One Hand Jerking
Reports From an Investigative Journalist
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- $20.99
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
Counterculture legend Paul Krassner gazes on the fires of pop culture, politics and celebrity and returns unscathed to help us make sense of our senseless world, with an introduction by Lewis Black (The Daily Show) and a foreword by Harry Shearer (The Simpsons, Le Show).
From cults to pornography, from Charles Manson to Homer Simpson, from the war on drugs to the invasion of Iraq, from Dolly Parton to Lenny Bruce, from circumcision to propaganda, this collection epitomizes Krassner's credo, "Irreverence is our only sacred cow."
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After realizing early in life that "one person's logic is another person's humor," Krassner (Murder at the Conspiracy Convention, Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut) has consistently produced clever satire of mainstream media, personalities and ideologies throughout his long, strange career, and, with this collection of essays and reportage, he maintains his status as a counterculture legend and an "unrefined nut" (according to the FBI and the author bio). As editor of satirical magazine The Realist, he pushed the limits of the day by referring women to a doctor who performed abortions before they were legal and publishing an illustration of Disney characters in the midst of "an unspeakable Roman binge." (Influenced, Krassner notes, by Time magazine's "God is Dead" issue.) Krassner's integral role in American counterculture is evident in the anecdotes featuring Lenny Bruce, Abbie Hoffman, Norman Mailer and Hunter Thompson. These writers and humorists are clearly influenced by and an influence on Krassner, whose writing exposes censorship and excessively prudish regulations as the absurd, unreasonable results of giving humorless, hysterical people authority-for instance, he recalls a song was once banned from radio play because it contained humming, an interlude that could be construed as symbolic of coitus. Krassner can make readers howl with laughter, but a few pieces fail to measure up, mainly because Krassner jettisons his commentary and plays the role of reporter/observer. Intelligently irreverent, Krassner's writing crisply and crassly skewers the teeming absurdity in contemporary America.
