61 pages • 2-hour read
The Book of Bill
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Themes
The Pursuit of Knowledge for Selfish Gain
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of emotional and physical abuse.
The primary way in which Bill communicates to the reader, as well as to Stanford Pines, is through tempting them with knowledge and secrets—of the world and of history, at first, but also of himself. Bill understands the insatiable curiosity of the human mind, offering things such as the “meaning of life, how to cheat death, Pine Tree’s most embarrassing dreams, and your own interesting future” in exchange for a deal with him (14). Knowledge is power, something that Bill craves (and wants to take away from his victims and everyone around him), yet knowledge is also something Bill must continually pretend to have to keep the upper hand. The narrative of The Book of Bill reinforces that knowledge is important yet dangerous—when kept to oneself, at least. What makes Bill dangerous is not that he offers knowledge—it is that he insists the reader is the only person special and powerful enough to acquire it.
Bill puts the reader through a series of comical and unimportant tests to ensure they can withstand his “unholy knowledge,” but these are ultimately tests that ensure he can maintain a level of control and manipulation over the imaginary reader. The illustration right before these tests shows Bill peering through a keyhole at “The Secrets of the Universe,” giggling to himself about how those secrets should not be published. Bill’s offer is dangerous because of its supposed exclusivity. He teases the reader, claiming they wouldn’t be interested and that he only shares things with his closest henchmen, despite his ultimate desperation for the reader to give in and accept his deal. Bill’s game of manipulation goes back and forth—he bashes the reader for being a weak human, then tells them they’re special enough to get the secrets of the world anyway. Bill uses knowledge and intelligence as tools for his emotional abuse. Bill’s victims crave forbidden knowledge, but his manipulation makes them want to prove themselves worthy of that knowledge more than they might want the knowledge itself.
Ultimately, the book argues that knowledge is most dangerous when buried under arrogance and shame. Stanford’s final journal entry includes his realization that he had been trying to hide The Book of Bill from his family not because they would be endangered by it, but because he was ashamed of his history with Bill. Bill gains power from attention, but only when it is singular, focused attention from his victims. When Stanford opens up about his experiences and invites his family to share in his experience and knowledge of Bill, they mock Bill for trying to trick them and subsequently loosen his hold on Stanford and, by extension, the reader. By himself, Bill and the knowledge he offers are powerful; when held up to the light, or to community, Bill’s tricks are revealed and the knowledge he offers becomes empty and useless.
The Impacts of Isolation Versus Community
The Book of Bill has few actual characters, but one of the strongest thematic threads throughout is that solitude and isolation corrupt and poison individuals; meanwhile, bonding with others to form a healthy, loving community leads to healing and stability. Bill himself is the key example of this; he insists throughout the book that he is fine on his own and needs no one yet contradicts himself on multiple levels. Bill murdered his entire family and home, to the point that he cannot remember the event and is haunted by it. Additionally, he is obsessed with gathering people to his “side,” yet he is unable to maintain relationships with them due to his own superiority complex and abusive nature. Bill’s obsession with corrupting and controlling humans seems to be, on some level, an act of jealousy, as the human characters within the book are shown to defeat him through the power of community repeatedly, while he remains alone and miserable.
Bill’s journey through history shows him slowly learning that humans are strong together and weak alone. His initial grasp at power involves him reaching out to people in traditional positions of power—the Shaman, a pharaoh, the Aztecs, and a powerful warlock. What he slowly comes to understand, though accidentally, is that all these people are supported by others, too. Entire groups of people subsequently turn against Bill, limiting his power. Bill then reaches out to more isolated people: women in Salem, Thurburt (and four other people in his time period), grandmas, and, most successfully, Stanford Pines. Bill’s success with Stanford is entirely because Stanford is alone and chooses to be alone; like Bill himself, Stanford believes there is nobody else quite like him in the world. Bill himself notes that Stanford is “totally isolated from anyone who might steer him clear of my plans” (140). Bill manipulates Stanford by isolating him from his only friend and grounding point, McGucket, as he drives the latter to extreme mental unwellness with torturous visions and tells Stanford that their relationship depends on McGucket’s absence. Bill’s manipulation fully alienates Stanford, leaving him with no support system when he realizes the truth—which, in turn, allows Bill to abuse him (or his body) as much as Bill wants.
Stanford eventually finds human connection through his family and the others in Gravity Falls, while Bill is left alone. Bill’s identity in this regard is heavily based on self-pity. Bill begs the reader to stay loyal to him, despite having done nothing to deserve it in any of his relationships; he abuses Stanford and the other henchmaniacs (who must fight to the death for his allegiance in the first place) and tricks the reader from the outset by taking their blood and lying about it. Bill’s isolation due to his inability to treat others well is his ultimate downfall. Even in the Theraprism, he is placed in isolation not because he corrupts the others, but because he singlehandedly started a “Prism Riot” and attempted to escape. Bill cannot improve himself because he refuses to acknowledge that other people might be better than him—not necessarily by themselves, but because they have community and family. Bill’s determination to be enough on his own and his systematic abuse of others means that he chooses his own lonesome end, while Stanford can heal and grow due to the support of his community.
Nihilism and the Tenuous Nature of Reality
Reality is enforced throughout the Gravity Universe canon as tenuous and unreliable. This metatextually occurs through the structure of a book wherein the characters not only talk to a reader but both the protagonist and antagonist—which depends on perspective—address an implied specific individual, sometimes as if in real-time. The reader’s reactions and choices are presented as influential in the direction of the book, and this parallels many fourth wall breaks that occurred within the Gravity Falls show as well. For example, the title credits were changed during the show’s final episodes to include Bill and his henchmaniacs instead of the Pines family and their friends, implying that Bill had control over the universe wherein he is a TV show character appealing to an audience. This alludes to what The Book of Bill exposes as the center of his power, which revolves around the idea that he can only exist and draw strength by gaining attention from a viewer or “reader.”
Building on the tenuous presentation of reality, Bill attempts to encourage the reader to succumb to nihilism throughout the book. He reminds them repeatedly that nothing truly matters, meaning they should be able to do whatever they want—which is, of course, to make a deal with him. Bill’s efforts center around revealing “secrets” of the universe and reality, namely that nothing is truly real at all. Bill claims that humans don’t even have free will and that the universe is a hologram to convince the reader that they can pick whatever reality they desire most. Bill’s promotion of nihilism, however, is shortsighted; he assumes the reader will desire a reality that leads to his ability to become all-powerful. He is unable to comprehend that a human might pick a reality that favors something other than him.
According to Bill, reality is “MADE OF CODE AND MADNESS AND TINY, TINY LEGOS. EVERYTHING BIG IS MADE OF SOMETHING SMALL, AND EVERYTHING SMALL CAN BE MANIPULATED INTO SOMETHING NEW. YOUR SENSES ARE LYING TO YOU” (46). Bill uses his understanding of reality and meaning to try to manipulate the reader into thinking they are just barely powerful enough to choose a reality they prefer, but the options are much more limited than he claims: The reader can pick their reality or Bill’s. Therefore, Bill’s revelation is not a gift, but an attempt to sway the reader into believing nothing matters. If the reader looks at the humans and the world around them and sees it as meaningless junk, Bill’s destruction of it—which is his goal—is just as meaningless as anything else.
The form of nihilism that Bill wants the reader to experience has no room for love, which is the antithesis of Bill’s goals since it encourages humans to see value in others and the world around them. Thus, Bill spends seven pages soon after introducing this nihilism trying to convince the reader that love is exclusively romantic and nonsensical, another tool to be used to bend others to your will. Actual love—which takes many forms and can be spread between anything—is undefeatable by Bill; he was destroyed in Gravity Falls because the Pines family love each other. He wants the reader to see love as frivolous and stupid so they will forget that loving anything, including yourself, assures Bill’s destruction. Additionally, his opposition between the ideas of nihilism and positive emotion is posed as ironic. A common philosophical interpretation of nihilism, or the idea that “nothing matters,” is that a person should not let themselves be troubled by this world, as everything is intrinsically temporary. This very mindset is what helps Stanford overcome Bill, as his family helps him realize in the end that Bill’s manipulation is toxic, shallow, and—ultimately—not real, thus removing Bill’s power.
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