Bill Drummond was a major pop star with his band
The KLF before
having a
nervous breakdown.
Mark Manning (or just 'Z' for short)
ran the weird band
Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction. Together
they decided to go on a
pilgrimage to the
North Pole with an icon
of
Elvis Presley to spread love and good vibes to the whole
world. They also decided that they should write a book about the
journey and
Bad Wisdom is that book (published by
Penguin
Books,
1996).
Overall, its an incredibly funny and strange book. The parts written
by Drummond are introspective and honest; an account of what it was
like to be a man at the end of the 20th century. It gives some
background on why The KLF split up, and meditations on pop music
in general, knife fixation and male friendship. There's also a lot of
farting and picking noses.
Mannings parts are more disturbing; generally the narrative start out
in the real world but quickly degenerates into violent porn that
would've made Marquis de Sade proud. Torture, coprophilia,
necrophilia, and rape, they're all there. But it's all done in a
kind of absurd or surreal fashion and on the whole it balances the
rest of the book perfectly.
Overall, I'd recommend this book to anyone with a sense of humour and
stomach enough to get through the worst parts. An... interesting
experience.
From the blurb at the back of the book:
We had a plan: we were going to save the world - the whales, the
dolphins, the rainforests, Bambi, the whole damn Walt Disney bunch,
babe; we were gonna free Willy, fuck chicks and slay dragons. We are
Zen Masters and know what the fuck we are talking about.