In the past few years I’ve read a lot of books that try to convince their readers of difficult ideas for various reasons. Whether it’s to herald the truth or to rake in cash, some of the concepts in speculative literature (taken from the academic term for sci-fi, “speculative fiction”, and altered because referring to someone’s beliefs as fiction isn’t nice!) have existed for decades and even centuries, while others are extremely fresh and unique. I think this genre has been derided without fair consideration of its merits, and as such, I’d like to bring some of this literature to your attention.

What follows in this and future essays are some of the seminal works from the two types of “spec-lit” that I’ve read and enjoyed the most. I haven’t finished every book that I’ve read because, eventually, almost all tend to grow redundant due to obsessive tendencies in the authors’ writing. If I didn’t finish the book, though, I know that I read enough to feel like it was an experience worth recommending (more on that experience later).

If you don’t want to pay for this gospel/horseshit for any such reason, such as not wanting to support the authors or due to lack of interest/funds,  then you can definitely search the internet for titles or authors and find excerpts or PDFs online. There are also about 8 trillion YouTube documentaries you can check out, but be warned that there is even more misogyny and racism in those than in these books. Who would have guessed that people with mental instabilities would not have healthy social views?

TYPE ONE: PARANOID CONSPIRACY THEORIES;

or,

The narratives in this form of speculative literature often have roots reaching back into history, but the authors are usually more interested in discussing what was topical at the time of publication (EXs: U.S. author Cooper re: George H.W. Bush during his time served, U.K. author Icke updating his book after Princess Diana’s death). They are in search of sympathy for their fears, so they strive to get others to believe that these fears are legitimate. This results in some of the most inventive evidence – and plots – that I have seen in literature as a whole. Here are a few of the biggest/most comprehensive Type 1 spec-lit examples:

Behold a Pale Horse, by William Cooper: One of the big Illuminati conspiracy texts. The way Cooper deals with racial/religious/LGBT issues in this book are interesting because it isn’t the standard rasher of racism, but a delightfully fresh type of racism – the hypocrisy of unveiling the government’s bigoted societal control methods while penning some pretty awful things about AIDS denial is somewhat interesting, but more fascinating to me are falsified confidential/classified documents, and this book is chock full of them. The introduction also provides an extended biography on Cooper that I think provides some insight into how this book came to be.

The Biggest Secret, by David Icke: This is the guy who invented Illuminati + shape-shifting reptilian humanoids” which is as fun as it sounds (seems like it at first, but then grows boring, because it is British). This book was his first of the fucked up lizard nuts stuff, and it’s fascinating – even Alice Walker seems to be a fan! In most versions of The Biggest Secret you’ll have the bonus of him trivializing a national tragedy by adding Star Wars shit to it. Punk’s not dead!

TIMECUBE, by Gene Ray: There was this guy in my hometown who lived on this small plot of unused farmland along a back road leading to the highway. was NOT pleased with the police department in his area. He ensured that people knew this by making large signs with letter stickers and spray paint on particle board. These signs described in disjointed phrases that there were NO MURDERERS, DEALERS, PROSTITUTES, PIMPS, PUSHERS, THIEVES ON THIS CORNER, and POLICE HARASSMENT UNLAWFUL RACCOONS, and SHERIFF (whoever) = ILLEGAL TYRANT, and OFFICERS STUPID? BINGO, and so forth, aaaaaaaaall along the fence of his property. These ramculminating in a massive triangle of racist signs slapped together in a pyramid. This faced an especially slow stoplight, so it contained a paragraph-length racist diatribe that unsettled anyone stuck across the street from his property. This guy had some problems, only one of which was anger.

 Now, imagine that guy being just as furious and verbose about how we teach time. 

TIMECUBE is a center-justified trainwreck; one long diatribe combining math and insults with impressive ease (warning: this guy is probably the most offensive of the lot), self-accredited doctor Gene Ray focuses his wrath upon academia, rather than the government. Perhaps it’s his spurning of traditional education that informs his lack of organization.

The “wall of text” approach surprisingly makes wading into TIMECUBE rather simple, as readers comprehend just as little of the ideas being imparted regardless of where they begin or how far they get through it. No matter how much you try to grasp the world of Gene Ray – for example, how his obsession with the number four figures into his obsession with the six-sided cube – you will forever remain educated stupid.

Rule by Secrecy, by Jim Marrs: This book is good if you are interested in learning more about the Trilateral Commission because you get a decent amount of history about the group, then you get to see how far back in time it’s existed in increasingly humorous fashion all the way to secret Egyptian social groups and their rituals. (Not sure how Marrs was able to confirm such information.) Rule by Secrecy was a little too long for me to finish, but still entertaining and definitely a good way to gain some of the basic knowledge necessary to understanding more complex works. This will allow you to follow along with even the most spirited of anti-government tirades, which is slowly becoming a more necessary language in this day and age.

Perhaps the most worthwhile experience I get from this type of speculative literature is the unique emotional connection created. Books like these (if the authors are speaking with self-belief) are very personal, terrifying, and life-changing stories that even they understand are difficult to believe. They struggle to rationalize the injustices and tragedies around them, and some are more flawed than others, whether on logical or moral grounds, but these struggles are perhaps the most nakedly emotional accounts of history of our time.

Regaling these kinds of grand lies is a very childlike way to hide trauma and emotion, and this makes them feel more genuine and powerful to me as a reader. For example, William Cooper says that true patriots are the least safe from the Illuminati during national holidays because they are most likely to be at home with their families, making it easy for the NWO to round them up. Imagine feeling the least safe while surrounded with your family at home during the holiday. That’s the sort of emotion I enjoy uncovering in this literature and maybe you will too!

In the next part, I’ll discuss the second type of speculative literature I’ve been reading, which is more akin to The X-Files than it is to… The X-Files. Okay, that didn’t work at all. I’m talking about aliens

aliens.

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Shaun Gannon is totally not telling you where he lives. His Twitter handle is @GrouponFan888 for some stupid reason. His e-books, poems, and other work are available at shaunwow.tumblr.com – if you like his writing so much, then why don’t you marry it? Oh, it’s inanimate