Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 24, 1993 TAG: 9301240219
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by JANICE ZENNER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
SCREAMING FOR HIS RIGHT TO BE RETRO
I HAVEN'T UNDERSTOOD ANYTHING SINCE 1962; And Other Nekkid Truths. By Lewis Grizzard. Villard Books. $18.In his 1914 work, "The World Set Free," H.G. Wells wrote of the future: "The Catastrophe of the atomic bombs which shook men out of their cities and businesses and economic relations, shook them also out of their old established habits of thought, and out of the lightly held beliefs and prejudices that came down to them from the past."
It was sweet of old H.G. to believe we'd turn out so well, don't you think?
Take Lewis Grizzard - a man who has managed to cling to his habits of thought, beliefs and prejudices from the past with a death grip. Grasping values that predate Wells, much less the bomb, Grizzard longs for the day when he could pinch a girl's fanny, tell a racial joke and throw a Pabst can out the window of his pickup. And not be hindered by society's scorn. Would someone please pass Lewis the reality?
It's nearly the 21st century and a certain degree of enlightenment has been unearthed, even in the South. And yet here stands Grizzard leaning against the winds of change, blinking away the gentle rain of mercy, screaming for his right to be retro. It's almost pathetic, were it not so destructive, so divisive.
I've give the man credit; he writes a great title. A few of my favorites over the years have been "Elvis Is Dead and I Don't Feel So Good Myself," "They Tore Out My Heart and Stomped That Sucker Flat" and "Chili Dawgs Always Bark at Night." Sometimes his books managed to be as humorous as their titles. Sometimes not.
This newest release, "I Haven't Understood Anything Since 1962" sounded particularly appealing. He and I are the same age and I sometimes feel that way myself. We both grew up in the South, moved away, then came home again. We both think deer hunting is murder unless you need the food. And we both miss that time of innocence in America before Kennedy was shot. The similarities end there.
Grizzard's style is entertainment through inflammation, a good ol' boy Andrew Dice Clay. He means to rile our sensibilities and in that he succeeds. But endorsing the homophobia of Pat Buchanan and referring to Jimmy the Greek as misunderstood is going a little too far, even to be funny. Finding humor in right-wing extremism, and publishing it, is like shooting our nation in the foot.
I'd suggest that Lewis Grizzard take a serious look at the young Nazi skinheads in Germany and re-think his position. And it wouldn't hurt him to re-read his Will Rogers. God knows, we need more humor but not at the expense of women's rights, gays and people of color already oppressed long past what's decent.
With millions starving in Africa, the Islamic Bomb hanging over our heads and World War III possibly brewing in Bosnia, life's a little more pressing than the outcome of the Florida-Georgia game. And if it takes an era of over-zealous "politically correct" awareness to put to rest our country's history of intolerance, so be it. It's either that or get ready to have your fanny pinched again and again.
Janice Zenner is a writer living in Montgomery County.