bust the shrink wrap

Now here's a movement I can get behind, thunk up by Sean Carman. From his manifesto:

Exactly what do we do? you ask. First, at all times during this movement, and whatever else happens, remain extremely polite. Second, pass this manifesto around to your friends. E-mail it. Print it out and post it on utility poles and in the bathroom stalls of rock clubs. Slip a copy in the Second Quarter Sales Forecast brochure of your boss's boss. Let them know that, in addition to taking the bus more often, returning that Netfix video on the coffee table and giving $25 to PIRG, they should, if they have a moment, consider possibly joining this worldwide literary movement.

Third, go to your local bookstore (or nearest large chain bookstore if you want to make a bolder statement), find McSweeney's No. 15, furtively remove its shrink wrap (if any), and quietly read "Asuncion" by Roy Kesey, a compelling and well-told story.

Finally, thank yourself for a job well done.

As with any movement, especially a literary movement, several clarifications are in order.

First, you can still purhcase McSweeney's 15 if you want. This is not an effort to advertise for a cottage literary concern but neither is it an attempt to subvert the McSweeney's niche market. If you want to buy McSweeney's 15 and participate in the movement, just pick up McSweeney's 15 on your next trip to the bookstore, the one after your guerilla reading. The point of this movement -- the idea that is its engine, so to speak (and what an engine it is, if I may say, a glistening engine of such force and purpose it would make Elliot Spitzer weep) -- the point, I say again, is that not everyone can afford the $25.00 one must plunk down (and I don't use the word "plunk" lightly) for the latest example of compiled literary excellence that is McSweeney's 15. And yet everyone must read the story 'Asuncion' by Roy Kesey. It is a wonderful, artful, and true story, true in the deepest and most meaningful sense of that word.

(Link via the Public Face of the Movement.)