Richard Meltzer

Meltzer has a distinct voice and perspective, and occasionally drops a line of acid on the paper that is -- likely as not -- directed at himself, serious but laced with humor. His style, in fact, brings to mind the beatniks: not because it sounds or reads like any beatnik, but because it has the same blend of hip slang, idiosyncracy, and literary wit. (The comparison occurred to me before I'd read his discussion of beats; it appears he's very well versed in the major & minor beat constellations, so that's interesting.)

This voice of his left me considering: is he mean? vituperative? bitter? Could be. Somehow it occurred to me that it's something else, more a way of looking, or better yet shedding certain frames or points of view, and a real effort to articulate it (even to himself), than an emanation of feeling. His essays on his dad ("The Old Fuckeroo") and his mom ("Middle Beginning End") are especially strong examples. I can imagine him having a hard time writing these -- not just the gist, but the specific word choice -- but writing anyway, because he felt he had to write it, and write it that bald, that crass. Have no idea if that's at all true, but I can imagine it.

A foil for driving home some serious critique, but not (always) criticism.

The book is a collection of pieces, evidently some of which were previously published, a few extended essays interspersed with poems, shorter pieces. The structure of the longer essays mimic the book itself, though: long-ish passages or sections set off by poems and brief asides. They all read well (as he says about Bukowski, actually), and free-associate more than wrestle a thought into the ground. But the theme of mortality and reminiscence does not seem like imposed marketing, whether set out to examine those ideas deliberately or they emerged on their own.

It's worth the price for his rant on television and how MTV can be seen as a deliberate effort on the part of anyone driven by a profit motive to co-opt & cash in on teenage rebellion, after observing how few 1960s young people paid any mind to television at all. A coveted demographic, even then.… (mais)