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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb collection shows off a great satirist's comic range, 24 Jul 2001
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.
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by Terry Southern
by Terry Southern
by Lee Hill
by Terry Southern
by Stephen Fry
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