Review: The Rant Zone
Published on 24 Jun 2006 at 11:15 am |
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Filed under The Cargo Cults of Business, Main Stream Media.
I strongly suspect there are TV writers and producers working today who weren’t yet born when I last watched television on regular basis. Still, somewhere along the line I caught several of Dennis Miller’s rants. Maybe he was doing them that long ago, or maybe I saw them on the omnipresent continental breakfast TV in some hotel… I really thought his stuff was great, and while I remember at least one I didn’t like, I don’t expect to like everything (on the contrary) and besides, anyone can have an off day… So, when I saw The Rant Zone, I picked it up with high hopes. Unfortunately I was disappointed.
I can’t tell whether he’s changed or I have, but the contents of this book are not up to the standard I remember. While Miller has always been refreshingly plain spoken, in The Rant Zone his writing is more vulgar than it needs to be to make his point, and it gives the impression that when he can’t think of something smart to say he fills the space with something crude. Really, the crudeness is fine when it’s in the service of making some point, but too often in these rants it seems to only serve the purpose of filling space or angling for a cheap laugh.
I’m inclined to believe that this work really is weak, and that it’s not just changing taste on my part, because of the way a few of the rants, and a few paragraphs of others, stand out from the rest. They sound like the Dennis Miller I remember: plain speaking, honest, rueful, intelligent, unflinching, and sarcastic. If you want to pick out the good ones, the book might be worthwhile. I particularly enjoyed "Is he gone yet?", "Good Bye, Cool, Cool World," and "Twelve Million Angry Men." With the exception of the very last rant, the book is over once he starts talking sports, if I’d known I’d have quit reading right there. I think I’ll pick up the older, The Rants. Maybe that will answer the question of whether he’s changed or I have…
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