Comic Book

By Doug Levy Catalyst

Send comments to: catalyst@wildcat.arizona.edu

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat

The New Yorker is internationally recognized for a number of reasons: first-rate fiction from some of the world's most respected writers; thoughtful, featured-based journalism; informed entertainment coverage and reviews; distinctive cartoons and a general sense of high-cultured hipness.

One of the not-so-secret treasures of the weekly periodical is the "Last Shout," which appears on the final page of each issue, and features often irreverent humor-based pieces from a variety of modern personalities.

These days, it seems like Steve Martin's byline appears on that page more often than not, which is a definite treat for regular readers.

Martin's tongue-in-cheek essays and excursions into the realms of satire and farce are consistently inventive, hilarious and, as a rule, just plain silly.

With the increasing frequency of their appearance, Martin's writings have been just screaming to be collected.

That scream has been answered with the release of Pure Drivel, a new book from Hyperion which features the comedian's New Yorker work, as well as a couple of pieces that originally ran in the New York Times.

It's hard to read a piece like Martin's "Side Effects," the accompaniment to a fictitious medication, without falling over laughing. The text contains such warnings as "You may feel a powerful sense of impending doom; this is because you are about to die," and "Men may experience impotence, but only during intercourse."

There are 23 total featured pieces in Pure Drivel, ranging from fake news articles, like "Mars Probe Finds Kittens" to mock classical dialogue ("The Paparazzi of Plato").

"How I Joined Mensa," one of the best of the lot, is Martin at his finest; in trying to locate the intellectual organization, he writes, "I gave up on the phone book, which led me astray time and again with its complex passages, and then tried blind calling with no success. Next 1-800-MENSA, which weirdly brought a dead silence on the other end of the phone. A week later, while volksvalking, I realized that MENSA didn't contain enough numerals to be a phone number and knew it must be some kind of a test . . ."

The book closes out with "A Word from the Words," which opens with the line, "First, let me say how much I enjoy being one of the words in this book . . ."

It is the stuff of an imagination run wild, and it taps into an almost Platonic ideal of "wackiness." It's a chance to forget about all of the serious things in life for a time and indulge your silly side.

In fact, it's a realization that maybe pure drivel is exactly what life should really be about, because there's really not much worth more than a good laugh.

If you haven't already realized that, it's about you time you found out. Just let Mr. Martin show you the way.