Books: Skipping Towards Gomorrah
Jul. 30th, 2003 12:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chickenAfter months -- months! -- on the waiting list at the public library, I finally got my hands on Dan Savage's latest book, Skipping Towards Gomorrah: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Pursuit of Happiness in America and devoured it quickly over the weekend.
"Part travelogue, part memoir, part Bork-and-Bennett bitch slap, this book is a love letter to Thomas Jefferson, American freedom, and American sinners." So he says in the introduction, and it's true. The pursuit of happiness is right there in the Declaration of Independence, after all.
I particularly enjoy the way he celebrated "sins", upheld the right of people to indulge in those sins as long as they aren't hurting anyone else, and at the same time managed to make fun of sinners/humans, especially himself. "Look at us fools having a little harmless fun" he seems to say.
His political arguments are on target and well-argued/well-researched. But I find myself wondering why (with the exception of the Anger/guns chapter) why he thinks preaching to the choir is a useful exercise. We already agree with him for the most part, and while we find his skill at writing and his ability to generate a laugh quite wonderful, we don't need to read our own opinions all over again.
Because Robert Bork, Bill Bennett, et al. are not going to read his book. They will never even pick it up, and if they do, they will turn to a random page, pull a quote randomly out of context, and then use it to proclaim how horrible those degenerates are and how they are going to bring down this good, wonderful, otherwise perfect moral "family-centered" country. "See what will happen now that the faggots don't have to be arrested for sodomy anymore?" they will ask. Rational debate is not their strong suit.
Still, it is a fast, extremely fun read, and a fresh look at culture and the human condition.
Plus, lots of fun over-eating (chocolate cake!), smoking (well, only a little -- yes, it's never oregano), sex (again not as much as you'd think), gambling, etc. Fun fun fun!
The most revealing thing is the way Dan manages to commit a totally different sin than the one he intended, each time, in each chapter. Is that Anger you feel when you shoot that gun? No, woops, that was just a bit of pride at being a surprisingly good shot; he still (thankfully) believes in gun control and doesn't believe Anger should lead you to go kill Bill Bennett with a big ol' gun. Is that Greed you feel when you return again and again to the casino? No, that's just thrill-seeking -- since you're too chicken to jump out of a plain with a flimsy parachute, gambling's the thing, win or lose, you get that adrenaline rush.
This is the human being -- no matter how hard one tries to commit a "sin", a completely different one crops up.
And our ex-Catholic Dan feels that the best way to write a chapter on the sin of Sloth is not to write the chapter at all (cuz, sloth!), but his Catholic guilt gets the better of him, so he writes a chapter anyway. And a good chapter it is. My favorite.
"Part travelogue, part memoir, part Bork-and-Bennett bitch slap, this book is a love letter to Thomas Jefferson, American freedom, and American sinners." So he says in the introduction, and it's true. The pursuit of happiness is right there in the Declaration of Independence, after all.
I particularly enjoy the way he celebrated "sins", upheld the right of people to indulge in those sins as long as they aren't hurting anyone else, and at the same time managed to make fun of sinners/humans, especially himself. "Look at us fools having a little harmless fun" he seems to say.
His political arguments are on target and well-argued/well-researched. But I find myself wondering why (with the exception of the Anger/guns chapter) why he thinks preaching to the choir is a useful exercise. We already agree with him for the most part, and while we find his skill at writing and his ability to generate a laugh quite wonderful, we don't need to read our own opinions all over again.
Because Robert Bork, Bill Bennett, et al. are not going to read his book. They will never even pick it up, and if they do, they will turn to a random page, pull a quote randomly out of context, and then use it to proclaim how horrible those degenerates are and how they are going to bring down this good, wonderful, otherwise perfect moral "family-centered" country. "See what will happen now that the faggots don't have to be arrested for sodomy anymore?" they will ask. Rational debate is not their strong suit.
Still, it is a fast, extremely fun read, and a fresh look at culture and the human condition.
Plus, lots of fun over-eating (chocolate cake!), smoking (well, only a little -- yes, it's never oregano), sex (again not as much as you'd think), gambling, etc. Fun fun fun!
The most revealing thing is the way Dan manages to commit a totally different sin than the one he intended, each time, in each chapter. Is that Anger you feel when you shoot that gun? No, woops, that was just a bit of pride at being a surprisingly good shot; he still (thankfully) believes in gun control and doesn't believe Anger should lead you to go kill Bill Bennett with a big ol' gun. Is that Greed you feel when you return again and again to the casino? No, that's just thrill-seeking -- since you're too chicken to jump out of a plain with a flimsy parachute, gambling's the thing, win or lose, you get that adrenaline rush.
This is the human being -- no matter how hard one tries to commit a "sin", a completely different one crops up.
And our ex-Catholic Dan feels that the best way to write a chapter on the sin of Sloth is not to write the chapter at all (cuz, sloth!), but his Catholic guilt gets the better of him, so he writes a chapter anyway. And a good chapter it is. My favorite.
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Date: 2003-07-30 06:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-07-31 06:00 am (UTC)