Geek Confidential | |||||||||
Rick Klaw | |||||||||
MonkeyBrain Books, 255 pages | |||||||||
|
A review by Neil Walsh
Well, I have so say that column quickly became one of my favourite regular
features here at SF Site. Nevertheless, I have long suspected that Rick
Klaw may be an unscrupulous pretender. His column is called "Geeks with
Books" and his new book is titled Geek Confidential. I've never met
Rick, but I have serious doubts that he is a bona fide geek. Every
conventional definition of the word "geek" carries with it strong
connotations of social unacceptability, due largely to behavioural factors,
often involving obsessive interest in a narrow field. In my mind, a geek is
someone who shows up to his cousin's wedding wearing a Star Trek uniform.
Here's the evidence against Rick Klaw: 1) he's married; 2) he has
friends, at least some of whom are actually cool (hey, Michael Moorcock was
in a rock band -- does it get any cooler than that?); 3) he has a
multitude of interests, including but not limited to books, films, comics
(aka "funny books"), SF, baseball, Texas history, and gorillas; and
4) when he writes about something you have no knowledge of, you can
easily understand what the hell he's on about. It's true that with regard
to points 1 and 2 above, I only have it on Rick's authority that he is
indeed married and that the people he calls friends regard him in the same
light. However, points 3 and 4 are indisputable. And therefore, I believe
I have exposed Rick Klaw: he is not a true geek!
So apart from the misrepresentative title, the book is a handsome package.
It's a slick cover design, front and back, the title and author name are
even prominently displayed on the spine (that's an inside joke, which you'll
get if you read the book). Notice of the introduction by legendary author
Michael Moorcock is also readily apparent, as is a positive comment from
award-winning author Joe R. Lansdale. Best of all, if you're a gorilla fan
like Rick -- and oddly enough, I understand there are at least a few others
out there who share this strange obsession -- the cover art boasts a
gun-toting gorilla in fedora and trench coat that is rather evocative of
classic mid-20th-century pulp. (I don't get it either, but it does look
kinda neat.) Rick will tell you in Geek Confidential why all of
these things are important. You may never have thought much about it
before, but there are reasons why you pick up one book and not another, and
most of those reasons have to do with the cover. It all makes sense to me
now -- except the bit about the gorillas; I still don't quite understand the
appeal. But I'm willing to let that one slide.
Once the cleverness of the cover has lured you into reading what's inside,
you'll quickly realize that Rick Klaw has some interesting things to say and
has a comfortable, easy way of saying them. He's very readable, in a
conversational way. Unfortunately, Rick's friendly thoughts and musings
share the pages with an inordinate number of small errors. The books is so
full of typos, misspellings, inconsistencies and other trivial copyediting
errors that it becomes at times distracting. So, to MonkeyBrain Books,
kudos on a nice-looking outside, but shame on you for not paying more
attention to the details that would make a nice-reading inside.
Typos aside, my only other complaint is with regard to the overall
continuity. This book makes no pretensions to be anything other than what
it is: a collection of essays, reviews and interviews from a well-informed
but pretty down-to-earth guy who has a penchant for expressing himself in a
public forum whenever he can. However, the book attempts to bring these
writings together in some kind of thematic groupings. Sometimes this more
or less works, such as for example the section called "World Turned Upside
Down" where Rick gets political, or the section called "No Ordinary
Buckaroo" in which are collected the Moorcock-related essays and an
interview with the man himself. But in the section called
"Bookselling 101" the editorial attempt to impose some kind of logic on
the series of essays plays havoc with the chronology of them without really
lending them any more coherence than already had. While I applaud the
intention of grouping Rick's thoughts thematically, I still think there
could have been more effort to do some creative editing to give the overall
book a little more creative continuity. As a result, we could have had a
book that grew and developed to some logical place, or to an overall
conclusion, or, well, somewhere. Instead, what we have is simply a record
of Rick's writings, largely from the internet (SF Site and elsewhere).
Which is all good, except that in this case I might have preferred to see
them in chronological order so that I could follow Rick's thought patterns
for myself.
Quibbles, perhaps. And I've dwelt on them too long. In any case, I am very
happy to have on immortal paper the words and opinions of my current
favourite SF Site columnist. The best thing about Rick is that he knows
what he's talking about (most of the time, anyway). I've learned an awful
lot about many facets of the book industry from reading Rick's columns over
the past couple of years. He's well read, but isn't ashamed to admit where
he hasn't gone. He's been around and walked the walk, but he doesn't lord
it over his readers. When he drops a name, you don't feel like he's
name-dropping; you feel like he's telling you about some of the people he
happens to know, just as natural as can be. Which brings us to the second
best thing about Rick. The second best thing about Rick is he makes you
feel like he's just one of the guys. I've already mentioned his friendly,
conversational style. He also knows how to express his thoughts clearly and
interestingly. Reading his book, you'll feel like you're having a series of
pleasant and often fascinating chats with a knowledgeable friend.
The final piece in Geek Confidential is called "Dopey Guy Manifesto."
Rick defines at some length what he means by "dopey guy" and, although I'm
not sure that term is very apt either, I think this is perhaps what he means
by his own personal definition of "geek." But really, Rick's not a geek.
Rick's not a dopey guy. Rick is a product of late-20th-century western pop
culture, just like most of the rest of us. Only Rick happens to be more
fluent and certainly more studied in pop culture than most of the rest of
us. And he just happens to be particularly good at expressing his thoughts
in a way that reflects the thoughts of his many co-inhabitants of this
modern pop-culture world we live in.
I suppose it would have been presumptuous for him to call his book
Pop-Culture-Guru Confidential and the last thing Rick Klaw would ever
be is presumptuous. But I'm tellin' ya, if he's a geek, then I'm a
gorilla's uncle.
Neil Walsh has several great passions in his life: reading, and...uh, some other things that are, no doubt, equally interesting. |
If you find any errors, typos or other stuff worth mentioning,
please send it to editor@sfsite.com.
Copyright © 1996-2014 SF Site All Rights Reserved Worldwide