Related Subjects:
Author Index
Book reviews for "Olson,_Kirby" sorted by average review score:
Comedy After Postmodernism: Rereading Comedy from Edward Lear to Charles Willeford
Published in Hardcover by Texas Tech University Press (January, 2001)
Amazon base price: $29.95
Used price: $13.00
Collectible price: $21.18
Buy one from zShops for: $12.96
Used price: $13.00
Collectible price: $21.18
Buy one from zShops for: $12.96
Average review score:
Interesting even for professional comedians
Gregory Corso: Doubting Thomist
Published in Hardcover by Southern Illinois Univ Pr (Txt) (November, 2002)
Amazon base price: $40.00
Used price: $20.00
Buy one from zShops for: $21.17
Used price: $20.00
Buy one from zShops for: $21.17
Average review score:
No reviews found.
Remembering Anna O.: A Century of Mystification
Published in Library Binding by Routledge (10 September, 1996)
Amazon base price: $75.00
Average review score:
No reviews found.
Related Subjects: Author Index
Search Authors.BooksUnderReview.com
Reviews are from readers at Amazon.com. To add a review, follow the Amazon buy link above.
Olson is always sort of idiosyncratic. He wore a cowboy hat and a paisley shirt to classes.
His boots were pink.
The book he has written here is also idiosyncratic. He mixes weird stuff: like Hegel and Wodehouse in one chapter, and ancient Greek philosophy and modern mystery stories in another chapter. It was fun to see him go in depth.
The basis for humor, as he once pointed out in a class, was that you take two conflicting schemas, two completely opposite ideas, and have them make love. Their boundaries tickle. It's like omparing motorcycles and oranges. There is always a way to do it. Goosebumps, they both roll, they both smell good, and so on, until you get a productive comparison that makes you laugh. Olson keeps working until he gets it.
Olson is doing that through this whole book. It's a hard thing to sustain because it can get so complex that it falls into apostasy. But that's where comedians should be headed. This is sit-down comedy, though. Sit down, and think about it.
I should maybe try to ompare apples and speedboats.