The new clues that suggest missing Richey staged his own dissapearance

[Bonesy]

Book writing style

"Richey spent 1993 trying to find some serenity. We asked Richey's old friend from school what he thought serenity was"

"Serenity is a cat named serenity"

Rachel wrote to tell me that serenity was actually a dog who once bit James Dean Bradfield.

"That dog was a good dog" says Rachel.

Dogs have been used in Wales since the early 19th century to bite evil, talentless, moobed people.

One of Richey's old friends from 1985 had 14 dogs. If you multiple 1985x14 you get the lyrics to Enola/Alone in binary.

Originally Posted by Bryter Layter

True, but Aunt Mimi raised him so other than a brief period of living with his mum, he grew up in a lower middle class home. Nothing wrong with either men portraying themselves as growing up working class, I just think it’s interesting.

Why do you say you’re taking the relationships with a grain of salt? Do you think they’re stretching the truth a bit?



Can you do that with e-books?



Exactly!

“The Streisand Effect”? Lol! That was always going to happen.



Haha! Right? It’s getting really weird now.

[sofarsideways]

Originally Posted by Bryter Layter

Can you do that with e-books?

“The Streisand Effect”? Lol! That was always going to happen. .

Mhm! If you got it on Amazon at least. Go to ‘my contents and devices’ IF YOU WANTED TO FOR WHATEVER REASON AND BOOK

Innit. Manics fans discuss/investigate everything, and thank God we did this time.

I’m so glad people are wtfing. I could not find a way to adequately describe how bad the writing was, as much as anything else. I feel your pain intently, Bonesy.

Also that 5* Amazon review is making me EXCESSIVELY TWITCHY

[sim]

Originally Posted by Bonesy

Book writing style

"Richey spent 1993 trying to find some serenity. We asked Richey's old friend from school what he thought serenity was"

"Serenity is a cat named serenity"

Rachel wrote to tell me that serenity was actually a dog who once bit James Dean Bradfield.

"That dog was a good dog" says Rachel.

Dogs have been used in Wales since the early 19th century to bite evil, talentless, moobed people.

One of Richey's old friends from 1985 had 14 dogs. If you multiple 1985x14 you get the lyrics to Enola/Alone in binary.

As funny as this is, it's actually very accurate. It's just one leap after another in order to write about something that is completely unrelated.

[River Boy]

For those interested in weird phenomenon, there is a history of black ghost dog sightings in the British Isles, but in Wales especially.

A friend of mine actually saw one when on holiday in Wales. She didn't know anything about the phenomenon so it was particularly interesting when she claimed to have seen a ghost dog.

Who'd have thought the Richey Edwards mystery would lead us closer to unravelling the Black Dog mysteries also? Perhaps 'Black Dog on My Shoulder' should be reconsidered.

The book sounds brilliant.

[Bonesy]

It reads like it was written on the cocktail of drugs Richey was on in the NHS Hospital.

Bizarre train of thought mind on rollerskates style shit. For every interesting paragraph there's another 10 about Richey's ancestors in Mesopotamia and how the Pyramids in Giza served as a warning of Richey's imminent disappearance.

It honestly reads like a cry for help.

Originally Posted by River Boy

For those interested in weird phenomenon, there is a history of black ghost dog sightings in the British Isles, but in Wales especially.

A friend of mine actually saw one when on holiday in Wales. She didn't know anything about the phenomenon so it was particularly interesting when she claimed to have seen a ghost dog.

Who'd have thought the Richey Edwards mystery would lead us closer to unravelling the Black Dog mysteries also? Perhaps 'Black Dog on My Shoulder' should be reconsidered.

The book sounds brilliant.

[Bryter Layter]

Originally Posted by sofarsideways

Mhm! If you got it on Amazon at least. Go to ‘my contents and devices’ IF YOU WANTED TO FOR WHATEVER REASON AND BOOK

Nah, I buy e-books through Apple. Apple's not as lenient about returns as Amazon is. Thanks for the info though!

Originally Posted by sofarsideways

Also that 5* Amazon review is making me EXCESSIVELY TWITCHY

How many people have given it 5 stars? It's definitely NOT a 5 star book and the more I read of it, the more disjointed it becomes. I enjoyed the first few chapters and was actually pleasantly surprised by some of the research, but by the time the band starts rolling, it takes a nosedive. They speed through the Heavenly and GT era because it's pretty obvious their level of research didn't extend to the band years likely due to the fact that no one who matters in the Manic's circle would speak to them on or off the record (Caffy St Luce is quoted, but I'm not sure if she contributed or if they sourced it from somewhere else). It's just all over the place especially the constant references to conspiracy theories and making ludicrous comparisons. The parts that really pissed me off though and literally made me gasp when I read the passages, is the gross invasion of his privacy relating to his treatment and what caused him to seek treatment in the first place. He never spoke about that publicly even when asked and he maintained, to the press at least, that it wasn't a suicide attempt so I'm struggling to understand how they could violate his privacy like that even if they believe him to be dead. I really think they crossed all kinds of lines by sharing information about his treatment.

Originally Posted by Bonesy

Bizarre train of thought mind on rollerskates style shit. For every interesting paragraph there's another 10 about Richey's ancestors in Mesopotamia and how the Pyramids in Giza served as a warning of Richey's imminent disappearance.

Lol! That's a pretty accurate description of this book! The thing is though, people are saying it's so great, etc. They must be reacting to the subject matter (it is kind of sad reading about his disintegration) because overall, this book is a mess!

[Bonesy]

It's a tangent within a tangent with Aunt fucking Bessie always in the middle.

Originally Posted by Bryter Layter

Nah, I buy e-books through Apple. Apple's not as lenient about returns as Amazon is. Thanks for the info though!



How many people have given it 5 stars? It's definitely NOT a 5 star book and the more I read of it, the more disjointed it becomes. I enjoyed the first few chapters and was actually pleasantly surprised by some of the research, but by the time the band starts rolling, it takes a nosedive. They speed through the Heavenly and GT era because it's pretty obvious their level of research didn't extend to the band years likely due to the fact that no one who matters in the Manic's circle would speak to them on or off the record (Caffy St Luce is quoted, but I'm not sure if she contributed or if they sourced it from somewhere else). It's just all over the place especially the constant references to conspiracy theories and making ludicrous comparisons. The parts that really pissed me off though and literally made me gasp when I read the passages, is the gross invasion of his privacy relating to his treatment and what caused him to seek treatment in the first place. He never spoke about that publicly even when asked and he maintained, to the press at least, that it wasn't a suicide attempt so I'm struggling to understand how they could violate his privacy like that even if they believe him to be dead. I really think they crossed all kinds of lines by sharing information about his treatment.



Lol! That's a pretty accurate description of this book! The thing is though, people are saying it's so great, etc. They must be reacting to the subject matter (it is kind of sad reading about his disintegration) because overall, this book is a mess!

[Bonesy]

so Richey relapsed before he disappeared? I did not know this. Surely that's a really stark and indicative sign of what happened next?

[hummingbird]

That review looks like its been put there to encourage people to buy the book. It's £9.99 on the kindle. Cheaper than a print copy but still too expensive for what will end up a shit read. I didn't know you could return Kindle books other than as a bought by mistake thing straight after you paid.

[Bryter Layter]

Originally Posted by Bonesy

It's a tangent within a tangent with Aunt fucking Bessie always in the middle.

Ok, this book definitely has some questionable content concerning Jews, but stops just short of blatant antisemitism. She's giving her analysis of the Intense Humming Of Evil and she's colouring it with what reads like statements, but statements I don't remember him ever making in relation to the song or in general. It's not clear if she's referencing his notes or if they're just her interpretations. When did Richey ever argue "against the injustice of certain atrocities being conveniently ignored while other acts of genocide can be referenced when it suits an agenda"? When he and Nicky were being interviewed by Kaitlin Moran in '94, he said the Holocaust was THE most horrific event in world history (I agree and disagree with him on this, but that's beside the point). Those are not the words of someone who believes a certain group (she obviously means Jews) uses their own genocide as a political pawn. It's like this conspiracy theory nutjob has taken lyrics implicitly condemning one of the worst atrocities in history and manipulated their meaning so she can make a statement about the integrity of Jews. She even makes a comparison between Richey's statement about 'Schindler's List' being a dangerous film because it lionizes a war profiteer who exploited Jews, and the completely baseless theory that rich Jews profited from the war while poor Jews went to the gas chambers. This chick is nuts!

[beautifuldistortion]

This whole ridiculous situation is about SHR having a platform to push her agendas.
Nobody would take her seriously if she attempted a political book, so she's latched onto Rachel and using her very scary and childlike infatuation with Richey to write this tripe and try to connect her pathetic beliefs to his views to try to give them weight.
It's a mess. A disgusting mess.

[Bonesy]

as it goes on it becomes more savage and unreasonable.

reading it makes me think that richey was pretty toxic

Originally Posted by beautifuldistortion

This whole ridiculous situation is about SHR having a platform to push her agendas.
Nobody would take her seriously if she attempted a political book, so she's latched onto Rachel and using her very scary and childlike infatuation with Richey to write this tripe and try to connect her pathetic beliefs to his views to try to give them weight.
It's a mess. A disgusting mess.

[Velocitygirl]

I'm surprised to hear that Richey comes off as toxic in the book. I was under the impression the authors, not to mention Rachel, were trying to lionize the man.

[Bonesy]

it's more their attempts to lionize him and disparage the band at the same that makes him seem toxic, at least to me anyway.

Originally Posted by Velocitygirl

I'm surprised to hear that Richey comes off as toxic in the book. I was under the impression the authors, not to mention Rachel, were trying to lionize the man.

[Glass Angel]

To be honest, I have always felt Richey would not have been the healthiest person to be around. Reading interviews reminds me of an ex-boyfriend, who was both emotionally abusive and mentally unwell. Alcoholism and self harm are hard to deal with from the outside as well as the inside, and shitty behaviour is shitty behaviour, regardless of the underlying reason. Excusing it as ‘genius’ or ‘a tortured soul’ is to dismiss both the person’s struggles and those affected by them.

I’m not going to trawl back through all the comments, but whoever said you dehumanise a person by deamonising or canonising them was spot on.