Nights and Days in a Dark Carnival

Book excerpt: Nights and Days in a Dark Carnival is Craven Rock's manically-researched delve into the world of the Juggalos, the clown-painted fans of the rap group Insane Clown Posse. After years of obsession with the culture, Rock travels as an undercover journalist to the Gathering of the Juggalos summer festival and takes a drug-addled, drunken, and sleazy descent into the Juggalos' world, along the way trying to figure out -first-hand what attracts people to this ever-growing subculture. Collected from hazy recollections, questionable memories, and awkward interviews, Nights and Days in a Dark Carnival is a wild ride that looks deeper into the phenomenon than anything that's come before. Rock participates in the debauchery, while also examining the intricately-linked elements of class, faith, violence, and internal marketing embedded within the culture and exploring what it all says about American culture as a whole. Nights and Days in A Dark Carnival is Craven Rock's first book. His work has appeared in Da Capo Press' Best Music Writing 2008, the Monarch Review, Razorcake and Avow. He also publishes his own zine, Eaves of Ass.