I came back yesterday from a
family party and found The Book of Bill (by Alex Hirsch, Hyperion Books)
waiting in our mailbox. It had only come out in July of this year; at first I
wasn’t aware of it, and then I waited awhile before ordering, which saved me a
good chunk of change because the copy was sold as Used Very Good. Still, I
might not have bought it even yet, if I had not believed I needed it for Free
Delivery (read those details carefully, kids!). Still, I don’t regret having
it.
The book is another volume
connected to the popular and amazing Gravity Falls series, purported to
be written by the series’ main villain, Bill Cipher, a bow-tied, top-hat
wearing triangle with one eye, an interdimensional dream-demon with designs on
our world.
Hoped to be dead, but long
rumored to still be alive, “The demon that terrorized Gravity
Falls is back from the great beyond to finally tell his side of the
story in The Book of Bill, written by none other than Bill Cipher
himself.
Inside, Bill sheds light on his bizarre origins, his sinister effects on human
history, the Pines family’s most embarrassing secrets, and the key to
overthrowing the world (laid out in a handy step-by-step guide). This chaotic
and beautifully illustrated tome contains baffling riddles, uncrackable
ciphers, lost Journal 3 pages, ways to cheat death, the
meaning of life, and a whole chapter on Silly Straws. But most
importantly, The Book of Bill is deeply, deeply cursed.
Alex Hirsch, #1 New York Times bestselling author,
resuscitates this infamous villain and invites fans to a Bill’s eye view of
the Gravity Falls universe. There are many who believe this
book is too dangerous for human hands. But if you can’t resist, just know this:
Once you make a deal with Bill, it’s not so easily undone . . .” – Amazon.
From what I’ve read so far,
the added caution “Beware: This book travels to dimensions meant for older
readers,” might not be so frivolous as it seems. Though warned at the
beginning that Bill is a lying liar, he espouses opinions that just might appeal
to the cynical and rebellious, opinions seriously held by many today. “A human
is an organic machine made out of blood and anxiety, designed to deliver a
random bundle of genetic material into the future and then turn to dust … it
was designed by random mutation…” is professed to be believed by many today,
though few strictly live their lives by it (usually only when they don’t want to
do something that is contra-indicated socially or morally).
What The Book of Bill
reminds me of is The Book of the Subgenious, hilarious and amusing in
the fact that it often says the quiet part out loud, the feared opinions and
conclusions of the hopeless and isolated. These might sound quite reasonable to
the despairing, with the promise that if you abandon normal beliefs and accept
that reality is an illusion and love is a trick, you will lose anxiety, ‘go
with the flow’ of Chaos, and quit struggling.
Quite a dark philosophy to
be presented to a so-called tween audience, if you remember the grasping and
flailing emotions of that stage in life. Although Bill is portrayed as a liar
and an ultimate loser in the end, only seeking a way to return to power, I
wonder if his philosophy is quite the thing to dangle in front of the
impressionable, or if they are guaranteed to take away the right message from
what is, after all, a tie-in to a Disney show. What with figures like
Maleficent and Cruella DeVille being re-invented as understandable heroes of
their own tales, is it impossible that some kids might embrace Bill as their
own?
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