Zombie Spaceship Wasteland -- Patton Oswalt
Scribner. 2011
"Printed and bound by Voluntary Convict Labor Press, Mens Correctional Facility, Galax, Virginia."
"Certain names and identifying characteristics have been changed, certain characters are composites, and some are made-up altogether."
Glad to hear that convict labor was voluntary.
But I wonder how voluntary it really was. I mean... you know... prison.
But I wonder how voluntary it really was. I mean... you know... prison.
I was expecting a comedy romp through imaginationland and a wonderful bucket of chuckles.
I got something different.
It’s funny, yes. Parts of it are hilarious. But it probably doesn’t belong in the humor section. This is a collection of autobiographical articles, essays, jokes and stories, by the wonderfully funny Patton Oswalt.
It’s a touching book. Doubly so if you were and/or are an outcast.
It’s funny, yes. Parts of it are hilarious. But it probably doesn’t belong in the humor section. This is a collection of autobiographical articles, essays, jokes and stories, by the wonderfully funny Patton Oswalt.
It’s a touching book. Doubly so if you were and/or are an outcast.
Oswalt on his crazy uncle:
“I watched him because I couldn’t believe that could be anyone’s comfortable horizon. A tiny porch on a dark corner near a highway. We lucked out living on a planet made thrilling by billions of years of chance, catastrophe, miracles, and disaster, and he’d rejected it. You’re offered the world every morning when you open your eyes. I was beginning to see Pete as a representative of all the people who shut that out, through cynicism, religion, fear, greed, or ritual.”
It’s definitely entertaining, and I think it’s a pretty important book. I think people who know nothing of Patton Oswalt’s career would benefit more from it than those of us who do, because they’ll be tabula rasa, but everyone who reads it will benefit from it somehow.
I get the feeling that it will have a pretty wide readership now that geekiness is popular.
I would recommend it to my middle-school self. I think it would’ve changed my life. Of course, a lot of things would change my life if I could go back in time and give them to a previous version of me. I sometimes wonder if, given the chance, I would choose to go back and do something for myself, to help me through the sometimes shittiness that was my youth. Sometimes I think that sometimes shittiness helps me appreciate life more. But I might just be telling myself that. I might just be telling myself that my sometimes shitty and mostly wasted youth turned out to be a good thing so I don’t get resentful.
I get the feeling that it will have a pretty wide readership now that geekiness is popular.
I would recommend it to my middle-school self. I think it would’ve changed my life. Of course, a lot of things would change my life if I could go back in time and give them to a previous version of me. I sometimes wonder if, given the chance, I would choose to go back and do something for myself, to help me through the sometimes shittiness that was my youth. Sometimes I think that sometimes shittiness helps me appreciate life more. But I might just be telling myself that. I might just be telling myself that my sometimes shitty and mostly wasted youth turned out to be a good thing so I don’t get resentful.
It would be hard to convince the used-to-be me that I would someday be who I am today. I have a lot of friends to thank for that. And myself, I suppose.
Dear Patton Oswalt,
Thanks for the awkward self-reflection. Your book was awesome.
Sincerely,
Ross
Thanks for the awkward self-reflection. Your book was awesome.
Sincerely,
Ross
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