In this provocative text professor Tatar examines images of sexual crime in the art, film and literature of the Weimar Republic and how art and murder have since intersected in the “sexual politics of culture.” After a concise overview of the escapades of the most notable sex criminals of the period, Franz Haarmann and Peter Kürten, Tatar goes on to explore the ways in which Weimar artists dealt with the roles of victim and murderer in their work, and how all too often (she feels) they found themselves identifying most greatly, and most cheerfully, with the murderer. An extremely thoughtful treatment written with a minimum of academic jargon. JW

Publisher: Princeton University
Paperback: 213 pages
Illustrated

Forty pages of pure pleasure. Any conspiracy theorist could riff endlessly on the contrapuntal themes of Jesuits, Royals and British intelligence, but it takes a special kind of mind to state—not suggest—that books supposedly written by Graham Greene, Somerset Maugham and Martin Amis were in truth churned out by squads of “female typists” in order to free up the great writers for the manly work of “assassination and mass murder.” Also put forth in this brilliantly written diatribe are the self-evident facts that not only does Prince Charles consider himself to be the reincarnation of Hitler but that if he succeeds to the throne his first act will be to make Ancient Icelandic the official language of Great Britain. The writer’s ironic style and arcanity of information are greatly reminiscent of recent satirical tracts by English Neoist Stewart Home (see his Conspiracies, Cover-Ups and Diversions), so the too-credulous reader should bear in mind that this could be disinformation of the highest and most impish sort. Best read with a grain, if not a shaker, of salt, but that only adds to the flavor. JW

Publisher: Flatland
Paperback: 40 pages

The former director of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum writes an exhaustive account of the museum’s fight to present a large-scale exhibition dealing with the decision to use the A-bomb against Japan. When the proposed original exhibit was seen by many as top-heavy regarding American guilt, Congress and veterans’ groups raised such an outcry that when the exhibit was finally approved, it consisted of little more than the Enola Gay and brief hints that the bomb it dropped over Hiroshima was effective, to a degree. Harwit describes in convincing detail what happens when history runs headlong into the politics of emotion, and both are sent reeling. A fascinating study of a successful fight against perceived political correctness results in offering up for public appreciation a viewpoint no less, and often more, distorted. JW

Publisher: Springer-Verlag
Hardback: 477 pages

“The historical evidence for unicorns still firmly stands—because THE LORD GOD SAYS SO! THE HOLY BIBLE SAYS SO! THE ANCIENT MONUMENTS SAY SO!”
From this endearing premise Radka builds an unshakable case. “Many printed authorities tend to evade—or even outright deny—the proof of their existence,” he notes, and this baffling situation has led him to demonstrate that unicorns are real because unicorns are real—so there. It’s hard to argue with the perfection of this logic; easier, in fact, to imagine that the world is round. Clearly unfamiliar with such non-biblical concepts as myth, legend or metaphor, Radka takes as hard fact any mention in any culture of the fabulous beast. His chapter on “Current Evidence” purports to show that unicorns exist today; by “current,” however, he means 1486. Radka does, however, offer as evidence a badly reproduced photograph of a freak sheep. JW

Publisher: Einhorn
Paperback: 152 pages
Illustrated

“This book is not ‘anti-Masonic,’” McKenney notes, shortly before accusing the Masons of everything short of exterminating the dinosaurs. The author lifts the Masonic apron in order to expose the glistening, seamy underbelly of everyone’s favorite secret society. He warns Christians (who evidently don’t have enough to worry about) that Masons stop at nothing to effect their dark designs. “There have been times when a temporary Masonic lodge room was set up in a semi-trailer in a busy shopping center parking lot and men initiated right there on the spot.” He notes that membership in the Masonic Order drops every year, and explains why this makes those who keep their grip on the trowel and compass all the more powerful. He reveals that the messiah of Masonry is named “Hiram.” Considerable attention is devoted by the author to the question of whether or not George Washington was a Mason—McKenney has to admit that he was, but also decides that he wasn’t a very good one, praise Jesus. The real Hell’s Angels, he warns us, are those red-fezzed Shriners on minibikes, and on that we can do nothing but agree. JW

Publisher: Huntington House
Paperback: 224 pages
Illustrated

In scientific crankdom the essential benevolence of the human spirit is most freely, and winningly, expressed. From the archives of the Museum of Jurassic Technology, the best museum in the United States, comes this little book containing the letters—entirely genuine letters—reprinted in that were addressed to the astronomers of Pasadena's Mt. Wilson Observatory. The correspondents set forth, briefly or at stupefying length, their delightfully inventive cosmologic theories—the Earth is flat, our bodies are linked by radio to heaven, comets are the “chore boys” of the universe—and offer them freely to a world they imagine is desperately waiting to hear them. The world, like Mt. Wilson's astronomers, ignores these non-traditional theorists, laughs at them, and sometimes breaks their hearts; but it never shuts them up, and for that we should all be grateful. “The moon is a sphere and it works the clouds by night; it is not a Planet, and should not be interfered with.” The human mind, when unleashed, is a glorious thing to behold. JW

Publisher: Society for the Diffusion of Useful Information
Paperback: 120 pages
Illustrated

Take any run-of-the-mill conspiracy theorist, shoot him or her up with crystal meth daily for a year and you’ll wind up with a pretty good approximation of Commander X—still, you could never improve upon the perfection of the original. In this, his two-volume magnum opus, the Commander offers up for the less demanding reader a farrago of startling notions and beliefs, unlikely chronologies, urban myths cloaked in the robes of True Fact, thrilling accounts of Those Who Went Too Far, and justifications for every kind of nitwittery per-petrated in print during the last 50 years.
Whenever the Commander wants to make especially noteworthy points—once or twice a page, on average—he hits “shift” and caps everything for paragraphs at a time, making you feel as if a stranger is sitting next to you on the subway, bellowing in your ear about his fillings. When you read that in 1979 “66 Americans [were] killed by [neosauroid] alien Grays” you imagine, fleetingly, that the Commander might choose to offer some proof along with his proposition, if only accidentally, but no such luck. No matter—if you see it in print, it must be true. Occasional lapses in spelling—”swine flue,” for example, or “glasnose”—in no way damage the reader’s appreciation of the Commander’s inimitable efforts. Text is printed on only one side of each page, making it look as if the reader is getting twice as much material as is really there. Bound in a sturdy electrical-tape-like substance. In short, a winner. JW

Publisher: Inner Light
Paperback: 75 pages

Take any run-of-the-mill conspiracy theorist, shoot him or her up with crystal meth daily for a year and you’ll wind up with a pretty good approximation of Commander X—still, you could never improve upon the perfection of the original. In this, his two-volume magnum opus, the Commander offers up for the less demanding reader a farrago of startling notions and beliefs, unlikely chronologies, urban myths cloaked in the robes of True Fact, thrilling accounts of Those Who Went Too Far, and justifications for every kind of nitwittery per-petrated in print during the last 50 years.
Whenever the Commander wants to make especially noteworthy points—once or twice a page, on average—he hits “shift” and caps everything for paragraphs at a time, making you feel as if a stranger is sitting next to you on the subway, bellowing in your ear about his fillings. When you read that in 1979 “66 Americans [were] killed by [neosauroid] alien Grays” you imagine, fleetingly, that the Commander might choose to offer some proof along with his proposition, if only accidentally, but no such luck. No matter—if you see it in print, it must be true. Occasional lapses in spelling—”swine flue,” for example, or “glasnose”—in no way damage the reader’s appreciation of the Commander’s inimitable efforts. Text is printed on only one side of each page, making it look as if the reader is getting twice as much material as is really there. Bound in a sturdy electrical-tape-like substance. In short, a winner. JW

Publisher: Inner Light
Paperback: 72 pages

“Telstar” by the Tornadoes shows what legendary British record producer Joe Meek could do with a few tape recorders, an odd assortment of non-musical instruments and a highly personal vision. Called the English Phil Spector, Meek was also truly one of the great loons of the 20th century. “His public life was one of laughter, tears and, above all, music,” notes the cover blurb. “His private life was a tortured tangle of violence, sex, drugs, gangsters, the occult and, eventually, murder.” These are only the basics, however. Kept in girls’ clothes by his mother during his formative years, in later life Meek developed an obsession with Buddy Holly (whom he believed he contacted through a Ouija board), made an unsuccessful pass at Tom Jones, and produced hundreds of singles—some so outré that to this day they sound not simply contemporary but of the future. Then at age 37, on the eighth anniversary of Buddy Holly’s death, Meek killed his landlady and then himself while in an apparent state of panic brought on by a forthcoming police investigation of a particularly grisly homosexual torso slaying. This is one of the best biographies of a musical figure, period. JW

Publisher: Woodford House
Paperback: 341 pages
Illustrated

The author spent years researching the Japanese sex business (in particular those aspects ordinarily closed to foreigners) and finally gathered enough material to write this marvelous guide and fascinating study of the sexual life of the country. You think you have unusual tastes? “NAISHIN-KYO SUPESHARU—Endoscope Special—Customers interested in taking a closer look at their seikan girl’s vagina are handed an authentic gynecologist’s endoscope, with which they can study the organ to their heart’s content.” Soap girls, love motels, vending machines full of schoolgirl’s used panties and the ever-popular ganmen kijo zeme (facial horseback attack). What a country! JW

Publisher: Tuttle
Paperback: 208 pages
Illustrated