This is Burning Man : the rise of a new American underground / Brian Doherty.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Doherty, Brian.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Burning Man (Festival).

Performance art--Nevada--Black Rock Desert.

Performance art.

Black Rock Desert (Nev.)--Social life and customs.

Black Rock Desert (Nev.).

Nevada--Black Rock Desert.

Physical Description:

304 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Little, Brown, [2004]

Summary:

It's been compared to Brigadoon and Woodstock, called Xanadu and Utopia. But none of these terms captures the essence of the ecstatically wild, visionary desert gathering known as Burning Man. Every year, an elaborate, fantastical city rises out of Nevada's vast and forbidding Black Rock Desert, only to vanish again one week later. The rules are few: Participation and self-reliance are mandatory; money and spectators are not allowed. It is, without question, the most glamorous, anarchic city on earth, dedicated purely to creativity and play, where on any given stroll you might wander past giant metal flame-spewing lotus flowers, commune at a three-story temple made from discarded dinosaur puzzle pieces, or hop on a life-size, glowing white whale as it sails over the sands backlit by an endless starry sky. But Burning Man is more than just fun. It's an environment that exists in complete opposition to normal society in that the usual rules and standards are ignored or inverted in the pursuit of fresh experiences and new identities. It's a place where accumulated cultural debris is swept aside in order to reestablish and reinvent what's important and what's meaningful in one intensely accelerated, vividly colorful week. Burning Man is the most profound and subversive idea to surface in decades - and has become the underground mecca for Americans who are searching for community and meaning.

This Is Burning Man tells the story of how the simple burning of a wooden man came to attract more than thirty thousand to travel to the Black Rock Desert each year to create an entirely alternate dimension, one whose vivid qualities are rapidly exploding onto the national consciousness. Brian Doherty captures the extraordinary spirit of the festival - its whimsy, its danger, its strangeness, and its absurdity - as well as the outrageous genius and folly of its artists and players. It's a portrait of a place whose hilarity and importance go hand in hand. Whether you are a Burning Man veteran or couldn't imagine coping with the festival's often brutal desert setting and mad behavior, this book is an invitation to explore the radical creativity and exhilaration of being a Black Rock citizen. Welcome to the incendiary vision that is Burning Man. Welcome home.

Contents:

Part 1 Ignition

1 "A Spontaneous Act of Radical Self-Expression" 19

2 "You May Already Be a Member!" 32

3 "It Felt Like Glory" 50

Part 2 Radical Self-Reliance

4 "It Ain't Ever Happening Again" 83

5 The Fall of the Temple of the Three Guys 109

6 "Of Course It's All Right to Shoot Papa Satan!" 131

Part 3 No Spectators

7 The World's Most Dangerous Drink Blender 153

8 "The Ass Has Spoken!" 176

9 "This Isn't What the Real World Is Like" 198

Part 4 Anarchy and Community

10 "You Can Burn Your Own Car" 223

11 Leave No Trace 245

12 "Beyond the Valley of the Groovy" 261

Epilogue: We All Did the Right Thing 277.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

0316711543

OCLC:

54529888