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Title: Boomeritis : A Novel That Will Set You Free by Ken Wilber ISBN: 1570628017 Publisher: Shambhala Publications Pub. Date: 11 June, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.72
Rating: 5
Summary: Who Will Really "Get It" ? Many, hopefully.
Comment: At least thirty percent of the population will probably not like this book, yet it may turn out to be a great example of the Perfect Postmodern Novel. If the three editorial reviews of "Boomeritis" I've seen are any indication, many readers will not understand Wilber's intent in writing this book. It's so sad when you see people get whacked between the eyes with a Stick Of Compassion and yet they don't even know they've been whacked.
You'll soon see why I give this book 5 stars, but this is what you can expect to find in Boomeritis (as I shamelessly rip concepts and phrases from the book - I doubt Ken would mind. He might even find it humorous):
1) This book is sharply critical of many of society's closely held ideals and ideas, and many sacred cows are viciously gored. Too, it isn't soothing that the author comes across as polemical and pathetically narcissistic.
2) As written, there seems to be no difference between fact and fiction. Did this really happen? Does this character really exist, or not? At least one character, in fact, has a real-life counterpart of the same name and job description, but others seem to be an amalgam of various personalities both real and fictional. And many so-called facts are truly questionable.
3) Some of the main characters have been portrayed with shady, shallow, and reprehensible backgrounds. A certain segment of the readership will probably find the demographic distribution of these characters to be expected and fitting, others will find it curiously unnerving.
4) It's boring! The writing is incredibly flat. It often seems to be all Theory, a stream of verbal vomit, with no flowing prose or colorful descriptions of surroundings, people, or places. If it weren't for the X-rated fantasy scenes interjected every ten minutes, would the book even hold our interest?
5) There seems to be no great, highbrow writing here, as we're accustomed to seeing from 'old' Ken Wilber. The text is simply an ad hoc mixture of fleeting images and scenes, largely drawing on elements of pop culture and the quintessential hooks of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll.
6) The characters are flat and two-dimensional. No depth, only surfaces. 'Character development' would be an oxymoron in "Boomeritis."
7) The book is written with an attitude of cranky criticism. What is positive in the book has been ripped off from other people, including Wilber's own past work.
And all of that, Dear Souls, is exactly why this book is so darned wonderful!
Readers who are not at all aware of Wilber's intent will find the book to be most objectionable. (Let's hope!) Some readers might consider it to be nothing more than convoluted spew. (Well, yes, it is.) Others who are more familiar with Wilber's previous works will consider this to be a further reduction by a pandit who claims to shun reductionism, a lame attempt to boil his message down into a form suitable for mass marketing, a sell-out, nothing more than a continuation of the thinning down that was last seen in steps from "Sex, Ecology, Spirituality" to "A Brief History of Everything" to "A Theory Of Everything." (Okay, that's true, of course.)
If or when you feel this way, open your copy to page 324. Read the next few pages very carefully. Now, stop and realize: The book is INTENDED to be all of this and more!! (Or shall I say "less"?) This book is a deliberate poke in the ribs with a sharp stick. He even TELLS you this right in the text. Why does this escape some people? Gosh, it's about as subtle as, well, a sharp stick in the ribs.
I fear that many won't see the beauty of "Boomeritis." The cunning humor, irony, layered mind-play, inside jokes, fact, fiction and fantasy that were cleverly crafted into this intentionally vitriolic indictment of our society's greatest problem will go unnoticed as some engage in reflexive, knee-jerk reactions when confronted with their own behavior. Indeed, the more you react to this book in a negative fashion, the more you need to pay attention to exactly what it is that bothers you about it. Only truthful introspection will tell you, then, that Wilber has twanged a nerve for our betterment.
This is not a self-absorbed romp for Wilber; his intention is clear and pointed when you understand what he's doing. Through his latest work, he has attempted to make his message known to more people, primarily those not familiar with his previous work, in terms and language that they might absorb, understand, and integrate into their lives. Sadly, the fact that he's had to resort to this format says a lot more about the audience than it does about the author.
At the very least, Wilber has tried to reformat his message and, Spirit willing, he'll continue to try. If he can help just a fractional percentage of "Boomeritis" readers to move along on their path, then his efforts will not have been in vain. For those who 'get it', this book is a reaffirmation of what we have already experienced in the behaviors we've witnessed, in our own path, and in the unlimited potential of humanity unfettered by self-absorbtion. In the end, the book is every bit as touching and inspirational as we might expect from Ken Wilber, and his message remains the same. Only the format has changed, as he jumps up and down on the wire a bit more vigorously than before.
Rating: 5
Summary: "You've got to try this."
Comment: Boulder philosopher, Ken Wilber, has proven once again that he is the smartest man on the planet. In BOOMERITIS, he reformats the integral theories of A BRIEF HISTORY OF EVERYTHING and A THEORY OF EVERYTHING (two books that summarize much of his work) as fiction. (Readers new to Wilber probably just won't get this novel.) According to Wilber, human consciousness is evolving into three "tiers," with less than 2 percent of the population at second-tier, integral thinking. While the Boomer generation advanced civil rights, ecological concerns, feminism, and multicultural diversity, Wilber observes, the Boomers also suffer from emotional narcissism, or "boomeritis," the final barrier preventing them from leaping from first-tier to second-tier thinking.
However, set in a series of Integral Center seminars, Wilber's thin-on-plot, but deep-in-thought novel offers some "encouraging signs" that "boomeritis is on its way out." As the Boomers enter the second half of life, their "secret weapon" (p. 414), about twenty to twenty-five percent of the American population is poised to "wake up, to really, really wake up" (p. 456) by leaping to the second tier consciousness--about 40 to 50 million Americans, mostly Boomers (pp. 395-6). Wilber's two-dimensional characters ponder the question, can we have a more integral, caring, encompassing world, a world truly at peace? The answer BOOMERITIS offers is yes (p. 38). "Once you get out of flatland," Wilber writes, "the possibilities are endless" (p. 377).
BOOMERITIS is more than just philosophy thinly disguised as fiction. Because the first-person narrator of Wilber's novel is a 20-year-old MIT graduate student "wise beyond this lifetime" (p. 7) (also named "Ken Wilber"), readers will also encounter explicit sexual fantasies about once every ten minutes throughout the 456-page novel.
G. Merritt
Rating: 5
Summary: Transformational Dialogue for Healing the Planet
Comment: "My generation, my dear sweet generation, do you know how much I love them?" By now you know not to really expect a novel in Boomeritis -- the characters are slight but memorable. Expect Wilber's characteristic highly differentiated thinking at its best in a wickedly entertaining, endlessly ironic device to get you interested in the extremely important Spiral Dynamics and the disasters of pluralism, narcissism, deconstruction, the New Age, artificial intelligence, hardwired sexuality, "boomeritis" . . . . apparently a 1,000 page diatribe on "boomeritis" was edited in two weeks into this 456 page "novel." In his fabulous marriage to Spiral Dynamics, Wilber has written his best and most cutting popular descriptions of his Pre-Trans Fallacy, of preconventional/regressive and postconventional/integrated (and narcissistically resolved) values, behavior and "spirituality" to date. If you don't get every last nonstop beyond ironic joke in, about, and on the cover of this book that, despite the bitter irony of the subtitle, really is meant to "set you free" into the "hyperspace of second tier consciousness," it's frickin' time you did -- dude. The ultimate goal of Boomeritis is to get you to study second tier thinking and into an "integral transformative practice" (page 410). Though not without its uncovered flaws, on a scale of five stars Boomeritis is monumentally, gloriously way off the scale.
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Title: Living Enlightenment: A Call for Evolution Beyond Ego by Andrew Cohen, Ken Wilber ISBN: 188392930X Publisher: Moksha Press Pub. Date: April, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title:Speaking of Everything ASIN: B00005UWIL Pub. Date: 15 December, 2001 List Price(USD): $24.95 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $24.95 |
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Title: A Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science and Spirituality by Ken Wilber ISBN: 1570628556 Publisher: Shambhala Publications Pub. Date: 16 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Spiral Dynamics : Mastering Values, Leadership, and Change (Developmental Management) by Don Edward Beck, Christopher C. Cowan ISBN: 1557869405 Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Pub. Date: April, 1996 List Price(USD): $49.95 |
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Title: A Brief History of Everything by Ken Wilber, Tony Schwartz, Dan Spinella ISBN: 1570627401 Publisher: Shambhala Publications Pub. Date: 09 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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