I am drawn back, without entirely being sure of the reason, to books about the folk music revival of the late 50's and early 60's, and to books about comedy in the late 60's and 70's. I do find it interesting that these movements overlapped, with many nascent stand-up comedians working the same clubs that -- just years before -- spawned Dylan and Baez and that crowd. Perhaps it's the notion of the performer as an artist, someone honing a craft and daring to put it out in front of the public.
In any case, Richard Zoglin's Comedy At The Edge, explores the realm of stand-up comedy post-Lenny Bruce and up through Seinfeld. George Carlin and Richard Pryor are the two real ground-breaking figures in this time frame, although Zoglin makes a convincing case for the long-term influence of Robert Klein's smart and confessional stand-up. It's an interesting book, particularly when Zonglin examines comedians like Klein or Elayne Boosler or early James Brooks. Others, like Steve Martin or Andy Kaufman or Robin Williams are well-covered in other books, but Zoglin interestingly considers not just those performers themselves but how they fit in (or didn't fit in) with their contemporaries. Zoglin does a good job on focusing only on what's interesting, completely skipping over some popular 70's comedians of no real influence or acclaim (David Brenner or Rich Little, for example, are barely mentioned). Also, while some comics are followed into the 80's and beyond, it seems right that Zoglin would focus his book on the decade just before the explosion of cable television, the expansion of comedy clubs outside New York and L.A., the post-Cosby Show surge of sit-coms helmed by unseasoned stand-up performers, and other catalysts for the over-saturation and late-century decline of the medium.
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Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational was not the book I was looking for. I was hoping to read something that might attempt to explain why we humans seem to so often act in ways counter to our own best interests, a kind of What's The Matter With Kansas? of the soul. Predictably Irrational was not that book. Instead, Ariely -- a behavioral economist at MIT -- examines the ways we make decisions, with a focus towards consumer decision making. (While not aimed thusly within the book, his experiment and conclusions all seem to be ready-made for corporate Marketing departments. It seems that, like the academic realm of psychology, this relatively new field of behavioral economics will become the proving ground and testing lab for advertisers and salesmen.) Ariely finds, for example, that most people will take a free piece of average-quality chocolate even if they have the opportunity to buy a better chocolate for a small price, that we're less likely to cheat on tests if we're reminded of the Ten Commandments beforehand, that we can be moved by hidden persuaders to think a magazine subscription deal is better than it is, and so on. It's kind of Freakonomics-lite, and the cover's no damn good, and I found myself resenting that it wasn't the book I wanted to read, if even such a book is out there.
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I've also continued on through Betrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy. After the fun chapter on the ancient Greek crackpot and math genius Pythagorus, there are several short chapters on other Ionians who aren't nearly as interesting. They argue whether matter is always in a state of flux, or whether anything actually changes, and there are some early stabs at atomic theory, but it's clear through these chapters that we are really just bidding our time while waiting for Socrates and Plato to come along.
Russell is a bit concerned that all these early philosophers are essentially rich kids who have the time for teaching and contemplation, which is sort of what both Socrates and Plato were. Socrates was put to death by the Athenians essentially for corrupting the youth and being a godless and "curious" person. Consider his persecutors as the House Un-Athenian Committee. Socrates defended himself unsuccessfully and HUAC ordered his punishment as death. Under Athenian law, Socrates had the right to propose a counter-offer regarding his punishment. Socrates suggested that HUAC fine him thirty bucks. So, yeah, they killed him pretty good.
Russell shows the influence of Sparta on Plato, Socrates' student. Where the Athenian city-state was groovy and like art, the Spartans took over stuff and fought the Persians and starred in Frank Miller graphic novels. But they also practiced eugenics and allowed little personal property and were the sort of society that the folks at Congressional Town Halls are pretending America's going to be under Obama's health plans. Plato's Republic, then, essentially proposes a merger of Athenian politics and culture with Sparta's communal focus in a form that, as Russell -- writing from England in 1940 or so -- presents it, is basically forms the blueprint for Nazi Germany. Fascinating stuff.
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