals who really (in my opinion) should be reading and internalizing this, I suspect “violent recoil” would be the (99.9%) majority response because the rhetorical effect would be for them like being shoved into a pool of ice-cold water. Naked.
Which is not to say this book isn’t for you. If you’ve read this far—and liked my description—this book is for you. There will be parts you violently love, others you outright reject. See if you can reverse the two. Enjoy the journey. Other people this is great for: fiction writers and memoirists (same thing when you boil it down). Allen, as any reader of this can attest, has an excellent command of imagery, a fluid understanding of language, and the ability to excavate those most obscure situational variants of emotion you always felt should have names.
Favorite Terms
Ack: to realise, with heartsick dreadhorror, that your life was created by a former self you no longer recognize, or even particularly like
Anglut (3): FUTILE attempt to get back the joy of a song, childhood or cake by doing it again
Apaphobia: fear of sentences which begin ‘there’s something I have to tell you…”
Cancer: institutions that will not sacrifice themselves creating selves that will not sacrifice themselves, creating products that will not sacrifice themselves, creating cells that will not sacrifice themselves; and vice versa
Extinction burst: when constant watchful concern to stop something happening crosses over into mad reckless desire to have it happen and happen again, heaped on to excess, and to hell with the monstrous consequences
Frismous: [descriptive of] letters, texts, messages and e-mails that your conscience silently urges you not to send, but which, by some odd force of gravity exerted by the post box (or the ‘send’ button, or the desert-island bottle) you dispatch in a blind, balls-to-the-wind pother
Hedgehog: a pig with swords
“Huxleyan propaganda is not the master telling lies, but the slave building his own counterfeit world from facts.” [p.320]
Jendrix Delusion: the belief that everyone is really a secret member of a secret society and that they are secretly exchanging secret messages about you and your secret initiation into the secret mysteries of a secret reality that everyone else has always secretly known about
News (media) (3): visual and textual fragments of contextless events used to create, in its consumers, a fragmented virtual image of remote problems so that they can forget about their nearby sadness
Orboing (2): dignity-thieving little A) run forced upon you by a departing train, or B) crawl forced upon you by an under-desk plug-socket
Pugla: a fabulously beautiful item of clothing that, the instant it is acquired, becomes hideous and unwearable
Scoffon: to dismiss a thrilling or liberating viewpoint (as unrealistic, pretentious, hippy, etc.) because its proponent doesn’t have a family, a mortgage, or decades of GRINDING UNHAPPINESS behind them
Spenth: to gently cement someone’s nascent inclusion into a social group by lightly taking the piss out of them
Wotnog: Inability to say ‘pardon?’ a third time, and so anxiously proceeding as if one has heard and understood
---
The star is lost
June 11, 2017
Some parts are pretty funny, but to be honest most of it seems to be picking holes in society and life. I get that, I agree with a lot of what he says, but its written so pretentiously that it's difficult to agree with and perpetuates a great dislike for the author. He seems like he's thinks he's talking from such a high and mighty stance on the world that he can't actually see he's so far up his own arse he doesn't even know what civilisation (or uncivilisation as he calls it) actually is.
Also mental health issues weren't diagnosed by doctors to sell us more drugs, but thanks for diminishing my experiences, matey.
Also mental health issues weren't diagnosed by doctors to sell us more drugs, but thanks for diminishing my experiences, matey.
July 21, 2016
I was pleased to have won this book in a very recent Goodreads First Reads giveaway.
I have flicked through a fair amount of this book, but will wait until a later date to read it in full. Based on what I have seen so far, I can only say it appears to be well written. Am not so sure that the book will be one that I will really enjoy, but as I always do with any book, I will give it a go.
I have flicked through a fair amount of this book, but will wait until a later date to read it in full. Based on what I have seen so far, I can only say it appears to be well written. Am not so sure that the book will be one that I will really enjoy, but as I always do with any book, I will give it a go.
September 1, 2016
I found this book deeply troubling. It purports to be humorous, but I just found it offensive. Under the thin veneer of "humour" are a lot of racist, homophobic, transphobic, disablist and misogynistic slurs.
I'm sure that there are plenty of people out there who would just accuse me of not being able to take a joke, but there is something very worrying about a book that is being published in 2016 and which also contains the pervasive view that women do not (and cannot) enjoy sex. It also refers to women as "pu**ymongers" whose only active participation in the act of sex is to withhold it to gain power over men.
Combine all this with terms like "blackfella" for people of colour, and "spazmo" for disabled people, and it comes across as a book that would have been considered acceptable in 1816, but does not have any productive role in society in 2016.
I don't think there is a single section of society that this book doesn't demean in some way - apart from heterosexual white men... and even then, only the ones that are bigoted enough to think this book is funny. They are probably also the kind of people who start sentences with "I'm not racist, but..." and consider themselves "meninists".
I have generally found books by Green Books to be thoughtful, informative, and well-written. This lead me to give this book a go, as I have previously enjoyed offerings such as Matt Harvey's Where Earwigs Dare. I cannot begin to comprehend what they were thinking to put their name to this.
I don't often feel strongly enough to write a review this long, but this book made me truly angry - even though I didn't read it all the way through. I am horrified to have paid for a copy of this.
I'm sure that there are plenty of people out there who would just accuse me of not being able to take a joke, but there is something very worrying about a book that is being published in 2016 and which also contains the pervasive view that women do not (and cannot) enjoy sex. It also refers to women as "pu**ymongers" whose only active participation in the act of sex is to withhold it to gain power over men.
Combine all this with terms like "blackfella" for people of colour, and "spazmo" for disabled people, and it comes across as a book that would have been considered acceptable in 1816, but does not have any productive role in society in 2016.
I don't think there is a single section of society that this book doesn't demean in some way - apart from heterosexual white men... and even then, only the ones that are bigoted enough to think this book is funny. They are probably also the kind of people who start sentences with "I'm not racist, but..." and consider themselves "meninists".
I have generally found books by Green Books to be thoughtful, informative, and well-written. This lead me to give this book a go, as I have previously enjoyed offerings such as Matt Harvey's Where Earwigs Dare. I cannot begin to comprehend what they were thinking to put their name to this.
I don't often feel strongly enough to write a review this long, but this book made me truly angry - even though I didn't read it all the way through. I am horrified to have paid for a copy of this.
November 27, 2016
I have to say I haven't finished reading all of this book but I felt the need to leave a positive review in spite of the over the top negativity that's currently been posted about it. The Apocalypedia is undoubtedly an intriguing concept with some strange, subversive, but always interesting ideas dotted throughout the book. And it's actually extremely well written. Some of the entries were quite beautiful in their own right. I will save a full review for when I've completed the whole book but for me this was extremely entertaining reading. Have not read anything like it before. 4*.
March 7, 2019
Great, mostly, but some utter tosh too, especially the subjective ‘vibe’ stuff which is about as convincing as a study of how really real chakras are actually. Tedious ravings about sex and love and all that bollocks: asinine. Continually flicking between text and notes was irritating. a great number of the neologisms are neither amusing nor interesting. But the good stuff is often very very good and many of the works referred to are excellent.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews