Don't go getting all high-falutin' literary on me, Playboy. This month you're following in the footsteps of The New Yorker again with an excerpt of R. Crumb's Illustrated Bible:

Now I'm not exactly sure why ole R. Crumb decided to make a word-for-word comic book version of the Bible. It's not exactly as informative as Larry Gonick's Cartoon History of the Universe.
Unless his point was to show how flat-out crazy that book is when seen from a fresh perspective. In that sense, he scores.
The issue also includes an excerpt of Vladimir Nabokov's last novel, The Original of Laura. Based on this cursory excerpt, it's hard to get a sense if the book as a whole is worthwhile, but the rambling sentences suggest the onset of senility in the author, since he wrote it as a septuagenarian on his death bed. Maybe the Playboy editors just went for the "sexy" part of the book, but its subject matter is strongly reminiscent of Lolita, with an old man named Hubert Hubert (hint, hint), who repeatedly stands too close to a much-younger girl. A shame Nabokov perished before Viagra.

This picture scares me.
Playboy also seems to be following in the grand tradition of Hustler, now including liberal tracts next to beaver shots. This time it's Thomas Frank mano y mano against Glenn Beck, who I only know from amusing cuts in the John Stewart and Colbert shows. Guy seems unstable. But if an alcoholic born-again Mormon who breaks down into tears can become the most successful talk show host in the nation, there's hope for us all. All we need to do is learn to imbibe and regurgitate a constant stream of bullshit for indeed, it is the stuff of (American) life. Interesting excerpt:
"After 30 years in which free-market worship dominated our politics, we have just lived through one of the greatest failures of the free-market system in all of history. And the greatest political superstar of this age is a man who has made it his business to root out and assail critics of the free-market system. What's more, he does so as a self-proclaimed friend of the common man."
Now I'm not exactly sure why ole R. Crumb decided to make a word-for-word comic book version of the Bible. It's not exactly as informative as Larry Gonick's Cartoon History of the Universe.
Unless his point was to show how flat-out crazy that book is when seen from a fresh perspective. In that sense, he scores.
The issue also includes an excerpt of Vladimir Nabokov's last novel, The Original of Laura. Based on this cursory excerpt, it's hard to get a sense if the book as a whole is worthwhile, but the rambling sentences suggest the onset of senility in the author, since he wrote it as a septuagenarian on his death bed. Maybe the Playboy editors just went for the "sexy" part of the book, but its subject matter is strongly reminiscent of Lolita, with an old man named Hubert Hubert (hint, hint), who repeatedly stands too close to a much-younger girl. A shame Nabokov perished before Viagra.
This picture scares me.
Playboy also seems to be following in the grand tradition of Hustler, now including liberal tracts next to beaver shots. This time it's Thomas Frank mano y mano against Glenn Beck, who I only know from amusing cuts in the John Stewart and Colbert shows. Guy seems unstable. But if an alcoholic born-again Mormon who breaks down into tears can become the most successful talk show host in the nation, there's hope for us all. All we need to do is learn to imbibe and regurgitate a constant stream of bullshit for indeed, it is the stuff of (American) life. Interesting excerpt:
"After 30 years in which free-market worship dominated our politics, we have just lived through one of the greatest failures of the free-market system in all of history. And the greatest political superstar of this age is a man who has made it his business to root out and assail critics of the free-market system. What's more, he does so as a self-proclaimed friend of the common man."
