- Hardcover: 263 pages
- Publisher: Grove Press (May 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0802116892
- ISBN-13: 978-0802116895
- Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 14 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 670,563 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Acclaimed novelist, Beat godfather, prolific screenwriter and one of the founders of the New Journalism, Terry Southern was an audacious outrageous American original. This book is an uncensored and hugely entertaining collection that spans the gamut of his stellar career.
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First Sentence
Recently I was researching an article for a woman's magazine, whose considerate editor had already entitled it-Con Men: Their Games and Their NAMES-aiming, with the final emphasis, for a bit of the old expose mileage no doubt. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Recently I was researching an article for a woman's magazine, whose considerate editor had already entitled it-Con Men: Their Games and Their NAMES-aiming, with the final emphasis, for a bit of the old expose mileage no doubt. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Terry Southern is possibly the most underrated comic writer of the post-war years, and his reputation continues to decline. It's the demographics. His fans from the 1950s and 1960s are dropping like flies and the younger generation never discovered him. This is a great pity. So much good stuff has been neglected. How may under-40s could tell you who wrote the screenplay of Dr. Strangelove? Where can you find a copy of "Candy"? Whatever happened to "Blue Movie"?
But wait! Now there is hope for a regeneration of this great satirist's name. For his son Niles and collaborator John Alan Friedman have brought together a wonderful collection of Terry Southern at his most outrageous, in "Now Dig This", a collection of fragments, fantasies, interviews, spoof letters and other bits that defy categorization. Forgive the naff title. Open the book. Nearly every page will leave you laughing. I have been getting second-hand laughs myself in London pubs for the past two weeks quoting lines from this treasure, much of it in the most awful taste.
I was reminded of Terry Southern's talent a month ago when I saw Dr. Strangelove again on late-night television and found it fresh as ever. This man had the discipline to write for Stanley Kubrick and the creative force to help push back the boundaries of American journalism. He also had the weirdness to write deadpan to MS. Magazine to complain that women in bed must learn to calm down and cut out this "panting, gasping, moaning, sobbing, writing, scratching, biting, screaming, and the seemingly inveriable "Oh my god... oh, my god ... oh, my god" if ever they were to be taken seriously by men.
My personal favorite in this collection is his 1100-word account of his imaginary visit to the New Yorker, whose editors had turned up their noses at his writings for many years. He describes himself ordering NYer staffers about in the corridor while "leaning lightly forward on a Malacca cane, pointing at things with my chin." He ends up bickering with E.B. White.
The book is not all humor. His interviews deal with such subjects as the making of Dr. Strangelove, the nature of screenwriting and a chat with the great William Burroughs. One fleeting gem was the background on Slim Pickens and a priceless vignette of Southern and Pickens sharing a few fingers of Wild Turkey well before the sun hit the yardarm.
Even his serious reflections are imbued with a turn of phrase that seems to make sport of almost everything, including himself.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As I love TS I'm a bit biased ... I enjoyed this book and bought it because the man will always be my No.1 Hero. I just wish this collection was longer, but it was surely meant as a 'taster', so now I have to research more ... and I will ;)
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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6 reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
the long awaited sequel to Red Dirt Marijuana
31 May 2001
Format:Hardcover
In these heartless consumerist times, irony has become debased. Thus the arrival of this anthology of previously uncollected and unpublished work by Terry Southern is not only a delightful surprise, but profoundly neccesary. Just as his 1967 anthology, Red Dirt Marijuana, proved that Southern was not just the great black humorist of the post-WWII era, but a great short story writer and essayist, so does Now Dig This affirm that status. No one has ever managed to quite duplicate Southern's mastery of so many forms: the letter as put-on, gonzo journalism, literary criticism, screenwriting and short fiction. Southern fans will be delighted at the inclusion of "Heavy Put-Away", a superb essay on Kurt Weill, and reminscences of Stanley Kubrick and Frank O'Hara. For first time readers, I have only envy. Now Dig This will be your all expenses paid ticket to a world of darkness and laughter. To paraphrase Ringo Starr, who acted in adaptations of two Southern novels, Candy and The Magic Christian, Buy a Terry Southern book today. Now Dig This is a very, very good place to start your spending spree.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Vile
9 July 2007
Format:Paperback
A grave disappointment. I cast myself into the Great Pit of Squaredom, surely, by this judgement, but aside from some isolated good bits, including Southern's notes on working with Kubrick on Strangelove and his interview with Henry Green, this is a poor (unspeakable, indeed!) excuse for a collection--repetitive, full of tiresome hipster tics, willfully and wearyingly perverse, seeking shock for shock's sake, like a child misbehaving to get attention. Do not waste your time or your money on this unfortunate production. Buy a copy of The Magic Christian instead.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
He's Too Hip, Baby!
1 Jun 2001
Format:Hardcover
It's hard to imagine today, but there once was a time when the simple written word could send shudders of fear and loathing down the spines of mainstream America. And no one gave Mr and Mrs Front Porch USA the shakes more than Terry Southern. His novel "Candy" was banned and branded as pornography before it even reached our shores; his take on the military in "Doc Strangelove" earned him the label "pinko." But, like all great satirists (which he certainly was) know, "telling it like it is" often times means "taking your lumps like a man." And Terry took plenty of lumps, and humps, but never let his trials and tribs get in the way of "making it hot" for people. Although the mighty lions of 60's pop culture are now - alas! - all nearly gone, this volume of previously unseen TS works serves as an excellent reminder of a time when humor meant more than just being funny, and words alone had the power to give people the coniptions. And as "Now Dig This!" reminds us, while Southern took on all comers and suffered no fool gladly, he was a gentle giant who did so whilst nudging us playfully in the ribs - not poking us in the eye. "Now Dig This!" is a great addition to any modern humor library, and a worthy addition to the Southern canon. Bravo.
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