Mister B. Gone

One wonders after having read Clive Barker's latest and delightful return to his "bread and butter" horror genre, is this author a student of media prophet Marshall McLuhan's as well? It sure seems so. Without giving very much away, the crux of "Mr. B. Gone" has to do with Professor Herbert Marshall McLuhan of Toronto University's "second great technological tsunami" in the history of human kind. The first environmental "catastrophe" in technological terms for human beings, according to McLuhan, was the phonetic alphabet. Because it gave humans "an eye for an ear" and offset the balance of the five senses, making the all-detached eye sovereign, and launching all kinds of madness thereupon - destroying the tribal nature of human life, which by the time of the Renaissance, the SECOND cataclysmic invention EXTENDED, ushering in nationalism, the city state, schizophrenia, and ultimately world war. And what was this SECOND technological "scourge?" Well: This second technological "breakthrough," shall we call it ... if you don't already know, you will after having read Barker's inventive tale of demons versus angels, gore and grue, hellspawn and heaven's heathens. Barker takes McLuhan's thesis and paints it awful and hideous, where God plays dice and the Pope is DEFINITELY not what he seems. The implications and ramifications of Barker's allegory play out nothing short of dire and apocalyptic, wrapped in a surface tale of, literally, a very, VERY "minor demon," about whom one…

Book was better than described. And the first edition also. Unexpected pleasure. Great seller. I would definitely buy from them again. Thanks!