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| Believe it or not, this once consisted of organic materials. |
Funny story: when my dad saw me reading this book he asked me if understood the context of it. Please dad, I took a whole class worth of context for this.
Funnier story: I didn't actually steal this book. I have, however, damaged the economy enough to be all right with that fact.
So, what is this book about? It's meant to be--well, to quote the back--"A handbook of survival and warfare for the citizens of Woodstock nation!" (back cover). Where to get food, clothing, furniture--how to steal these things, for the most part, what will protect you best and what is most effective to use at demonstrations, suggestions for scoring drugs, advice on pregnancy prevention, taking care of STDs, and so on... Not much to talk about, you say!? Au contraire! I'll critique SO HARD. Yep.
So the very very very first page of the book has a list of all the publishing companies that refused to publish the book. Above this list it says, "'This book will end free speech!' Only one of the more unusual comments made by the following thirty publishers who rejected Steal This Book". Well... once you read a little, it doesn't really seem that unusual at all. It's actual a pretty logical conclusion... But okay, Abbie Hoffman...
There is an introduction by Al Giordano (?) that talks about some of the reasons why Random House wasn't too keen on publishing it... One of the reasons being that there are instructions how to build bombs and use them properly. On the preceding page, the foreword (by Lisa Fithian) ends as follows: "Your work, especially Steal This Book, offers a basic orientation. It is a precursor to the emerging culture of today. We don't have to re-invent the wheel; we just have to keep it rolling. It'd be great to have you here, but we've got your stories and we know you are with us on the ride.... Abbie, thank you." At first, when I read that, I was kind of like, what culture? Us? In case if you haven't noticed, we're kind of really lame. But then I read the bit about bomb instructions on the next page and it became very clear--Fight Club! Well, that's one thing this book could certainly be a precursor to. Or Choke. It's certainly more of a Palahniuk book than Journey to the East or Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test or whatever else have you. So yeah. Fight Club=modern-day Steal This Book. Not completely, but enough.
In this it is also discussed how many bookstores at the time of the book's original publication wouldn't stock the book for its title. This is still the case.
"Today, the lid is back on the book publishing industry. I can hardly find a book worth shoplifting in the chain stores. It's all formula. But if you like books, or once liked them, even if you end up paying for this new edition of Steal This Book, you're getting an authentic book... and that, in this age of corporate tyranny, is a steal"--Al Giordano.
The original introduction, as written by Hoffman himself, starts like this: "It's perhaps fitting that I write this introduction in jail--that graduate school of survival. Here you learn how to use toothpaste as glue, fashion a shiv out of a spoon and build intricate communication networks. Here too, you learn the only rehabilitation possible--hatred of oppression" (XXI). Now I must admit that this started things off on a slightly sour note. Automatically my reaction was, you know, angsty teenage brat. It was a gut reaction, so sue me. Not to say I don't agree with the last bit--I do--but it has that bratty tone that worried me from the first few steps. Things improved quickly, but I'm just saying....
"Slumlords allow rats to maim children and then complain of violence in the streets. Everything is topsy-turvy. If we internalize the language and the imagery of the pigs, we will forever be f--ked" (XXII). / "It's funny. There are guys in jail who have been in jail so much, that's their whole thing. They're jail freaks. They've picked up the whole jail language. Only it isn't their language, it's the guards', the cops', the DA'sThe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, page twenty-seven.
"Revolution is not about suicide, it is about life. With your fingers probe the holiness of your body and see that it was meant to live" (XXIII).
"Make war on machines, and in particular the sterile machines of corporate death and the robots that guard them The duty of a revolutionary is to make love and that means staying alive and free. That doesn't allow for cop-outs. Smoking dope and hanging up Che's picture is no more a commitment than drinking milk and collecting postage stamps" (XXIII). See, this is why the emerging culture thing threw me off a bit, because really when you think about it, are we closer to this or Fight Club? Yeaaaah, that's what I thought...
Okay, I admit I got my back up once in a while. In the 'Free Food' section, under food stamps it says, "Many states, for racist reasons, do not want to make [the national food stamp program] too available or publicize the fact that it even exists" (6). Though that may be true--though there's a good chance that it was/is true--it sounds kind of ridiculous to just say "for racist reasons". It sounds like Abbie Hoffman doesn't actually know what he's talking about...
Abbie talks about how if you write to a food company and complain about their product they'll send you x number of packages of it to apologize and to keep you quiet and happy. Believe it or not, I've heard of this before in a book I read as a kid. I think it was in The Secret Life of Amanda K Woods. Amanda says a kid told her that if you write to Hershey's and say I opened a bar of chocolate and it was all grey, they'll send you a big carton full of them for free. I don't remember if Amanda actually tries it or not, but ever since then I've wanted to... Sometimes I still hope I get a weird bar right before I open it... Yup...
As for free furniture, there is a section where it talks about checking into a hotel with a huge (but empty) suitcase and then filling it with furniture of whatever sort you'd prefer before leaving. Proud to say that my friends and I have thought of this one previous to my reading this, though we thought of it in jest. It quickly became an argument over that urban legend about the couple who find the decomposing body of a prostitute under their bed mattress, but hey.
"Hitch-hiking is legal in most states, but remember you always can get a 'say-so' bust. A 'say-so' arrest is to police what Catch-22 is to the army. When you ask why you're under arrest, the pig answers, 'cause I say-so'" (27). Also a logical fallacy!
There is a list of free land one can/could claim and a list of communes (though the list of communes is very limited). Robby D told us (in Rebels) about a commune that he had friends in, and though the state is listed in 'Free Land' (I think it is, anyway--it's something with an 'Ma' at the beginning--Massachusetts or Maine, I want to say, but I'll have to get back to you on that) it isn't in the communes list. Then again, that's not to say the commune is younger than this book. It's not like there was a cut-off date--"If your commune hasn't been established by the original publication of Steal This Book (1971), then it can NEVER exist. EVER."
Abbie also shares information of birth control clinics and methods, as I mentioned above. "The next best method is the foams that you insert twenty minutes before f--king. The best foams available are Delfen and Emko. They have the advantage of being nonprescription items so you can rush into any drug store and pick up a dispenser when the spirit moves you. Follow the directions carefully. Unfortunately, these foams taste terrible and are not available in flavors. It just shows you how far science has to go" (61).
"Hep[atitis] is a very dangerous disease that can cause a number of permanent conditions, including death, which is extremely permanent. It should be treated by a doctor, often in a hospital" (65).
"Sandwich boards and hand-carried signs are effective advertisements. You can stand on a busy corner and hold up a sign saying 'Apartment Needed,' 'Free Angela,' 'Smash the State' or other slogans. They can be written on dollar bills, envelopes that are being mailed and other items that are passed from person to person" (70). One, it always weirds me out to see my name in print anywhere, but especially in books. But, anyone who knows me even moderately well can probably figure out why exactly I'd really mark this.
In the section for getting free books: "If you really want a book badly enough, follow the title of this one--Dig!" (85).
For getting welfare: "Many welfare workers are young and hip. The image you are working on is that of a warm, sensitive kid victimized by brutal parents and a cold ruthless society. Tell them you held off coming for months because you wanted to maintain some self-respect even though you have been walking the streets broke and hungry. If you are a woman, tell him you were recently raped. In sexist Amerika, this will probably be true" (88). The last two sentences have a disheartening amount of pessimism in them...
Under diagrams showing how to roll a joint: "Avoid all needle drugs--the only dope worth shooting is Richard Nixon" (99).
One thing I really liked about the book were the photos--there'd be a picture of a person reading a book while laughing, or a girl in an aisle of a supermarket with sarcastic captions. The girl in the supermarket is in the chapter on stealing, and the caption is something like, "At these prices, who can afford not to?" The picture that makes me think of this is on page 101--a girl watering a marijuana plant. The captions reads: "My, won't the folks at the Horticultural Show be amazed" (101).
I started getting really uneasy towards the end when it started talking about street-fighting. It starts off with things that are mainly last-ditch protection efforts--you know, knives, basic physical self-defense, a diagram of weak points on the human body--but it goes on to give instructions on how to make pipe bombs, Molotov cocktails, what the best guns to buy and use are, et cetera. It sort of sullied the whole business--at least to me it seemed to sully the whole business--of what Abbie Hoffman had built up with. The second I saw "If we want to get high we're going to have to fight our way up" (163), I got the sinking feeling. Granted--this is after Woodstock, really, and if I remember Rebels well, Woodstock was sort of the death-rattle of the hippies. Then starts radicalism--so I shouldn't be surprised with this turn. But really, it seems pretty disheartening to me. I don't care if it looked like the hippies and such were copping out, I'd rather be a hippie than one who'd have a need for this... Live and let live. But maybe I'm just a big coward, huh?
"In most areas, a one-night stand in a mental hospital is enough to convince the shrink at the induction center that you're capable of eating the flesh of a colonel" (193).
Abbie also suggests that to dodge the draft, you check off as many things that can't be verified as possible--like homosexuality. I only bring this up for the sake of a fun fact: that's how Jim Morrison dodged the draft!
"Ask the blacks what it's been like living under racism and you'll get a taste of the future we face" (221). Abbie... referring to people like that doesn't really make you sound any better than the people you're criticizing....
"Poems are free. Are you a poem or are you a prose?" (251).
"Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose"--Janis Joplin
Well... Like I said, early on, it was pretty easy to follow and enjoy and be a yes-man for, but later on it got increasingly difficult, till I was like "No, I don't want to be here anymore." I mean, fine, Abbie Hoffman wanted to ignite a full-scale, gigantic revolution. Then it makes sense--really, it's all that makes sense--that there'd have to be a section on weaponry and how best to use it and how to protect oneself the best and so on. Weaponry and violence is necessary for a real revolution, but still, it just didn't stick with me. Though if you made me pick, I'd prefer to be in one of the hippie communes of the decade before--and sure, I guess if a huge violent upheaval is what you're looking for, they did "cop out". But why not live and live? Yet at the same time, I remember being pretty critical of that sort of free brotherhood society when we were learning about it... I mean, it seemed like the sort of thing that was doomed from the start... Hmm... I need to organize my thoughts on this. But in conclusion, I guess I'd rather cop out. Oh well.
MLA citation information: Hoffman, Abbie. Steal This Book. Da Capo Press: Massachusetts, 1996.
In other news, my bookshelf is full. What am I going to do with this book? I have somewhere to be in a few hours, so I can't really afford to go on an OCD bookshelf reorganizing spree, but... I... must...!
My next book is A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood. I'm about thirty pages in, and I'm sort of loving Christopher Isherwood's writing style, despite it being depressing as all hell.
Answer to last post's cryptic song lyrics: The Times They Are A-Changing by Bob Dylan (Why would this even be necessary? Seriously.)
This post's cryptic song lyrics: Well, they'll stone you when you're walkin' along the street, they'll stone you when you're tryin' to keep your seat, they'll stone you when you're walkin' on the floor, they'll stone you when you're walkin' to the door
The original introduction, as written by Hoffman himself, starts like this: "It's perhaps fitting that I write this introduction in jail--that graduate school of survival. Here you learn how to use toothpaste as glue, fashion a shiv out of a spoon and build intricate communication networks. Here too, you learn the only rehabilitation possible--hatred of oppression" (XXI). Now I must admit that this started things off on a slightly sour note. Automatically my reaction was, you know, angsty teenage brat. It was a gut reaction, so sue me. Not to say I don't agree with the last bit--I do--but it has that bratty tone that worried me from the first few steps. Things improved quickly, but I'm just saying....
"Slumlords allow rats to maim children and then complain of violence in the streets. Everything is topsy-turvy. If we internalize the language and the imagery of the pigs, we will forever be f--ked" (XXII). / "It's funny. There are guys in jail who have been in jail so much, that's their whole thing. They're jail freaks. They've picked up the whole jail language. Only it isn't their language, it's the guards', the cops', the DA'sThe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, page twenty-seven.
"Revolution is not about suicide, it is about life. With your fingers probe the holiness of your body and see that it was meant to live" (XXIII).
"Make war on machines, and in particular the sterile machines of corporate death and the robots that guard them The duty of a revolutionary is to make love and that means staying alive and free. That doesn't allow for cop-outs. Smoking dope and hanging up Che's picture is no more a commitment than drinking milk and collecting postage stamps" (XXIII). See, this is why the emerging culture thing threw me off a bit, because really when you think about it, are we closer to this or Fight Club? Yeaaaah, that's what I thought...
Okay, I admit I got my back up once in a while. In the 'Free Food' section, under food stamps it says, "Many states, for racist reasons, do not want to make [the national food stamp program] too available or publicize the fact that it even exists" (6). Though that may be true--though there's a good chance that it was/is true--it sounds kind of ridiculous to just say "for racist reasons". It sounds like Abbie Hoffman doesn't actually know what he's talking about...
Abbie talks about how if you write to a food company and complain about their product they'll send you x number of packages of it to apologize and to keep you quiet and happy. Believe it or not, I've heard of this before in a book I read as a kid. I think it was in The Secret Life of Amanda K Woods. Amanda says a kid told her that if you write to Hershey's and say I opened a bar of chocolate and it was all grey, they'll send you a big carton full of them for free. I don't remember if Amanda actually tries it or not, but ever since then I've wanted to... Sometimes I still hope I get a weird bar right before I open it... Yup...
As for free furniture, there is a section where it talks about checking into a hotel with a huge (but empty) suitcase and then filling it with furniture of whatever sort you'd prefer before leaving. Proud to say that my friends and I have thought of this one previous to my reading this, though we thought of it in jest. It quickly became an argument over that urban legend about the couple who find the decomposing body of a prostitute under their bed mattress, but hey.
"Hitch-hiking is legal in most states, but remember you always can get a 'say-so' bust. A 'say-so' arrest is to police what Catch-22 is to the army. When you ask why you're under arrest, the pig answers, 'cause I say-so'" (27). Also a logical fallacy!
There is a list of free land one can/could claim and a list of communes (though the list of communes is very limited). Robby D told us (in Rebels) about a commune that he had friends in, and though the state is listed in 'Free Land' (I think it is, anyway--it's something with an 'Ma' at the beginning--Massachusetts or Maine, I want to say, but I'll have to get back to you on that) it isn't in the communes list. Then again, that's not to say the commune is younger than this book. It's not like there was a cut-off date--"If your commune hasn't been established by the original publication of Steal This Book (1971), then it can NEVER exist. EVER."
Abbie also shares information of birth control clinics and methods, as I mentioned above. "The next best method is the foams that you insert twenty minutes before f--king. The best foams available are Delfen and Emko. They have the advantage of being nonprescription items so you can rush into any drug store and pick up a dispenser when the spirit moves you. Follow the directions carefully. Unfortunately, these foams taste terrible and are not available in flavors. It just shows you how far science has to go" (61).
"Hep[atitis] is a very dangerous disease that can cause a number of permanent conditions, including death, which is extremely permanent. It should be treated by a doctor, often in a hospital" (65).
"Sandwich boards and hand-carried signs are effective advertisements. You can stand on a busy corner and hold up a sign saying 'Apartment Needed,' 'Free Angela,' 'Smash the State' or other slogans. They can be written on dollar bills, envelopes that are being mailed and other items that are passed from person to person" (70). One, it always weirds me out to see my name in print anywhere, but especially in books. But, anyone who knows me even moderately well can probably figure out why exactly I'd really mark this.
In the section for getting free books: "If you really want a book badly enough, follow the title of this one--Dig!" (85).
For getting welfare: "Many welfare workers are young and hip. The image you are working on is that of a warm, sensitive kid victimized by brutal parents and a cold ruthless society. Tell them you held off coming for months because you wanted to maintain some self-respect even though you have been walking the streets broke and hungry. If you are a woman, tell him you were recently raped. In sexist Amerika, this will probably be true" (88). The last two sentences have a disheartening amount of pessimism in them...
Under diagrams showing how to roll a joint: "Avoid all needle drugs--the only dope worth shooting is Richard Nixon" (99).
One thing I really liked about the book were the photos--there'd be a picture of a person reading a book while laughing, or a girl in an aisle of a supermarket with sarcastic captions. The girl in the supermarket is in the chapter on stealing, and the caption is something like, "At these prices, who can afford not to?" The picture that makes me think of this is on page 101--a girl watering a marijuana plant. The captions reads: "My, won't the folks at the Horticultural Show be amazed" (101).
I started getting really uneasy towards the end when it started talking about street-fighting. It starts off with things that are mainly last-ditch protection efforts--you know, knives, basic physical self-defense, a diagram of weak points on the human body--but it goes on to give instructions on how to make pipe bombs, Molotov cocktails, what the best guns to buy and use are, et cetera. It sort of sullied the whole business--at least to me it seemed to sully the whole business--of what Abbie Hoffman had built up with. The second I saw "If we want to get high we're going to have to fight our way up" (163), I got the sinking feeling. Granted--this is after Woodstock, really, and if I remember Rebels well, Woodstock was sort of the death-rattle of the hippies. Then starts radicalism--so I shouldn't be surprised with this turn. But really, it seems pretty disheartening to me. I don't care if it looked like the hippies and such were copping out, I'd rather be a hippie than one who'd have a need for this... Live and let live. But maybe I'm just a big coward, huh?
"In most areas, a one-night stand in a mental hospital is enough to convince the shrink at the induction center that you're capable of eating the flesh of a colonel" (193).
Abbie also suggests that to dodge the draft, you check off as many things that can't be verified as possible--like homosexuality. I only bring this up for the sake of a fun fact: that's how Jim Morrison dodged the draft!
"Ask the blacks what it's been like living under racism and you'll get a taste of the future we face" (221). Abbie... referring to people like that doesn't really make you sound any better than the people you're criticizing....
"Poems are free. Are you a poem or are you a prose?" (251).
"Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose"--Janis Joplin
Well... Like I said, early on, it was pretty easy to follow and enjoy and be a yes-man for, but later on it got increasingly difficult, till I was like "No, I don't want to be here anymore." I mean, fine, Abbie Hoffman wanted to ignite a full-scale, gigantic revolution. Then it makes sense--really, it's all that makes sense--that there'd have to be a section on weaponry and how best to use it and how to protect oneself the best and so on. Weaponry and violence is necessary for a real revolution, but still, it just didn't stick with me. Though if you made me pick, I'd prefer to be in one of the hippie communes of the decade before--and sure, I guess if a huge violent upheaval is what you're looking for, they did "cop out". But why not live and live? Yet at the same time, I remember being pretty critical of that sort of free brotherhood society when we were learning about it... I mean, it seemed like the sort of thing that was doomed from the start... Hmm... I need to organize my thoughts on this. But in conclusion, I guess I'd rather cop out. Oh well.
MLA citation information: Hoffman, Abbie. Steal This Book. Da Capo Press: Massachusetts, 1996.
In other news, my bookshelf is full. What am I going to do with this book? I have somewhere to be in a few hours, so I can't really afford to go on an OCD bookshelf reorganizing spree, but... I... must...!
My next book is A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood. I'm about thirty pages in, and I'm sort of loving Christopher Isherwood's writing style, despite it being depressing as all hell.
Answer to last post's cryptic song lyrics: The Times They Are A-Changing by Bob Dylan (Why would this even be necessary? Seriously.)
This post's cryptic song lyrics: Well, they'll stone you when you're walkin' along the street, they'll stone you when you're tryin' to keep your seat, they'll stone you when you're walkin' on the floor, they'll stone you when you're walkin' to the door
Yeah, I'm going to skip this one. Hope that's cool with Robby D Ford but I am so not into violent hippies and know-it-alls. Maybe that makes me a square. Whatevs.
ReplyDeleteSidebar: Abbie Hoffman = Dude?
It's okay. I think I like you more if you're not into that.
ReplyDeleteSurprisingly enough, yes, Abbie Hoffman=Dude.
Awww, shucks :)
ReplyDeleteWoah. This is why I'm not a mathematician.
I was going to make a lame obscure Jeff Goldblum/Jurassic Park joke in answer to the mathmetician comment, but I honestly can't think of anything.
ReplyDelete