The Church of the Subgenius, Kenneth Burke & Comic, Symbolic
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Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Scholars Compass Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2014 Rhetorical Ripples: The Church of the SubGenius, Kenneth Burke & Comic, Symbolic Tinkering Lee A. Carleton Virginia Commonwealth University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd Part of the American Popular Culture Commons, Discourse and Text Linguistics Commons, Interdisciplinary Arts and Media Commons, New Religious Movements Commons, and the Rhetoric and Composition Commons © The Author Downloaded from https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/3667 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Rhetorical Ripples: The Church of the SubGenius, Kenneth Burke & Comic, Symbolic Tinkering A Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Media, Art and Text Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University by Lee Allen Carleton B.S. Bible, Lancaster Bible College, 1984 M.A. English Composition, Virginia Commonwealth University, 1996 Director: Dr. Nicholas Sharp Assistant Professor English Department Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond, Virginia November 2014 Dedication This work is dedicated to my wife Clary, my son Holden (6) and my daughter Huxley (3) who have inspired my ongoing efforts and whose natural joy, good humor and insight lit my wandering path. On the eve of my 53rd birthday, I can honestly say that I am a very fortunate and happy man. Acknowledgements Without a doubt, these few words can hardly express the gratitude I feel for my committee and their longsuffering patience with me as I finally found my focus. Though we consulted rarely, when we did it was always fruitful. I sent occasional audio updates that I hope you found engaging and informative. A special thanks goes out to Dr. Sharp whose guidance, encouragement and insight kept me going when it got deep. And finally, to my mentor and friend Walter Coppedge, I offer particular gratitude as one of many students whose creative intellect he has inspired with his hospitable teaching. ii Table of Contents Abstract - iv 1. Definition, Origins & Selected History of the CoSG - 1 2. Academic Responses - 16 3. Kenneth Burke: Ranging Rhetorician and Social Critic - 32 4. Methods: categorized discourse, rhetorical analysis & survey - 68 5. Estimating the “congregation” via survey and other measures – 78 6. Burke’s Rhetoric Applied: Hour of Slack and Revelation X - 114 7. Practical Contributions of the Comic Frame & Critic - 171 8. Play & Protest: SubGenius Rhetorical Ripples of Resistance - 181 9. APPENDIX A: Glossary of Common SubGenius Terms - 194 10. APPENDIX B: Hour of Slack Listener survey & results - 195 11. APPENDIX C: List of radio stations that play Hour of Slack - 197 12. APPENDIX D: SubGenius Neologisms & Key Slogans - 200 13. APPENDIX E: Transcript of personal Interview with Rev. Stang - 202 14. APPENDIX F: Transcripts of emails exchanged with Rev. Stang – 211 15. Permissions – 226 16. Works Cited and Consulted - 228 iii “Abstract” RHETORICAL RIPPLES: THE CHURCH OF THE SUBGENIUS, KENNETH BURKE & COMIC, SYMBOLIC TINKERING Lee Allen Carleton, Ph.D. In partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Ph.D. in Media, Art and Text Virginia Commonwealth University 2014 Dr. Nicholas Sharp, English Humor has long been an effective way to engage difficult sociopolitical topics in a way that avoids polemical confrontation and provides opportunity for pleasure, catharsis and self-knowledge. In the context of today’s polarized politics and protest, creative satirical performance that deploys “symbolic tinkering” can provide a “comic frame of reference” that, according to Kenneth Burke, more effectively conveys its message while providing reflexive insight. The satirical Church of the SubGenius naturally practices this rhetorical frame in their multimedia creations. Using the lens of Burke’s Attitudes Toward History, this essay is an analysis of SubGenius rhetoric with a focus on their Hour of Slack live radio program and the book Revelation X to provide an informative example of Burke’s comic frame applied, and clarify the nature of its utility by exploring the rhetorical impact of the Church of the SubGenius and the relevance of its “comic corrective.” Politically cynical, SubGenii are nevertheless keen cultural critics whose sophisticated use of a complex comic rhetoric warrants more serious attention. iv “You’ll Pay to Know What You Really Think!” J.R. “Bob” Dobbs, The Book of the SubGenius “OUR CREED: ‘Orthodoxy Is The Only Heresy’” SubGenius Pamphlet #1 “The comic frame should enable people to be observers of themselves while acting. It’s ultimate would not be passiveness, but maximum consciousness.” Kenneth Burke, Attitudes Toward History Chapter 1 Definition, Origins & Selected History of the Church of the SubGenius Burke’s Initial Connection Written in 1937, Kenneth Burke’s observation above about the utility of the comic frame to promote "maximum conscousness“ is even more relevant and necessary in 2014 as our world is rapidly connecting and transforming via new protean communication technologies, most notably the Web, Smartphones and Social Media. While these astonishing new tools have 1 sparked revolutions and helped to hold power accountable, we have yet to transcend our foibles: the world remains at the mercy of unaccountable power, deadly conflict, environmental degradation and increasing socioeconomic disparity. In contrast to invisible academic dogma of clinical disengagement, Burke addresses these issues directly in his writing and they are also central targets of SubGenius satire which, in spite of its non-activist nature has nevertheless had a subtle but surprising impact on popular culture and civic discourse. “Philo Drummond” as Overman and Doug Smith before “Ivan Stang” The Church of the SubGenius (CoSG) is worth our attention for its evolving protean narrative, its unschooled use of Burke’s sophisticated rhetoric, its keenly targeted cultural critiques, and perhaps most importantly for its insistent valorization of sufficient leisure for “unproductive,” unfettered creative play, and its modeling of creative improvisation that is motivated more by pleasure than profit or politics. I hope the powerful utility of the comic frame and the crucial necessity of free creative exercise will become clear in the following pages. Wrestling power to account with humor, and personal development of strong creative skills may be two of the most valuable and hopeful survival tools we can deploy in our rapidly changing 21st Century. 2 Definition The short “definition” of the Church of the SubGenius is: it is an artistic satire group started in Dallas, Texas in 1978 by Douglass St. Clair Smith III, a.k.a. the “Rev. Ivan Stang” and his friend Steve Wilcox a.k.a. “Philo Drummond” whom Stang credits with the original idea. I use quotes around the word “definition” to note that a) I claim no authority to comprehensively and finally define the Church of the SubGenius and b) constant change, mutation and the deliberate pursuit of heresy are part of the Church’s DNA and thus the Church of the SubGenius cannot ever be completely defined. Even so, for the purposes of my discussion I offer my own brief understanding. After conceiving the Church with Rev. Stang, Drummond The Overman has continued to be a key yet shadowy figure in its evolution while Stang has been the more public face for “Bob.” It can be challenging to define or explain precisely what the CoSG is, since the trickster spirit is central to their practice so that their “theology” and definitions are always changing, always open to revision. However we can begin with The Book of the SubGenius that gives us its “official” definition in an excellent example of their neologistic logorrhea: The Church of the SubGenius is an order of Scoffers and Blasphemers, dedicated to Total Slack, delving into Mockery Science, Sadofuturistics, Megaphysics, Scatalography, Schizophrenia-trics, Morealism, Sarcastrophy, Cynisacreligion, Apocolyption-omy, ESPectorationalism, HypnoPediatrics, Subliminalism, Satyriology, DistoUtopianity, Sardonicology, Fasciestiouism, Ridiculophagy, and Miscellastheistic Theology. 3 When asked to define the CoSG during an email interview suggesting words like “multimedia event”, “happening” or “performance” Rev. Stang replies: All those things plus a take-off, a satire, a social club, a real cult, a rip-off, the one true religion etc. etc. -- why not all those things? We don't seem to be ABLE to limit it to a category, which may be one reason it remains fairly obscure...it's also a burlesque show, an underground comic book, and a keg party. (Stang email) Though Stang and other churchmembers make elaborate gestures of pretense as part of their practice of mocking pretention, there is little actual pretense in Rev. Stang and the Church of the SubGenius. A working definition of the Church of the SubGenius for our purposes is that it is a deliberately mutating, subtly viral, loosely coordinated, participatory multimedia performance satire of human hubris, hierarchy, titles, consumerism, credulity, cults and cultural homogenization. During its 30-year history the Church of the SubGenius has expressed itself in nearly every medium imaginable, beginning with claymation animation and hand-spliced movies and audio