or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
October 01, 2007
Blurgtastic
Blurgs have had a real impact by extending the memory of political discussions. It used to be the media couldn't remember anything that had happened more than five seconds ago. Now, thanks to blurgs, events of the day are (sometimes) put into the context of the past five years.
This is good, but nowhere near enough. That's because the struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting. What we need is blurgs that put current events in the context of the past twenty or fifty or a hundred years. Everything happening now can only make sense to people if they see how it's part of a long-running story.
I sometimes try to do this in a half-assed fashion. Juan Cole does it well when he does it at all. But as far as I know, only one blurgher does what I'm wishing for almost all the time: Rick Perlstein. For instance: "The Other Side of the Little Rock Nine", which explains how we got from 1957 to right now. Likewise, "Bedwetter Nation" illuminates another strand of history running from fifty years ago to today.
I don't think I'm overstating much when I say this kind of thing is COMPLETELY NEW IN HUMAN HISTORY. In the future, every worthwhile blurg will do this.
Posted at October 1, 2007 11:48 AM | TrackBackI'm not sure whether it's COMPLETELY NEW IN HUMAN HISTORY or the sort of thing Serbs do when sitting around the dinner table. Probably comes to the same thing where Americans are concerned.
Posted by: Aaron Datesman at October 1, 2007 01:33 PMIf I had time to write on my blllggghhh these days, I would have written much the same thing, except my example for someone who does it right almost all the time would be you.
Posted by: Bob at October 1, 2007 08:27 PMIf I had time to write on my blllggghhh these days, I would have written much the same thing, except my example for someone who does it right almost all the time would be you.
Posted by: Bob at October 1, 2007 08:27 PMThat second one was delicious.
Posted by: buermann at October 1, 2007 09:27 PMPearlstein should be obligatory reading--at least to those who drop by Tiny's.
Posted by: bobbyp at October 1, 2007 10:13 PM
