Red-Dirt Marijuana and Other Tastes
by Terry Southern
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Description
Stories and essays from the New York Times-bestselling author: "Remarkable . . . firmly establishes Southern as one of America's foremost writers" (George Plimpton).  One of the great collections, the range found here is impressive: from new journalism to absurd parodies and theatrical sketches; from absurd short riffs to Southern's most classic and lyrical early works of fiction. "Red-Dirt Marijuana," the insightful, funny, and moving story of the relationship between a white boy and a show more black man, is paired with the horrific knock-down, drag-out of "Razor Fight." One of the most scandalous stories ever published, "The Blood of a Wig," combines an insider's look at the "Quality Lit" biz, the drug underground of Greenwich Village, and a vision of necrophilia involving one of America's most sacred cows. There is an imaginary encounter between Freud and Kafka in "Apartment to Exchange," a skewering of the liberal white man and his efforts to befriend a black jazz musician in "You're Too Hip, Baby," an exploration of race relations, moonshine, and the baton-twirling subculture in the personal essay "Twirling at Ole Miss" (identified by Tom Wolfe as the first instance of "New Journalism"), and many more pieces with Southern's signature dark satire, unconventional storylines, and pitch-perfect dialogue.  Red-Dirt Marijuana and Other Tastes is a wild, funny, and dazzlingly diverse trip through the American culture of the 1950s and 1960s.  This ebook features an illustrated biography of Terry Southern including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's estate. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
I just couldn't get into it. The characters feel like caricatures and, to me, are generally unrelatable. The stories have stuff happening, but there's no real sense of development or growth. As much as the characters are supposed to be "normal," they aren't really compelling either. It's possible that I'm just not familiar with Southern's work and just am not getting some underlying thread, but I bought this largely because the copy I scored had blurbs talking about the book being hilarious. I think a lot of the humor either is dated or simply doesn't set itself up as humor. I'm not getting it.
I understand that he's something of an influence on Tom Wolfe, whose work I do like, but maybe it's just that I like longer form works.
I understand that he's something of an influence on Tom Wolfe, whose work I do like, but maybe it's just that I like longer form works.
At the time, Southern was a popular writer in my social group. There was much for me in this look at the fringes of the West Coast, Hollywood based hipster crowd. I guess it was a guide to behaviour and the "IN" jokes.
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41 works; 2 members
McMurtry's Texas Literature
27 works; 1 member
Author Information
29+ Works 3,452 Members
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Common Knowledge
- Original title
- Red-Dirt Marijuana and Other Tastes
- Original publication date
- 1967
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Statistics
- Members
- 291
- Popularity
- 110,646
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.38)
- Languages
- English, French, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 13
- ASINs
- 14
