Q3 2021 Roundup

With the fall equinox, summer is now over.

This blog has passed 2800 daily posts in a row, though reported hits are way down from last year.  Posts will continue until readership improves.  : – )

This summer saw many posts on favorite topics, including dinosaurs, robots, solar energy, and cryptocurrencies.  And robot helicopters on Mars.   And the melting cryosphere.

If we hear about a solar powered robot dinosaur that eats cryptocurrency you know it will appear in this blog!  Especially if it emerges from a melting icecap and goes to Mars to transform into a helicopter.

Book Reviews

As always, weekly reviews of 14 fiction and 6 non fiction books.

Notable book:  The Amazons by Adrienne Mayor

Fiction

Antkind by Charlie Kaufman
The World Gives Way by Marissa Levien
The Very Nice Box by Laura Blackett and Eve Gleichman
Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson
Captain Moxley and the Embers of Empire by Dan Hanks
The Paris Labyrinth by Gilles Legardinier
The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris
Questland by Carrie Vaughn
The Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
Elysium Fire by Alistair Reynolds
The Invention of Sound by Chuck Palahniuk
Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Non-fiction

The Amazons by Adrienne Mayor
Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen
Venus and Aphrodite by Bettany Hughes
Forget the Alamo by Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, and Jason Stanford
We Had A Little Real Estate Problem by Kliph Nesteroff
Pastels and Pedophiles by Mia Bloom and Sophia Moskalenko

Great Names For a Band

Terms found in real technical papers, not made up at all.

“Spin Orbit Torques”
“Cadmium Telluride”

Book Review: “We Had A Little Real Estate Problem” by Kliph Nesteroff

We Had A Little Real Estate Problem by Kliph Nesteroff

Nesteroff is a historian of show biz comedy, which he takes very seriously.  His new book is a history of Native American stand up comedians, which he takes very seriously, too. 

For a book about comedy, there isn’t much to laugh about here.  The life of a stand up comedian is just as hard as any other aspiring entertainer, and Native Americans have additional hills to climb and battles to fight, including racism and racist stereotypes, poverty and just plain geography.

Many of the entertainers covered have sought to voice the history and life of Native Americans, and making that funny ain’t easy.  The title of the book references the esteemed Charlie Hill’s signature line,

“My people are from Wisconsin.  We used to be from New York.  We had a little real estate problem.”

– Charlie Hill

On a positive note, this book describes the historic cultural importance of humor, indeed, improvised stand up humor, in traditional cultures across North America.  Anyone who has spent time in Indian country knows that there is a lot of laughter, and a lot of crazy humor.

But jokes do not always translate well outside their context, however, so aspiring Native American comics have had to work to communicate to different audiences.  A few years ago, a friend from out west turned me on to the 1491s, who are one of the most successful groups working today, so I was sort of prepared in advance for this topic, and for the ‘culture shock’ of some of the humor.  No, I don’t understand a lot of the 1491s stuff, except as slapstick.

Personally, I dislike stand up comedy, so I don’t personally care whether anyone ever becomes a comic, Native or not.  But I certainly was rooting for a lot of the crazy kids who work so hard despite everything.

And, if nothing else, read this book to learn about racism and the founding crimes of the US and Canada.  It’s not funny.

---

1. Kliph Nesteroff, We Had A Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans & Comedy, New York, Simon & Schuster, 2021.

Sunday Book Reviews