Book review: 'Who's to Say What's Obscene?' http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/27/DDMS18D4OI.DTL
Kevin Smokler, Special to The Chronicle Monday, July 27, 2009 Who's to Say What's Obscene? Politics, Culture, and Comedy in America Today By Paul Krassner (City Lights Books; 242 pages; $16.95 paperback) Co-founder of the Yippies, publisher of the infamous satirical newspaper the Realist and confidant of Ken Kesey, Paul Krassner, with his counterculture resume, needs no validation or burnishing. After 50 years of kicking the establishment in the shins, his wit may be a trusted brand: the "investigative satirist" whose meticulous research girds a playful nastiness - but that hasn't driven him to comfort, the death knell of his chosen genre. Instead, a glance at his two magazine columns, blogs for the Huffington Post and regular comedy performances reveals that Krassner isn't just dusting off old targets but sees the vigilant carping on abuses of power as both his daily labor and his legacy. Which makes it all the more disappointing that Krassner and his publisher, City Lights Books, have committed careless acts of misappropriation with his new essay collection, "Who's to Say What's Obscene? Politics, Culture, and Comedy in America Today." A laundry basket of dated villains, name-dropping and threadbare nostalgia, it should both outrage and reassure us that truths are still being stepped on and that Krassner stands guard. But it lets a painful truth in through an unlocked window: Satire may be served up broad and corny (Mel Brooks), with misplaced dignity (Jonathan Swift) or unwavering commitment to a false persona (Stephen Colbert). Yet it must have clear targets and an unblinking eye on the present. Otherwise, imagine a 2009 smackdown, of say, comic book censorship. A satirist looking backward as time marches on is little more than a grouch. Krassner frontloads his collection of 43 essays with a dozen pieces on wrongheaded obscenity cases, seven on silly marijuana laws and an inexplicable four on "Sixties bashing" - a social ill on par with ticket scalping. The first two groupings smack of dated self-interest. Exactly how topical are obscenity conflicts in an era of ubiquitous Internet porn? How selfless are we to take Krassner's blows against the anti-pot empire if he spends much of the remainder of the collection ticking off the celebrities he smoked out with? It takes 90 percent of the text for Krassner to arrive at the Patriot Act, the 2008 election and President Obama. The placement and priority are telling: The author implies the important battles hail from long ago while his publisher plays to an imaginary peanut gallery of angry Boomers. Neither is well served by reheated outrage dressed up like on-deadline social criticism. Krassner turned 77 this spring. He could rightfully claim a life of legend. Instead he marches on, demanding that the powerful explain their actions. It is only fair then that we ask him the same, to reach the standards he has held for five decades. And sadly, here, he does not. -- Kevin Smokler is the co-founder of BookTour.com. E-mail him at [email protected]. . --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sixties-L" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sixties-l?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
