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Book Reviews
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Naked: Writers Uncover the Way We Live on Earth
Edited by Susan Zakin
(Four Walls Eight Windows; 2004; $14; 384pp.)
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It appears in some of the books and films I have commented on that a lot of new juices are coming into the progressive movement, new creativity, new power, uncovering/unveiling the myth of power. So what movement do you know of that needs some major criticism and some major renovation? You are right, the environmental movement. They have all these major organizations that create laws and then get killed by an administration that does what it wants to. And now they waste so much paper with their mass mailings to get a signature and request more money. Anyway, the movement needs some revamping and the book “Naked” is an attempt at doing this. They have writers who are not necessarily “environmentalists” but who have a love of the earth that is funny, crazy, wild and full of life. Zakin has a story by TC Boyle called “Dogology” that had me rolling on the floor. It’s about a woman who acts like a dog for a class, who really gets into it. Each page you find she gets into it more and more, to the horror of her neighbors. What does this have to do with the environment? A LOT!
With all these stats I hear about people loving the environment and considering themselves environmentalists, gimme a break! Big deal, if they don’t do something with their lifestyle as best as possible to live in harmony with nature, then their label is meaningless. Then we have Edward Abbey’s letters that have never been published before. One is a treasure, a letter he carried around with him, written by someone inviting him (Abbey) to participate in a religious ceremony by playing the alcoholic loser. The book has a piece by the actor Klaus Kinski writing about his adventures in the jungle doing a film with Herzog. It’s not ABOUT the environment but it IS. “Wet” by Joe Donnelley is hilarious, about a guy who’s afraid of water, not drinking water, but pools, Jacuzzis, water parks, bathtubs. As he writes: “Is there any rational basis for why, when I look at a hot tub, all I see are naked bodies sloshing around in an oversized Petri dish that’s been heated to ripe incubation temperature?” So we enter into his world of bacteria in the public pools, of various fecal accidents, festering wounds, E.coli, Staphylococcus, etc. The point is, he makes the story funny, entertaining. He continues on his journey to Raging Waters where there are 6,000 customers a day. “With that many people in the water, what are the chances someone’s going to shit in my mouth? But, then again, with that many rear ends splashing around like loaded guns, I wondered what are the chances someone isn’t going to let go with at least a muddy fart?” It gets funnier and funnier.
Movements, as important as they are, need a facelift from time to time. Humor is one of the best ways. Look at Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock (who decided to eat fast food burgers for a month to make a point). It is funny and serious at the same time. We laugh with Morgan; we laugh with Mr. Moore as we also learn about certain realities that we are not getting in the normal channels of the media. Editor Susan Zakin has done a favor for the enviro movement. I recommend it highly to all those enviros who sense that something is missing in their movement if everybody agrees with them but nobody is doing a thing about it.
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