300,000,000
 Cover of the first edition paperback of 300,000,000 by Blake Butler. | |
| Author | Blake Butler (author) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Crime fiction, Horror fiction, Transgressive fiction |
| Publisher | Harper Perennial |
Publication date | October 14, 2014 |
| Pages | 456 |
| ISBN | 978-0-062-27185-3 |
300,000,000, or also referred to as Three Hundred Million is a 2014 novel by American writer Blake Butler. Butler created the novel from his preconception of Roberto Balaño's novel 2666. Inspired by 2666, the story is formatted in five sections with titles that start with "The Part About...".[1] 300,000,000 was written over the course of two years writing every day, and a took a further two years of revising.[2][3] It is a satire on the commented oversaturation of murder, gore, and crime in American television as stated by Butler.[3]
Plot
[edit]The five sections of the novel are "The Part About Gravey," "The Part About the Killing," "The Part About Flood(In the City of Sod)," "The Part About America," and "The Part About Darrel."
The first section is the transcribed journal of the cult leader Gretch Gravey's notebook. Gravey is a cult-leader and mass murderer who envisions the world's population should be condensed into one single body.[2] The cult he leads consists of teenage boys seeking drugs from Gravey, and in exchange they bring back "mothers", women of all ages, to Gravey to be ritualistically raped, murdered, dismembered, or cannibalized. Gravey is connected to the murders of 440 people, including some of his own cult members, and hundreds of bodies of the victims are stacked in his home he calls the Black House.[4][1][5]
The transcriber of the journal is police detective E.N. Flood and is an unreliable narrator, supposedly going insane from investigating Gravey's crimes. Flood investigates the site of the mass grave, and underneath is an underworld, similar to the living world except devoid of people, that Flood becomes trapped in.[1] Later, Gravey is arrested but everyone who comes into contact with Gravey goes insane and become commit killing sprees. Mass killings spread wider and death tolls spread in the wider area until it infects the whole of the United States with the death toll every day until the entire population of 300,000,000 is killed.[3][6][1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Ruland, Jim (2014-11-14). "Review: '300,000,000' a vision of dark power, great empathy". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2025-04-28.
- ^ a b "On 300,000,000, Outdoing your Own Legacy and Obscene People, a Conversation with Blake Butler". Dead End Follies. 2016-05-11. Retrieved 2025-04-28.
- ^ a b c ""Blake Butler interview: 'I wanted this book to be filled with passwords'"". TimeOut (Interview). October 9, 2014. Retrieved April 28, 2025.
- ^ "Spotlight on …. Blake Butler 300,000,000 (2014) – DC's". 2019-01-03. Retrieved 2025-04-28.
- ^ Heller, Jason (2014-10-18). "300,000,000 Is A Horrific, Poetic Anti-Ode To America". NPR. Retrieved 2025-04-29.
- ^ electricliterature (2014-10-13). "REVIEW: 300 Million by Blake Butler". Electric Literature. Retrieved 2025-04-28.