I see your “Rocky swears like a sailor but only in pitches humans can’t hear/refuses to teach Grace what those words mean” and raise you “Rocky swears like a sailor and now has to explain to Grace that ‘bad bad bad’ isn’t actually a sequence you play on your Eridian speech piano in polite company.”
Grace is both horrified and amused to realise that a more accurate translation for what Rocky’s been saying is “shit shit shit”.
In your opinion, what is TBoB about, 'thematically' for lack of a better word.
I'm very curious exactly what kind of answer you expected out of me here because this feels like a very vague question and coincidentally is one that perfectly hits my autism button in a way that makes me feel like you had a motive. I will answer this regardless
It's about being indoctrinated into a cult. I don't know that that's a "theme" per se, but I do think it's closer to the actual question you're asking.
There are other things involved like the background plot of Bill being a jilted lover, but the book is less about that so much as that aspect serves as flavor to emphasize the message of “don’t trust this guy, he will hurt you”. TBoB is about how even the worst person who you absolutely know is full of crap will suck you in by making you feel special and telling you that you can accomplish great things, but if you have a proper support structure in your life, you can get pulled out of it.
To an extent, I was always somewhat aware of this, but reading Combating Cult Mind Control for my piece in the @gfnonfictionzine really opened my eyes to the extent that the book follows the usual steps of cult recruitment and how well Bill is represented as a cult leader.
Join me now as I just tell you what happened in The Book of Bill, a book we all read 2 years ago 🤝
We open on Bill introducing himself, talking about his credentials, making himself sound big and important. He’s somebody who’s book you’re gonna wanna keep reading. By the way, do you have any idea how massive books are as cult recruitment materials? Anyways.
Once we’re introduced, he starts giving advice, showing us his superior view of the world, and it’s pretty clear he’s full of shit, but he’s also funny and entertaining, so you keep reading. You may come across a few things that you do actually agree with and you start to think hey, this guy kind of has a point? Now you’re gaining alignment with him. You’re thinking about him. Now he’s in your head.
Then he gives you his tragic backstory (which he can’t even do, funnily enough), explains his life, and lets you in on his mission, which you’re primed to agree with, right? He’s got all the best ideas and he deserves this, right? Weirdmageddon for Billy please? Please?
And usually that’s where a cult book ends, with you brought to their side and purchasing the next 17 volumes to learn more. If the book had gone the way it was supposed to, you may actually be on board, but the issue is that from the very beginning, we’ve been getting messages from Ford and the Pines family warning you against what he’s saying, throwing Bill off his game, and finally turning you against him completely.
The thing about cults is that they prey on lonely and vulnerable people who are lacking something in their life, be it purpose or security or most importantly, community. Cults are alluring because they promise instant, unconditional love and support, something deeply lacking in our modern lives due to a large number of reasons. The problem with cults is that the love and support is VERY conditional. You are not cared for, and because you are desperate to be cared for, they’re going to manipulate you into doing anything they want in order to get that diminishing return. At the end of TBoB, Bill promises you that you’ll get to rule alongside him in the same breath that he says he’s not sure if making a deal with him won’t instantly kill both of you– it’s an empty promise because he’s desperate to get what he wants. Much like any other cult, he doesn’t care about you, just about what you can get him.
What’s so particularly hilarious about this last point is going back to the jilted lover subplot, because the biggest thing (among many other things, to be clear) that shows Bill is an unreliable narrator is the fact that he failed step 1: don’t fall in love with the mark. Through his love for Ford, he reveals how he’s a fallible person rather than an all knowing god, he shows far more completely unrestrained vulnerability than anywhere else in the book (why share that police transcript??), and he reveals how easily he can be stopped. Like he blows up his own recruitment attempt just so he can bitch about his ex wife because even after 30 years, even after DYING, he’s too messed up to cope.
But getting back on topic, I don’t really know why Alex decided to make this book when he did, but the fact that it was made in the United States post Trump is pretty telling. Cults are bad right now, though cults here have always been bad. This place has been run by a death cult since its founding and only recently has fully started to drop the mask. To have a book like this come out aimed at younger audiences I think is a really wonderful thing. I hope it’s something that’s been helpful to people, and I have to assume it has been given the number of people who would come up to our Ciphertologist cosplay group to talk about the cults they personally escaped from.
You don’t get out of these situations without awareness and education, because the systems intentionally work to keep you too isolated and exhausted to think that there might be something better for you outside of it. More than anything though, you need support and community to keep you safe, which is why I really love the way the book posits the Pines family as a support structure and encourages people to be open about the things they struggle with and the people who have harmed them. Sharing keeps you from being isolated, it gets you out of the mental spiral that cult mentality relies on. Being loved by people really does save you.
And this is why Ford needs to break Bill out of the–
science enthusiasts LOOVE making media where a humble academic is abducted by the authorities and forced to go on a cool alien adventure against their will. it's like cnc for them
"But it's not FOR them!!!" The biggest military power in the world belongs to a christofascist nation overseen by a felon found guilty of 34 federal crimes and has greenlit a gestapo with more direct funding than the entire military of Canada for the purpose of ethnic cleansing. Let Hetero Jessica throw some biodegradable glitter at a municipal parade
At this point if anyone is trying to exclude anyone benignly pro-queer from a pro-queer space I'm just going to assume you're a fed or something idk like something something destabilize the movement from within or whatever
dededos
kianamaiart
andulkaphoto
tangentwithtanner
annaxmalina
stormborns
turnnoffyourmind
pixelskylines
