Once again David Sedaris had me in tears laughing with his stories. His writing is compassionate, eccentric, and keeps you interested at all times. Reading his work has at least temporarily spared the world with short stories about my past: his seem too funny to compete with. One coworker lifted my spirits a little when she pointed out that some of his stories simply must be made up. For example, there is little likelihood that his dad really ate his own hat. He also claims he used to watch six movies a week while living in Manhattan. We all know from tv shows that the price of movie tickets in New York City are always around $20 and you are not guaranteed a seat in even the tiniest of theatres. Who has that much time and money to go to the theatre six times a week? Assuming he doesn't purchase any concessions, he would be spending $120 a week on movies. His stories are still excellent even if they're partly exaggerated, and knowing he cheated can help the rest of us even try to compare to how funny his books are.
In Me Talk Pretty One Day there were two stories that were so honest and free of shame that they made me laugh for a full day: I Almost Saw This Girl Get Killed and Smart Guy.
I Almost Saw This Girl Get Killed describes a night where David and his boyfriend went to a French carnival. As they strolled through the park the machinery of one of the rides malfunctioned and the carnival-goers were trapped in their seats. Each person on the ride was frozen in place, and there was one woman stuck dangling upside down with only a flimsy seatbelt restraining her from falling. The park management was making almost slow progress to rescue the people on the ride, and a small crowd formed, breathless with morbid anticipation for the woman’s probable death. David was part of that crowd, and he spent the duration of the wait convincing himself it was normal to be interested in waiting to see if the woman lived or died. He was ultimately comforted that his story would trump all other amusement park anecdotes in the future. He imagined himself sitting back nonchalantly while friends traded tales of rides gone bad, and right before the topic of conversation moved on he would quietly say “I once saw a girl fall to her death at a carnival.” He would be the center of attention and would make everyone’s night with his fascinating story. It goes on from there, no, I did not ruin the entire short story for you.
But how wonderful is it to hear someone openly admit to his own morbid curiosity? Obviously an inappropriate interest in death is a staple of human nature. Whether it was the gladiators, public beheadings, hangings, firing squads, or any other cruel exercise society has invented, each event drew a crowd. Sedaris discusses this phenomenon from an observational viewpoint: why was he interested in what he was seeing? What did it say about him and everyone else in the crowd that they stayed to watch what happened to the woman? Was his excitement at telling people the story in the future healthy or unhealthy? It was hilarious and thought provoking.
Smart Guy is more of a self-deprecating tale. The basic gist (without ruining the story) is David explaining how his entire life he considered himself a genius. He spent most of his years accepting (and expecting) compliments from people about how astute and observant he was. People with high IQ’s would pass through his life (either through work or as friends), and he would almost pity them, as they had no idea how incredibly smart he was himself. If one day these people did realize the extent of his intelligence they would be embarrassed that they once assumed they were smarter than him. Like the time Louie Anderson went on Oprah and bragged about how rich he was. Then one day he takes an IQ test to find out if he was right about being a genius or not.
The thing is standardized tests simply _aren’t_ a good standard for testing intelligence. I’m speaking from personal opinion, but I’ve known people that were MENSA members, and they were some of the dumbest people I’ve ever met. Maybe if I had a code to crack or needed to design a robot I would go to those people first, but for opinions on art, literature, food, human interaction, survival methods, or directions from place to place, I would not go to those people. Standardized tests are excellent tools to find people that are excellent at three dimensional thinking, math, and comprehension. But people with varied experience and exposure to different ways of thinking are the smartest in real life. In conclusion, whether or not David Sedaris’ test score came out the way he expected, it is not an actual indicator if he’s a genius or not.
I highly recommend this book!
In Me Talk Pretty One Day there were two stories that were so honest and free of shame that they made me laugh for a full day: I Almost Saw This Girl Get Killed and Smart Guy.
I Almost Saw This Girl Get Killed describes a night where David and his boyfriend went to a French carnival. As they strolled through the park the machinery of one of the rides malfunctioned and the carnival-goers were trapped in their seats. Each person on the ride was frozen in place, and there was one woman stuck dangling upside down with only a flimsy seatbelt restraining her from falling. The park management was making almost slow progress to rescue the people on the ride, and a small crowd formed, breathless with morbid anticipation for the woman’s probable death. David was part of that crowd, and he spent the duration of the wait convincing himself it was normal to be interested in waiting to see if the woman lived or died. He was ultimately comforted that his story would trump all other amusement park anecdotes in the future. He imagined himself sitting back nonchalantly while friends traded tales of rides gone bad, and right before the topic of conversation moved on he would quietly say “I once saw a girl fall to her death at a carnival.” He would be the center of attention and would make everyone’s night with his fascinating story. It goes on from there, no, I did not ruin the entire short story for you.
But how wonderful is it to hear someone openly admit to his own morbid curiosity? Obviously an inappropriate interest in death is a staple of human nature. Whether it was the gladiators, public beheadings, hangings, firing squads, or any other cruel exercise society has invented, each event drew a crowd. Sedaris discusses this phenomenon from an observational viewpoint: why was he interested in what he was seeing? What did it say about him and everyone else in the crowd that they stayed to watch what happened to the woman? Was his excitement at telling people the story in the future healthy or unhealthy? It was hilarious and thought provoking.
Smart Guy is more of a self-deprecating tale. The basic gist (without ruining the story) is David explaining how his entire life he considered himself a genius. He spent most of his years accepting (and expecting) compliments from people about how astute and observant he was. People with high IQ’s would pass through his life (either through work or as friends), and he would almost pity them, as they had no idea how incredibly smart he was himself. If one day these people did realize the extent of his intelligence they would be embarrassed that they once assumed they were smarter than him. Like the time Louie Anderson went on Oprah and bragged about how rich he was. Then one day he takes an IQ test to find out if he was right about being a genius or not.
The thing is standardized tests simply _aren’t_ a good standard for testing intelligence. I’m speaking from personal opinion, but I’ve known people that were MENSA members, and they were some of the dumbest people I’ve ever met. Maybe if I had a code to crack or needed to design a robot I would go to those people first, but for opinions on art, literature, food, human interaction, survival methods, or directions from place to place, I would not go to those people. Standardized tests are excellent tools to find people that are excellent at three dimensional thinking, math, and comprehension. But people with varied experience and exposure to different ways of thinking are the smartest in real life. In conclusion, whether or not David Sedaris’ test score came out the way he expected, it is not an actual indicator if he’s a genius or not.
I highly recommend this book!
