Saturday night marked the third instance of my book, "Black Rock", being burned. The first was the first draft of the manuscript, which I burned myself (and filmed) in San Francisco in January. The second was at Burning Man this year: I placed a copy of "Black Rock" in the Temple of Transition, which was destroyed with the book (and numerous other artifacts contributed by thousands of people) inside, on the final night of the festival. The third copy was burned by a friend of mine last night at Golden Gardens beach park in Seattle. So three copies of "Black Rock" have been destroyed now, in three different states (California, Nevada, and Washington). The fact that this ritual has been performed in such disparate locations is fascinating to me, and I intend to do what I can to spread the destruction further.
What would it take to get copies of my book burned in all 50 states? I'm considering reaching out to my friends, the burner community, and other interested parties to make this happen. It seems to me that each time "Black Rock" is destroyed, it gains a little more momentum in the world. If I were able to keep track of when and where each copy was destroyed, I could generate interest in the campaign, and the book itself. Some states would be easier than others to cover: I'm pretty sure I could find friends to burn copies in Colorado, New Mexico, Hawaii, and probably New York and Maine, without too much trouble. The rest may be more challenging. But it feels like a rewarding project, and, in the end: why not?
The largest question here would be how to get copies of the book into the hands of people who want to help in the project. Since the book isn't yet published, they can't buy/order it themselves. I've considered using print-on-demand publishing or some such thing, but I don't know much about how that works and have some research to do on that before I can judge whether it'd be a good idea or not. I could just print copies on my home printer and mail it to people, but that would become expensive very quickly. I could send them the file and let them print it themselves, but I'm not completely comfortable with that (for a variety of reasons). So this is a logistical hurdle I'll have to get past, but I think the answer will become clear in time.
The thought is percolating. We'll see what comes of it. Maybe nothing. Much more than that, more likely.
