A press release from Elizabeth Upson of Night Shade Books:
Night Shade Books and Thomas Roche are launching a social media disinformation campaign under the title “The Dante Bogart Project,” in the hopes of creating a large mythology of shared, semi-hoaxed group storytelling.
The author’s intent is not to convince anyone that zombies are real, but to satirize the ways in which the democratic nature of the web (and particularly of social media) can make it disturbingly vulnerable both to corporate and governmental “spin” and to the promulgation of fringe beliefs that may be utterly at odds with the facts. The real story, however outrageous, may get lost in the white noise.
We hope to involve you, your readers, your social networks and the general public in the world of Roche’s science fiction zombie apocalypse The Panama Laugh by having you post links to “news stories” that concern the events of the book, and to have you write your own “take” on the news events as if they were real news stories. By posting, reposting, “Like”-ing, blogging, and commenting on the fictional news stories about these events—as well as relating “real” events to the book if you like—you become a part of the “disinformation” campaign waged by corporate characters in the book to distract the public from the real origin of the laughing-zombies threat.
While the book has a fairly complex storyline, the main things you need to know in order to “report” on the news events (or repost them) is the following:
All over the world, people have been succumbing to a contagion of some sort, but nobody knows what it is. These people start laughing hysterically and can’t stop, even after the laughing becomes excruciatingly painful (within a few minutes). The victims are quickly overcome with the desperate need to consume human flesh to stop themselves from laughing.
At some point in this process, all vital signs cease. The creatures are dead, but continue to laugh, walk, and attempt to feed. They can only be killed (stop us if you’ve heard this one…) by trauma to the brain.
The cause of the laughing appears to be a virus, which may have originated in the Caribbean region. The most extensive outbreak so far appears to be Cuba, which has been isolated by a NATO blockade in an attempt to prevent the spread of the virus.
The laughing virus has been speculated to be a plot by terrorists using biological warfare, which has enabled certain companies doing counter-bioterrorism research to gain lucrative government and corporate contracts throughout the world.
The laughing virus may also be related to the American military contractor Dante Bogart, who disappeared following his participation in foiling an attack by Islamist terrorists on the Panama Canal. The counterterrorism operation was initiated by Bellona Industries, a private security company under contract with the Panamanian government to provide counterterrorism protection to the Canal.
Initially reported to have been killed in the attack, Bogart later showed up in a series of viral science fiction videos claiming that bioterrorism had led to the development of a weaponized virus that makes people laugh themselves to death. This was well before the laughing zombies had been reported anywhere in the world. Bogart appears to have entered “semi-retirement” as a military contractor and begun a new career as an “underground filmmaker”. He quickly became a viral media sensation, as dozens of videos appeared to expand his fictional mythology to include Bigfoot, UFOs, alien abductions, the Naszca lines, Stonehenge and the Loch Ness Monster, not to mention plenty of sexy vampires.
The Tinfoil Hat Crew, of course, thinks Dante may have originally intended to warn the world that the laughing zombies are real. He may have later gone insane, been abducted, or been blackmailed into creating misinformation to obscure his bona-fide claims.
But who would believe that kind of crap? The worldwide contagion is just a coincidence, we’re sure. It’s just that, you know, good science fiction is “visionary,” right?
The chief proponents of the idea that Dante Bogart is an “underground warrior” against corporate and governmental bioterrorism are a group of Wikileaks-style hackers who operate the San Francisco porn company The Inferno, along with the many other community “art groups” centered in San Francisco’s Armory building. They’re known for their participation in giant Burning Man style art projects, having a distaste for the government and corporations, and for (allegedly) hacking government and corporate computers to disseminate information on various conspiracies.
Some splinter groups from The Inferno may have joined up with the global terrorist sect DePop Art, which believes the only way to defeat the New World Order’s plans to depopulate the globe is to depopulate it themselves first.
Starting on September 6, 2011, links and “news stories” about the events of the book will be posted in the following locations:
http://www.panamalaugh.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Panama-Laugh/108416935927927
http://zombileaks.com (note, there is no “e” in zombie)
http://thomasroche.com
http://thomasroche.wordpress.com
http://twitter.com/thepanamalaugh
…and elsewhere on Twitter using the hashtag #panamalaugh. You can follow all posts using this hashtag by going to http://twitter.com/#!/search/%23panamalaugh
Anyone can post to the Wall on the Panama Laugh Facebook page, and anyone can use the hashtag #panamalaugh on Twitter.
Please repost the links as you see fit, “quote” and disseminate the “news stories,” link to related videos and, if you like, make your own videos that might have been made by Dante, particularly if you’re one of those freaks who thinks he might have been telling the truth.
Additionally, you are invited to write your own posts about the news events of the book. The specific characters and events of The Panama Laugh remain under copyright, but blanket permission is granted to amp up the LOLZ on your own pages and publications. If you opt to do this, copyright for that work will of course remain with you, in much the same way that author Michael Moorcock has treated the world of his character Jerry Cornelius.
If you have any questions about the campaign, feel free to email the author at skidroche [at] gmail [dot] com, or to contact him through his Facebook page (http://facebook.com/skidroche).