Lost At Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries by Jon Ronson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a great, entertaining and amazing collection of Ronson explorations into fringe groups. Apparently, this is largely collectied from published articles. I recall only reading one before: the fascinating look into the flotsam of Kubrick's obsessive reclusion.
Jon Ronson writes about the obsessive, extreme and hard to understand sides of humanity with clarity, understanding, and humor. Like unblinking Error Morris documentaries this audiobook, ably read by Ronson himself, covers a Pygmalion-like dreamer makerof from lifelike robots programmed for loving personalities to "Indigo children" (New Age children who are believed to possess special, unusual and sometimes supernatural traits or abilities), Insane Clown Posse’s juggalo fans confused by ICP's supposed hyper-Christianity. This work includes pop singer Robbie Williamson’s greatest passion (aliens), and the SETI scientist planning how to greet those aliens when they arrive. Ronson throws himself gonzo-style into the stories such as faking multiple Ronsons (Happy, Paul, and Titch, among others) to get to the bottom of credit card companies’ predatory tactics. Frustrated, amateur nuclear physicists, creepy possibly homicidal assisted-suicide practitioners, the town of North Pole, Alaska’s Christmas-induced high school mass-murder plot, and patrols with RLHS (Real Life Super Heroes) are here.
The title refers to his investigation of the apparent epidemic of people falling off cruise ships and one of the most unique pieces, Ronson interviews representative samples of economic strate from the poor to the mega-rich. Possibly the most repulsive is the "Jesus Christians" who enter organ donation like juggernauts and and make sick farce out of Christian charity.
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