The Boomer Bible is a book written by R. F. Laird. In structure, the book is based on the Christian Bible, but it is neither a simple parody of the Bible, nor is it sacrilegious specifically toward the Bible or Christianity. Laird described the book as expressing the things we really believe rather than the things we say we believe. The Bible (From Greek βιβλια—biblia, meaning books, which in turn is derived from βυβλος—byblos meaning papyrus, from the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos which exported papyrus) is the sacred scripture of Christianity. ...

Structure

The core of the Boomer Bible consists of The Past Testament and The Present Testament, which correspond roughly to the Old and New Testaments.

The Past Testament contains a comprehensive view of science, history, philosophy, morality, and literature as understood by the Baby Boomers from pop culture and an ineffective educational system: A baby boom is defined as a period of increased birth rates relative to surrounding generations. ...

• The Books of Apes (Kinesis, Apes, Names, Gods, and Lies) which describe prehistory.
• The Books of peoples (Gypsies, Mesopotamians, Greeks, Romans, Barbarians, Christians, Bubonites, Giants, Explorers, Spics, Frogs, Brits, Krauts, Yanks, Beaks, Russkies, Chinks, Nips, and Others) which describe the history of various peoples of the Earth.
• The "PS" books (Psongs, Psayings, Psomethings, Pnotes, and Pspeciasties) which contain everything from the prayers of a Gatsby-like character for money, to poorly remembered snippets of literature, to numerology worthy of Nostradamus
• The Books of the VIPs (Adam, Chuck, Carl, Ziggie, Dave, Al, Paul, Frankie & Johnny, Ed, and Jeffrey) which describe various famous pioneers in the Western canon and what became of their efforts.

The Present Testament concerns the life of Harry, a kind of cynical Jesus, with Philadelphia substituting for the Holy Lands: Illustration of the Black Death from the Toggenburg Bible (1411). ... By Region: Italian Renaissance Northern Renaissance *French Renaissance *German Renaissance *English Renaissance The Renaissance was an influential cultural movement which brought about a period of scientific revolution and artistic transformation, at the dawn of modern European history. ... His Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations was one of the earliest attempts to study the historical development of industry and commerce in Europe. ... Charles Darwin in 1854, five years prior to the publication of The Origin of Species Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809–19 April 1882) was a British naturalist who achieved lasting fame as originator of the theory of evolution through natural selection. ... Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 Trier, Germany – March 14, 1883 London, UK) was an influential German philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary organizer of the International Workingmens Association, whose two books in particular, Das Kapital and The Communist Manifesto (the latter with Friedrich Engels), laid the foundations... Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856 - September 23, 1939) was an Austrian psychiatrist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology, a movement that popularized the theory that unconscious motives control much behavior. ... David Lewelyn Wark Griffith (January 22, 1875 - July 23, 1948) was an American film director (commonly known as D. W. Griffith) probably best known for his film The Birth of a Nation. ... Albert Einstein, by Yousuf Karsh Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955) was a German born American theoretical physicist who is widely regarded as the greatest scientist of the 20th century. ... Young Pablo Picasso Pablo Picasso, formally Pablo Ruiz Picasso, (October 25, 1881 – April 8, 1973) was one of the recognized masters of 20th century art. ... Franz Kafka approximately 1917 Franz Kafka (b. ... Jean Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Sartre (June 21, 1905 – April 15, 1980) was a French existentialist philosopher, dramatist, novelist and critic. ... Edgar John Bergen (February 16, 1903 – September 30, 1978) was an American actor and radio performer, best known as a ventriloquist. ... Jeffrey Hunter Jeffrey Hunter (November 25, 1926 - May 27, 1969) was a film and television actor. ...

• Four "gospels," (Willie, Vinnie, Ned, and Ira), the first three synoptic.
• The Book of Exploits, roughly equivalent to Acts
• The Letters to the peoples of Philadelphia (Hillites, Annenburghers, Jeffersonians, Kensingtonians, Swarthmorons, Hallites, Drexelites, Boulevardiers, Pennsylvanians, Forgers, Wharts, Mawrites, Centralians, Mallites, Mainliners, and Broadstreeters)
• The Book of Rationalizations

After this is The Book of Harrier Brayer and The Harrier Hymnal, which correspond roughly to books of common prayer and hymns. Swarthmore College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the United States. ... Bryn Mawr College is a womens liberal-arts college located in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, northwest of Philadelphia. ... The Mall, an out-of-town shopping centre at Patchway, near Bristol, England. ...

These books were ostensibly written by a community of Punk writers in Philadelphia during the 1980s. Surrounding them are A Punk Testament and an Epistle Dedicatory, which describe a history of and the motivation for the writing of the book. Passages in the Testaments are linked via an intercolumn reference (ICR). This may be the most important feature of the book and allows the book to be read as hypertext. There are hidden messages and puzzles in the ICR which serve as enticements to see the book in a different way. In computing, hypertext is a user interface paradigm for displaying documents which, according to an early definition (Nelson 1970), branch or perform on request. ...

Surrounding this are two prefaces. The Second Preface describes the quest of a former writer of UFO books to discover a true manuscript of The Boomer Bible. The First Preface is a rather scathing review of the book.

Surrounding this is the fact of publication itself. The Boomer Bible was published in 1991, by which time the original goals of the Punk movement had all but been forgotten, leaving only a memory of Punk Rock. Punk rock is an anti-establishment music movement beginning around 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified and popularised by The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ...

Bibliographic information

Laird, R. F., 1991, The Boomer Bible, Workman Publishing, 880pp., paperback, ISBN 1563050757

External links

• The official Boomer Bible home page, which includes a forum
• A Testament for our Times: Jack Nichols book review