The Immortal Class: Bike Messengers and the Cult of Human Power by Travis Culley Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Immortal Class: Bike Messengers and the Cult of Human Power
Book Review: Rookie Romanticism
Summary: 4 Stars
This book exhudes rookiness from every page. Culley seems to be the typical newbie messenger, overly impressed with himself and hyper-romanticizing the profession.Still the book is pretty good. His view of cities and history is realistic, and the description of the courier offices and the seemy side of the business is spot on.
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Book Review: Skip this book
Summary: 1 Stars
The Immortal Class is a book with endless potential, but Culley let's his bloated ego and misinformed angst get in the way. Culley's book is about his brief stint as a bike messenger in downtown Chicago and his rage against car-crazed America. During the course of the book, Culley tries to preach to choir about a back to basics approach to modern living. And while that sounds like a humble and inoffensive premise for a memoir, Culley gets it all wrong by blaming everyone but himself, for the way things are today. He has endless rants about the evils of money, how corporations are inherently evil, how the city is too loud and has too many buildings. One thing he convinently leaves out is that the bike messenger industry is fueled by, in large part, corporations.
I really wanted to like this book, but it's terribly written, incredibly insipid, and unintelligent.
Book Review: The accolades are not deserved
Summary: 1 Stars
Culley's topic and his passion for it appeal to those who resist the road dominance of the infernal combustion engine, but I cannot recommend his book. The writing, and the thinking behind the writing, are sloppy and adolescent. Melodrama andself-aggrandizement abound. You suspect this from the start, with a glance at the title ("immortal" class?) and at the smarmy photos of the author on the jacket. After a few pages your suspicions are confirmed. Consider these examples:
1. "[The bicycle] is a philosophy, a way of life, and I am using it like a hammer to change the world and to redeem our war-torn cities."
2. "Cadence for cash and Money for miles -- these are the mantras of many a struggling genius."
3. "I began to feel that I was floating, softly looking down upon the city ... from this godlike view, all of my motion seemed effortless ... By the time I could envision a destination I would arrive there as if by magic. I would appear rested, and yet behind me would be the distant reflection of what I had just encountered and just overcome."
4. "Then unexpectedly, like a possessed man, channeling from the world of the dead, I spoke: 'Life sucks, but work is really cool.' ... I woke the next morning to don the armor again."
5. "You begin to see yourself as different, exempt from the so-called universal laws of life and death. This heightened feeling gives the messenger a confidence, a speed, and an agility of almost metaphysical proportions."
6. "I can do anything ... there is a certain space around me, like a force field ... I am untouchable, and everyone knows it. It is a matter of respect. Moving at the speed of commerce, shoveling through all the scales of mankind at once, saving the world all day long, I require at least that much respect."
7. "[T]he phone rang. It was Julie, a dancer and choreographer who was also my girlfriend *at the time*. (I seem to have girlfriends only *at times*. I am not sure why, but for me, love never seems to stick.)
8. "I hopped over the gray countertop, hoisted my bike onto my shoulder with a 'By this, ye shall conquer' kind of valor, and clamored out the front door, fully prepared, once again, to make my contribution to the world."
Such self-indulgence fills the book. Culley's chapters about getting doored and finding his way into messengering descend further into annoying self-study. Descriptions of burning through intersections are meant to impress, but they invite derision. Melodramatic passages about Critical Mass do not ring true. The pseudo-impressionism of the section about Jon Boub reduces both credibility and clarity.
Culley wants to reveal himself and fellow bike messengers in full complex humanity, but his over-the-top rhetoric miscarries him. In Culley's view, messengers (and cyclists in general) are fundamentally different from drivers. Such a view is misguided. Many drivers are also cyclists, and most cyclists are also drivers. Your attitude and patience will vary depending on which kind of vehicle (car or bike) you happen to be using. That's a crucial point and Culley misses it.
Bike messengers, and cyclists generally, need a book that depicts their on-the-road experience with accuracy and balance -- and that tells the story in a way that may really help non-cycling motorists understand. This book isn't it.
I admire Culley's energy and enthusiasm, and do not doubt his sincerity of purpose, but I can't give this book more than a single star.
Book Review: for posers, by a poser
Summary: 1 Stars
I spent about about 8 years off and on as a messenger. There's a lot to love: freedom and 6% body fat, but by the end of my run, I looked around and saw people my age buying houses and going on vacations, while I was stuck with $20 grand in back taxes and hospital bills. That said, here's my take on this tome.Imagine one of those evolutionary lines where you see Neanderthals at one end and Homo sapiens at the other. Picture four messengers in that line. We all start at one end, and slowly progress, if we're lucky.
The first messenger has seen Quicksilver one too many times. He/she lasts anywhere from a week to a month, suddenly dresses "messenger cool" 24/7, stands around in the square conspicuously checking their pager, goes to "messenger bars" at happy hour, gets off on themselves and generally poses. They last until one of the following happens: "hit and quit," their bike falls apart, they realize that they are expected to do hard work (as a rookie, low paying grunt work), or the first rain/snowstorm/cold snap hits. If they stick it out, they turn into...
Messenger #2, the worst of the bunch. Stronger, faster, maybe they've modded their bike or gear so they really looks the part. Problem is, they're really just hotdogging most of the time, making us all look bad. Going 25 mph on sidewalks, breaking all traffic laws for kicks, cursing at anyone who dares cross their paths, punching cars, and just being unruly for the fun of it. If you ever see a messenger with a whistle in their mouth, this is messenger #2. Unfortunately, most civilians think this is what being a messenger is. Of course pros break the rules, especially for a bank run, or a court run, or when you're just plain slogged, but most experienced messengers will tell you that riding within the law 85% of the time actually helps keep you alive, out of jail, and sane (blowing red lights doesn't count:).
I'm going to skip ahead to the end of the evolutionary line, to the LAST messenger: the "lifer" or "careerier." They are 28-35, with a different bike for every type of weather, they never have their hands stained with grease from roadside repairs, and even their "junker" bike is nicer than anything you have. They are quiet, calm, fast, they ignore you and everyone else, and when they race, they wear baggy shorts just to send a message to the spandex crowd. Aloof and elite. Zen, but with lots of ego and attitude, if that's possible.
Messenger 3 is *everyone* else, and about 60% of them fit this mold. They are somewhere in between, in terms of appearance, skills, and attitude. They have been hit enough times to know when to just get out of the way. When somebody flips them off, they say "havagoodone!" You just can't go through life teaching driving lessons to everyone out there. Some are college dropouts, some have Master's degrees, they are triathletes, potheads, ubercyclists on titanium rigs, or just riding Huffys in their jeans. They have identities beyond the bike. These are the cool messengers, the kind you end up hanging out with, if you're lucky.
Which brings me back to Travis' book. Flatly put, he is a hotdogger near the beginning of the line, but from reading his book, you'd think he invented the job. To say his prose is purple is an understatement. He goes on for a page and a half about his wide-eyed wonder at someone doing a track skid. His response to his first "Critical Mass" ride was ridiculous: "People just like me!"...like he's an eskimo in the desert.
When this book came out, according to a story in the Chicago Reader, he had worked the job for 8 months, dug up everyone's stories under the plan of writing an "anthology," and ended up passing them off as his own. Along the way, he nominated himself the spokesmodel for the angry young proletariat.
I realize this book is in the "fiction" category, and an author should be able to take *some* liberties, but it's really more than that. It's about doing $2 runs when the snow is falling, you're sore from taking a spill in a slush puddle, you're soaked and cold, and you still have to keep it up for another 7 hours. Repeat for months or years, until one sunny day, along comes Johnnyboy Hotdog who goes and writes a book about how fun it is to ride in traffic, and how it makes him the Jesus Christ of 21st century America. I, along with a couple other couriers, could hardly read this book without loud violent outbursts. I suppose your take on it all depends where you stand in the lineup.
Just my two cents. If you want to read the messenger encyclopedia, check out Rebecca 'Lambchop' Reilly's self-published book "Nerves of Steel." I'll be honest, it's not *like* reading a diary, it IS a diary, all 300+ pages of it. Without the benefit of a good editor, it certainly has its problems, but hey, it was a labor of love. She worked in at least ten cities around the world, and scoped out the courier scene in a bunch more. Her coverage of the cities I worked in was spot-on, and I found friends from ten years back mentioned in it. It does a great job of painting the messenger "scene" in a number of cities, without demanding that you sign on for her epiphanic self-realizations. For some reason, it's not always available on Amazon, but you can still dig it up on the web.
Between its transparently staged existence, over-the-top prose, and force-fed values, I'd say skip this one. There are decent photos of some ripped Chicago messengers in there, whose stories were used in some form or another. Too bad they didn't write the book.
Book Review: oh my wordy!
Summary: 2 Stars
though this book gives a glimpse of the overall pace and stress of a bike messenger's work, it is incredibly overwritten. too much sloppy, masturbatory prose. worth a skim if youre intersted in the bike courier lifestyle, but take it with a few grains of salt. it is clear, after a few chapters, that this cat didnt actually live the life himself.