Customer Reviews

Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans: The Best of McSweeney's, Humor Category

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Like any humor collection, not everything in "Created In Darkness" is a guarenteed laugh riot. Then again, McSweeneys has a reputation for aiming more for the brain than the funny bone, so that shouldn't be a surprise. What IS a surprise is that the amount of really good pieces outweighs the fair to not-very-good pieces.

Among the stand-outs: the two Ezra Pound pieces (I was vaguely familiar with Pound's WWII activities, so that helps to get it), the Diary of a Cobra Recruit (haven't we all wondered if they were taught how to shoot at everything but the G.I. Joes?), The Letters to Mr. Vandwoude(sic), who refuses to be scammed out of his cash by a faux "orphan" charity, Michael Ian Black's look at why people hate him, and Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky's commentary for LOTR: The Fellowship of The Ring (no matter how you lean politically, you'll laugh your ass off).

There are many more that, if I hadn't just gotten up, I would be able to rattle off for inclusion in the "stand-outs" section, but maybe you should go ahead and buy the book and see for yourself...

Anyway, I read this book over a weekend, and enjoyed just about every minute of it. The one fault I give it is the section of lists at the end. That got old real quick, page after page, but there were plenty of hilarious ones to make it worthwhile.

So do yourself a favor and pick this up. It's a nice selection of humor pieces from one of the few really good humor sites out there.

I'm giving this five stars instead of four because this is Amazon.com -- where, if you really like something and have the relatively reasonable expectation that your like should effect the overall perception of the book, then you have to say "five stars" to make up for those who are jerks. Anyway, I liked this book, a lot. For those of you familiar with Mcsweeney's, it's a great collection. For those of you who are not -- you are missing out, by the way -- it's a great introduction. It's always funny and smart and sometimes very funny and very smart. Everyone who is not my mother will laugh out loud.

One more thing, while it's great to read in the bathroom, be careful. I was serious about the laughing out loud. Your housemates will think you're weird.

This is a fine book, and I encourage you to buy it. Buy it now. Buy the book already. Stop with the equivocating. Be strong. It's a great book. You won't regret it.

But could we stop talking about how we like to read this book in the bathroom? I am merely one tiny contributor among many to the book, one miniscule contributor among a multitude to the website. I can't speak for everyone. Still, the idea that you are reading something of mine in your bathroom sort of creeps me out. Unless you are Angelina Jolie, and even then I have to think about it. I just don't like the idea that the hand you are using the turn the page on "Lessons Learned from My Study of Literature" was, a moment before -- GROSS! Stop it. Just stop it right now.

True, my entry in this compendium is quite small, putting the odds against you actually reading my words in your bathroom. You probably enjoyed my entry on your back porch during a gorgeous sunset, or on an afternoon spin in your convertible, your best friend reading aloud from the passenger seat, her long hair swirling up furiously, as if a miniature tornado were chasing your Miata, your golden retriever in the back seat smiling that goofy golden retriever smile. Still, there is the remote chance that you are, instead, alone, furtively -- oh God, I can't even think about it.

This book makes a great gift. It's small, and light, and will display your good taste. It will make your best friend happy when she unwraps it, and you more beautiful in her eyes, which is what the holidays are all about. Believe me when I say that you cannot go wrong with this book.

Just try not to take it into the bathroom. Please. For my sake.

Thank you, that is all.

Like basically anything else in literature, humor is exceedingly subjective. Comic fiction is probably my favorite genre, and my most desperately sought-after. Alas, there's little out there that truly hits the right note for me, so while others extol the genius of Will Ferrell in "Old School" I often end up retreating to the sublime prose of P.G. Wodehouse (although that scene where they're in the van and "Master of Puppets" is blasting, is pretty sweet). I was enthused to pick up this anthology of short pieces that have appeared in the McSweeny's lit rag or on their web site over the years, as I often find McSweeny's to be good fun (when they're not lapsing into preciousness or lurching into cleverness). There are about fifty pieces in this book (plus about 25 lists), and I'm a little bummed to report that I only really loved 5 of these.

As others have noted, J.M. Tyree's "On the Implausibility of the Death Star's Trash Compactor" is excellent stuff, relying, of course, on an appreciation for the film "The Empire Strikes Back." In general, the longer pieces tended to much better. Indeed, the longest piece in the book (at 18 pages), is thankfully also one of the funniest, as Jeff Alexander and Tom Bissell imagine a lost DVD commentary for the first "Lord of the Rings" films, as done by Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn. Again, this relies on an appreciation of "The Two Towers" as well as the works of Chomsky and Zinn. It's so sidesplittingly funny that I'm going to violate copyright at work tomorrow by copying it and mailing it to a bunch of friends (I know... so pre-email...). Jim Stallard's excellent 13 page "No Justice, No Foul" is based on the premise that historically, when the Supreme Court has been split, the decision is decided by a 4 on 4 basketball game. Again, the humor is heightened if you're familiar with the personalities that have sat on that august bench. John Hodgman's 10-page "Fire: The Next Stick" is a simple but clever caveman parody of a business meeting. The final piece that really made me chuckle was Keith Pille's "Journal of New COBRA Recruit", which imagines the diary of a shmuck who enters the COBRA force. The humor relies entirely on one's ability to recall '80s TV commercials for G.I. Joe toys...

Another five or so of the shorter pieces worked pretty well, but in general, they fell a little flat. So, overall, a lot more miss than hit for me, but everything's so brief that one hasn't invested a lot in the duds. Ultimately, this is an anthology by and for white guys aged 25-45, and is thus rather limited.

Overall this is an excellent book, with only a few disappointments, which are inevitable in a compendium of this nature. My favorite part of the book is at the end, and consists of humorous lists (my title comes from a list by Steven Tomsik, "Eleven Lunch Meats I Have Invented") of all varieties.

McSweeney's is always a mixed bag, and this volume is no exception. Most of the material is very good, yet there are some articles that are weak or overly lengthy ("Journal of a New COBRA Recruit" and "Unused Audio Commentary by Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, Recorded Summer 2002, for 'The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring DVD (Platinum Series Extended Edition), Part One'" come to mind here, respectively). Despite these exceptions, the majority of the pieces are very clever and entertaining. Especially noteworthy are "How Important Moments in my Life Would Have Been Different if I Was Shot Twice in the Stomach", "Fire: The Next Sharp Stick?", and "A Letter From Ezra Pound to Billy Wilder, 1963", to name but a few.

This book isn't for everyone, but people who are inclined to academic humor or clever wordplay will love it. I highly recommend this book. Perhaps you can enjoy it over a brumschlagen sandwich.

I have a laptop with a wireless connection, yes, but taking it into the bathroom with me earns me creeped-out looks from my prude roommmate. So for the last years I've been reading the silly tidbits of McSweeney's.net respectably at my desk, and limiting my toilet reading to dull fare like Johann Aloys Schlosser's biography of Beethoven. Until at last "Created in Darkness..." came to the rescue. I can now read McSweeney's' great humor wherever I want to. The pieces in the book are reprints of stuff from the web site, all mostly very short and ideally suited for bathroom perusal.

(McSweeney's has a sort of very-clever, distinctive kind of humorous but not sidesplitting writing that appeals to me terrifically. Check out mcsweeneys.net and see if you like that. If you do you will like this book. If not, consider buying it as a gift for a friend.)

So yeah, problem solved. My roommate loves the book too so I don't even have to explain to him why I am laughing in the bathroom.

Great piecemeal read. Not meant for anything but a bit at a time.

McSweeney recycles and I for one am quite happy about it. Comfortably nestled in between an old tattered Mad "Worst of" and a classic "Buy this magazine or we'll shoot this dog" 70's Nat. Lampoon cover, this is unquestionably superior bathroom fare.

Everything is short, simple, intelligent stupidity that will either get you to laugh or induce peristalsis. Either way you win. Treasure like this doesn't come along all that often.

Only complaint is they left out one my favorite McSweeny's bits of nonsense, The Rollercoaster Ride, which years ago I gave away to some Swiss girl on a beach in the South Pacific. Kinda worth it.

I know its just plain stupid. But its just plain 'I wish I had thought of that and gotten published with it' stupid.

Like I said, intelligent stupidity, often absurd, and it has a great C. Burns cover. Genius.

I love this book. It's kind of off-beat humor just hits home. Favorite pieces are the "Death Star Trash Compactor" and "Rapper or Personal Hygiene Product". This book can sit on my shelf and whenever I take it out it promises a laugh. Great gift. Also like Mirth of a Nation but this is a little more off-beat.

"Created in Darkness" is a collection of humour ranging from lists to jokes to stories and as you would expect with any joke anthology, the results are mixed but are generally quite brilliant. I felt that the best pieces were JM Tyree's essay "On the Implausibility of the Death Star's Trash Compacter" and Jeff Alexander and Tom Bissell's "Unused Audio Commentary by Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring".

The "Death Star" essay is actually a well thought out and reasoned argument as to why such a massive and complex space station has such a throwback as a trash compacter to deal with waste. It's very funny only because his points make sense and that Star Wars and logic don't really go together.

The Lord of the Rings commentary is the best part of the book though. Alexander and Bissell, writing as Zinn and Chomsky, argue that Gandalf is a dictatorial puppet master similar to Karl Rove, fomenting fear and hatred in Middle Earth in order to maintain power, while the Hobbits are drug addled criminals whose "pipe weed" based economy is creating this war between the rural community of the Orcs and the trigger happy Elves. Really well written and clever, it's an excellent read.

Other highlights is "The Name Game" by Stephany Aulenback and Sean Carman. Extract: "Take the word ` dead as your first name, and a description of incest with your mother as your last name. That's your Marked by the Mafia name."

Brodie H Brockie and R J White's piece "The Newest from Jokeland" and Tom Ruprect's "It's Not Actually a Small World" are similar in that they take away the humour from familiar archetypal jokes and make them funnier. From "Jokeland" - "Chicken Joke #63: Why did the chicken cross the road? Because the chicken lacks any reasoning or decision-making capabilities, it seems unlikely the chicken's action was spurred by any particular motivation."

Keith Pille's "Journal of a New COBRA Recruit" is another brilliant satirical essay this time from the GI Joe world.

The funniest piece though that had me doubled over in laughter was Jake Swearingen's "How Different Moments in my Life would have been Different If I had been Shot Twice in the Stomach". It takes key moments in a boy's life such as graduation, or his first kiss and then imagines the boy is shot twice in the stomach while doing it. It's so absurd but so genius, it really is brilliant.

There's a lot here to enjoy so anyone looking for a pick-me-up and likes unconventional humour will find something in here they'll like. I thought it was a brilliant piece from the McSweeney's gang. Recommended.

Maybe it hints at my age or "demographic", but I was profoundly influenced and thoroughly troubled by this prose. Chomsky on Middle Earth? Cobra recruiting? The death star trash compactor? It's like it was written just for me!

As a mere imitiation of the original idea, I may try to continue the Star Wars essay concept by creating a marketing analysis on the faulty business model of itinerant Jawa scavengers on Tatooine. It's bugged me for a while, but come on, who starts a family business in the desert looking to collect errant droids? It's the desert! Desert+robot bounty=Return on Investment? Clearly there are much more successful droid scavenger companies out there with a lot less hassle. Amortizing a sandcrawler? The mileage is terrible not to mention the poor fit and finish. Attacks by Tusken raiders? The raiders know where the action is, so why not avoid the unhealthy competition? Sure this work suits the Jawa's disposition, but it's probably safer for them to be a lumberjack, drug dealer, work at Disney, or even be a magician's assistant by far!

Clearly an issue of location, seasonality, and optimization of the Jawa's service industry model.

This book is outstanding.