What is the reasoning behind them? Do they exist or have any relevancy to dark or morbid things in our world? The answer to many of the items I shall cover here is yes. The Binding of Isaac is a roguelike dungeon crawler. You play as a character called Isaac (at least initially) and make your way through randomly generated floors that become progressively harder, taking out enemy vermin and bosses along the way. As you play, you’ll come across a myriad of items, hundreds of different items in fact.
The games lore has many disturbing and dark elements to it. There is much that surrounds child abuse and religious fanaticism within the game, as well as the unexplained and paranormal. Many of its items have dark and disturbing attachments to the real world. These items when picked up in the game often give the character a disturbing new look, and will grant some kind of ability or other affect or stat buff.
Given I enjoy playing the game from time to time, it literally has endless replayability, I thought I would start a series that has a quick look into the disturbing connections some of these items have to our own world. So, take a deep breath, and be prepared to enter the realm of the dark, morbid and mysterious.
Item Number 1: The Anarchist Cookbook
Our first item that can be considered dark is one known as the Anarchists Cookbook. In the game this item allows Isaac to spawn six bombs randomly into the room he is in, which will explode after a short while. This will often be used to try and clear as many enemies from a room as possible, perhaps in desperation. The player themselves must also be careful though, as the resulting explosion of the bombs can also damage or kill them.
The last part of that paragraph gives some reality to this item. The Anarchist Cookbook is actually something that exists. Those who seek this book may either be merely curious (best case) or are looking to create with nefarious or dark intent. Of course, some may also argue there are cases of justification, but it’s best not to get into that. I think it is clear many who obtain the book do not go on to do bad things, but are merely angsty and rebellious to whatever they perceive as the establishment, and purchasing the book itself and owning it is a way to show that to themselves without actually doing anything bad.
The Anarchists Cookbook is a book that exists and that can be found which informs the person how to make rudimentary explosive devices. This is of course very much illegal in many countries and is also very, very dangerous. Many who seek out this book will likely have little to no knowledge on the creation of explosives or have any kind of experience with such materials, which makes it ever more dangerous as if during creation something goes wrong, you could very well badly injure or even kill yourself and others – thus the danger your character faces when using this item in the game.
But in real life the book not only gives information on the making of explosives, but also on the making of other rudimentary weapons, and telecommunications phreaking devices (as in exploiting/reverse-engineering these devices to do things they were not meant to do, such as getting free calls. Modern-day hacking in the current computerized world can be seen as the successor to phreaking, although I’d say phreaking is very much something that is still done, such as with game consoles in order to get free games). It also gives instructions on the home manufacture of illicit drugs – something that could also be bad if not done right. It also talks about guerrilla warfare and combat tactics.
Worse is that a number of the recipes included in the book itself are actually dangerously inaccurate, which is no surprise considering the book was written by a 19-year-old, certainly not an expert in such topics. The book also contains some outright lies about the author himself, claiming to drive a hot-wired car, cook LSD in his kitchen, and the giving of a fake name when caught by cops at an antiwar demonstration, none of which happened. It was merely things he made up to appeal to the readers and draw them in. Powell himself only ever went to court one time and it was not to do with anarchist or any kind of violent or terrorism reasons, it was instead a lawsuit launched against him for illegally running The Little Princess in his theatre.
Teenager William Powell wrote the book and had it published in 1971 during the counterculture era in the United States, which although was originally a peaceful movement, begun turning violent which included political bombings. Powell wrote it as a protest of the potential of being drafted into the Vietnam War at the time, a dark war in and of itself. It was a war that many, including Powel, did not agree with and was a big part of the counterculture era. During this time Powell’s belief was that violence was an acceptable means to bringing about political change, and this was another reason why he wrote and had this book published. The book had come together out of research of other anarchist publications, US Government manuals, electronics catalogs, and a boy scout guide, which led to standalone recipes that Powell had created which were eventually incorporated into the book.
Powell, who died in 2016 from a heart attack, did not believe in what he once did, describing it as a mistake and youthful indiscretion. The publishing of the book also gave him employment difficulties as well. He has also said he did not intend it for extreme fringe groups but more so to galvanise the general population into taking on extremist elements and what he perceived as societal threats, such as fascists, communists and capitalists.
Powell wanted the book to be removed from circulation but as he was not in control of its publishing copyright, he did not have the ability to do this. Powell went on to become Christian, a father, and also a teacher, and found a nonprofit organisation for children with learning and developmental difficulties along with his wife (which I think is extremely epic!). I am sure if his 19-year-old self had looked into the future at himself, he would have been very shocked at what he become.
This just goes to show that even at 19 one may still face much change as they get older, and things they once believed in may seem just that of a rebellious teen, something quite childish and embarrassing. Living with the prospect that people may accidentally kill or injure themselves while trying to use the recipes of the book must have also been hard.
Although the book can be dangerous, others have praised it as proof of the freedoms that people in the US have, the fact that the book can still be legally sold and bought, and Powell did not receive any criminal consequences for having written and had the book published. Understandably, many who have since obtained the book are quite disappointed to find that Powell is no longer an angsty teen with anarchist leanings. Some anarchists now denounce the book as not having come from an actual anarchist, as well as the unreliability of the book’s recipes.
It is thought the book has inspired or even contributed to a number of bombing incidents, such as the bombing of Grand Central Terminal and hijacking of a flight by Croatian radicals in 1976, bombing of the FBI HQ in 1981 by Puerto Rican separatists, the bombing of 10 abortion clinics in the mid-1980s by a group led by Thomas Spinks, and there was also a connection to the 7/7 bombings in London. The book may have also inspired the Columbine high school shooters as well, who had possessed the book. James Holmes, the Aurora theatre shooter, also owned a copy of the book.
I think we can say that the Anarchist Cookbook haunted its author for most if not all of his life, but that he certainly came out the other end of it, he still achieved more than many do during his lifetime, despite the attachment of something so controversial.