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"it would be a good idea"
Dec. 17th, 2005 04:28 pmIf you are going to be rude to people, you should try to be funny at the same time. There may even be a career in it for you in the great tradition of H.L. Mencken, Fran Lebowitz, Dorothy Parker, Oscar Levant and other notable curmudgeonly types.
In the modern era we have Jeremy Clarkson. Really. That guy who does the car program. Those of us who love Top Gear know that the cars are almost incidental to the banter. If you have seen Clarkson on Grumpy Old Men, you will know his caustic grumpy side. This comes through in his writing too. I have just read Clarkson on Cars, a collection of columns taken from Performance Car and the Sunday Times written during the 80s and 90s. The title is a misnomer - most of the columns mention cars only to illustrate hit more biting social comment.
There is no doubt that much of what Clarkson writes is designed to be deliberately provocative or even offensive. Anybody reading is bound to trip over something that sticks a skewer knife in their own personal world view. But it is funny. Belly laugh funny, smirk funny. titter funny, wry smile funny. When all is said and some, that counts for a lot.
I should also add that it can be a good thing to have somebody attempt to skewer your word view from time to time. Somebody once said "if you haven't changed a major opinion in the last five years, check your pulse - you may be dead".
In the modern era we have Jeremy Clarkson. Really. That guy who does the car program. Those of us who love Top Gear know that the cars are almost incidental to the banter. If you have seen Clarkson on Grumpy Old Men, you will know his caustic grumpy side. This comes through in his writing too. I have just read Clarkson on Cars, a collection of columns taken from Performance Car and the Sunday Times written during the 80s and 90s. The title is a misnomer - most of the columns mention cars only to illustrate hit more biting social comment.
There is no doubt that much of what Clarkson writes is designed to be deliberately provocative or even offensive. Anybody reading is bound to trip over something that sticks a skewer knife in their own personal world view. But it is funny. Belly laugh funny, smirk funny. titter funny, wry smile funny. When all is said and some, that counts for a lot.
I should also add that it can be a good thing to have somebody attempt to skewer your word view from time to time. Somebody once said "if you haven't changed a major opinion in the last five years, check your pulse - you may be dead".