George Carlin Books

A little while again, I read When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?, by George Carlin. I've just finished another of his books, Brain Droppings. I read the second one to see if it would be different from the first, but nope. They are consistent.

They reminded me very much of some USENET news groups I used to read about fifteen years ago. For me, the signal to noise ratio is poor, there are lots of pieces that made me wonder what sort of sick depraved person wrote that. But there are also some wonderful gems in there. The difference with the books are that all the pieces are written by the same person.

He uses too many expletitives to be in my comfort zone all the time. Others will feel differently. The occasional one for emphasis works for me, but Carlin just can't stop himself. I do love some of his observations on life, his studies of the English language and his plays on words though, and that's why I persisted and read a second of his books. Here's three simple examples from one of his Short Takes sections:

Whenever someone tells me they are going to fix a chicken, I always think Maybe it isn't really broken. Maybe it just needs a little oil.

How can crash course and collision course have two different meanings?

Although the photographer and the art thief were close friends, neither had ever taken the other's picture.

He's also willing to write about subjects that others ignore or shy away from, in a very in-your-face way. Mostly, I like that. An example:

Kids are now being born with syphilis and cocaine habits. There's nothing like waking up on your second day on Earth and realizing that once you kick the cocaine, you are still going to have the syph. And hey kids! If you didn't get VD in the womb, don't worry, you still have a shot. Some toddlers recently picked up gonorrhea at a day care center.

If he left out all the foul words, some of his other pieces would be read by many more people too. I'm not going to quote them here though.

unlikelyhero has George Carlin's philosophy on life, (as taken from the preface to Brain Droppings), and has put it on their home page, with a few minor edits. It certainly helps to explain why Carlin writes the way he does. I don't think I'd want to use it as a lesson to live by.

Overall, I found there were lots of witty, clever funny bits in this book, but they were in the minority to stuff that was just okay or that I found downright offensive. Would I recommend you read these books? Absolutely, assuming you aren't easily offended or prudish. Would I recommend you go out and pay full price for these books? No. Look for them second hand, or at a library book sale or check 'em out at your local library (assuming you live somewhere where these books aren't on the banned list or considered inappropriate for the general public).

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( Jun 18 2005, 09:27:20 AM PDT ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [1]