Max von Mueller meets Lilly Nguyen
a review of Robert Stark's "Vaporfornia"
Who are the tough guys of the post alt-right?
"Post alt-right?" That's kind of cringe. How many actually read about "right" philosophy of the french and declare themselves as one in 2022?
Perhaps we should say this is the "anti-liberal" scene of tough guys.
Is it Jim Goad? No, he's just an American skinhead. Sure he might of banged Margaret Cho, that's kind of cool. But he just writes for a white nationalist blog for the shits and giggles now.
Ask, who is in his shadow?
Is it Sam Hyde? No, Hyde is falling out. He's just a hipster-republican in denial. But I see him more as an ugly nerd who has a grip on the anti-liberal consciousness.
What about Frank Hassle? He is funny, but ultimately self-destructive.
And Smooth Sanchez? He's in jail.
We can go on about Carl iii, Catboy Kami, Andy Milonakis, and that funny NYC scene of anti-liberal "N bomb" collective stuff. But can any these tough guys recall the original "incel" and "school shooter" intellectual extraordinaire? (and when I mean incel and school shooter, I mean it as a joke).
That man, is Robert Stark.
After his lengthy podcast career of over 600 podcast shows in a decade, Stark has written two books.
Journey To Vapor Island, which I helped write, and his new book, Vaporfornia.
Vaporfornia is Stark's most exciting book. I did not contribute anything to the text, and for the first time, Stark has produced a refined and clean original text that is exclusively Stark, in-name-only. In fact, I would even argue and declare that Vaporfornia is his real first book.
Stark is planning on writing a trilogy, and Vapornia is the second in this dystopia, avant-garde transgressive story, which is an accumulation of everything Stark has learned and experienced through his podcast program.
I loved Journey To Vapor Island. It was a collaborative effort between Robert Stark, Francis Nally (me), Ashley Messinger, Alex Von Goldstein, and Brandon Adamson. We all wrote Journey together. It was a collaborative piece that makes How to Bomb the Us Gov look like child's play. But with Vaporfornia, Stark created more wit and chaotic energy than ever before. While Journey was an experimental and comical Samuel Beckett-esque wordplay, Vaporfornia is a refine, surreal comedy movie that could star Brendan Fraser and Alicia Silverstone, with direction by Henry Selick and Harmony Korine.
It features a lovely comic cover by “white nationalist racist” Mark Velard, that echos the work of Joe Matt, Jim Woodring, and Daniel Clowes. If there was a comic version of Vaporfornia, it would read like That Poor Bastard.
In all the cliche reviews of Vaporfornia, I was hoping for some Camille Paglia-esque, James J O Meara-style of postmodern journalism, with tons of Chicago footnotes wrapped up in punk zine agitation.
Well, I'm not going to do that.
That style is wack. It reads exactly like Timothy Morton writing about "hyperobjects." We had enough of Mark Fisher in 2022. Instead, let me get straight to the point.
Robert Stark is a queer. And when I say "queer" I mean he's an eccentric outsider. He's like Wesley Willis or John Waters. He started off as an edgy libertarian, right-wing radio host, and slowly devolved into the entertaining cultural anthropologist he is now.
Now, what is more queer and eccentric than that?
That answer is white nationalism.
The so-called "white nationalist" scene has impacted Stark to such a degree that it can't be taken seriously anymore. What does it mean to be "white" and what does it mean to be a "nationalist"? Perhaps both these things are hated by neoliberal capitalism, which is all good and anti-liberal, but what if that the actual "white nationalists" are no different than the black trans elite that they claim to be against? And Stark has experienced his fair share of bizarre weirdos in both the early and post far-right scene, that made him investigate what it means to be an outsider. And importantly, what it means to question the established ideas of subculture.
The Stark Truth is a transformation process, of those ideas that lead into "queer culture." This has nothing to do with wearing a suit and tie, voting Trump, or dressing up like skinheads and being nostalgic about Hitler. This has to do with queer culture, and queer culture is ultimately anti-liberal.
Of course, the liberal classes love celebrating queer culture to their own ends, but cannot fathom that queerness may outlast their own insecurities. In other words, Robert Stark has outlasted both the liberal status quo and the lower pretentious wignat subcultures of Erik Striker looneys within Vaporfornia.
Vaporfornia stars Max von Mueller, who slowly discovers his potential by reading the works of a certain somebody that ultimately makes him uniquely anti-liberal.
It also features a bunch of inside jokes that only Robert Stark and close associates will understand. A few words like,
"True Colors."
"Let's go Cathy Dennis!"
"Mogged."
“SeaMaxxing.”
Most of this incel lingo is found in the text, along with a subtle transgressive hatred against the system and normies. The eternal enemy is “Chad” and “Stacy.”
Believe or not, Robert Stark is a very open-minded person. He is not racist at all. In fact, Robert is ok with accelerating the cause that white men should marry Jewish women to bring about "Israeli Aryanism," and peace between many multicultural mixed races of the future. For example, a working title for one of Stark’s future races was "The Chus," or, The Chinese and Jews mixing together.
Stark believes that “raceplay” and self-deprecating humor will help cure racism. Often, sex will be a universal remedy, and as well a self-discovery to one's own biases and hatred of the other. It’s all true. Black women will always act black, all while they secretly hunt down nerdy white men to marry, so they can humiliate them with “big booty hood” sex. And all Asian women are smart and artsy, all while denying they want a future Eurasian society. Max von Mueller meets Lilly Nguyen, a Vietnamese American who denies her love for bad white boys. All these small hypocrisy go against the neoliberal state. They all relate to the real realities of living in a dysfunctional multicultural society.
..And all homosexuals all of a sudden want to become white nationalists, and chase after the good white men who are racists, thus creating “homonationalism.”
I don't want to spoil the book, but in reality, it themes around Stark's interest in California politics, his hopeless interest in beautiful women, and the urge to get revenge on the popular kids.
I love this quote here:
The song “Heavenly Action” by Erasure starts playing as Lilly leaves. My favorite band of all time. This would have been the best song to dance with Lilly to. Transcending to a euphoric state of pure ecstatic love with my “Angel made in Heaven.” A moment I would have cherished for the rest of my life. I have to find her and make things right.
A real commitment to the anti-liberal, interracial cause!
Vaporfornia is a fine edition to the legacy of "Starkian" aesthetics, of “Beatnik Fascism,” to "Fast Food Fascism," or "Unpop art" transgression, all stemming from one source.
The man, the legend, Robert Stark.
You can buy the book here.
-pe
3-20-2022