Kilgore Trout

Do Not Get This Book

Revisado: 08-26-22

First: The narrator is absolutely abysmal. I have endured many a narrator that other listeners have dubbed intolerable, but this one broke me. He sounds as if he only decided to learn how to read during the course of reading this audiobook. Words have strange pronunciation, punctuation is a mere suggestion and almost everything seems to catch him by surprise. Not to mention the fact that it sounds like he recorded it on his phone in his living room. The sound of a computer mouse clicking and scrolling can be heard throughout, along with laughter and conversations somewhere in the background.

As for the book itself, it's a deeply unfortunate missed opportunity. The opening scene of the movie is described so many times I lost count, with the most atrocious and confusing "reaching" in terms of symbolism and meaning of the most banal moments. I don't know who the hell this author was trying to impress, or will impress, but I don't want anything to do with either party. Christine and all parties involved in the production deserve a better treatment than this author and narrator.

Please do not get this book.

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Tiptoe around the editorials

Revisado: 08-21-22

The information contained in this book is as fascinating as it is scathing. An absolutely indispensable document of American art and history. The author's occasional but extremely slanted editorials on films and their creators are as unexpected and unwanted as a water balloon, but don't let that take away from everything else that is good about this book, which is much.

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Writers are writers, but this is pretty accurate

Revisado: 08-02-22

Not entirely without bias, this is probably the most accurate description of Hollywood you'll find.

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Supernatural/Conspiracy primer with an agenda

Revisado: 01-24-22

There is some decent information in here that can be informative to those unfamiliar with supernatural lore and conspiracy theories outside ghosts and the Kennedy assassination. However, there is an odd throughline of anti-white agenda so strong that Dickey alters his own facts and doesn't even notice. Relaying a report of an extraterrestrial encounter, he describes an alien woman as having dark hair. For the rest of book he refers to her as "blonde", "Aryan" and even an "Aryan princess". Throughout the book, almost every legend and conspiracy is broken down as being the fault of bigoted white people, seemingly for no reason whatsoever. At best, the reasons are simply heavily slanted retrospective interpretation. If the listener pays attention, by about the halfway point in the book, when Dickey starts breaking down the origin of a legend, the listener can almost finish the explanation themselves; it's white people. However, late in the book when discussing a new branch of Bigfoot/alien belief concocted by a small group of Native Americans, Dickey completely skips over race and delves into the psychological reasons why people construct new beliefs in a world brimming with pre-existing ones.

While there is some useful information in here, I can't say that I can recommend it. "Unexplained" unfortunately falls into the same biased agenda trap that most other supernatural legend/conspiracy debunking books do, then sums up the entire text by essentially saying "people believe in the unexplained because it's fun and admitting that there is no answer is the best they can do."

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Passive Fan, take it for what it is.

Revisado: 07-02-21

Not as much detail or information as I had hoped. Part One represents half the runtime of this audiobook. Compared to other movie retrospective books of recent years, it certainly pales. Not without information, just light.

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Being Rich and Famous is Pretty Cool...

Revisado: 01-07-21

Being rich is pretty cool and if you are rich and famous, doors open up for you like crazy. Life can be pretty awesome when you're rich and famous. Give it a spin, see how much your life improves. When you're rich and famous.

The best part of this book were the early chapters when he talked about his life before fame and being discovered. After that it was pretty tedious. The religious and political rhetoric also picked up as the book progressed.

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Not What I Was Hoping For...

Revisado: 01-07-21

The opening to the book, describing the Victorian views on death and funeral practices was very informative and more in line with how I thought the rest of the book would go. However, the majority of the book was a seemingly never ending list of anecdotes taken from diaries, newspapers and official reports. There wasn't much discussion after about the second chapter, just endless anecdotes, which was not what I was hoping for. In all, the previously mentioned introduction, part of an early chapter about the dilemmas soldiers faced regarding battlefield burials and the last chapter about the Body Reclamation Committees where the best parts of the book. The book as a whole seemed listless, drifting from unconnected newspaper articles used to illustrate the rampant racism in the South, to an entire chapter dedicated the writings of Bierce, Dickinson and Melville. I can't say that it was entirely uninformative, but I also can't say that it was entirely worth my time.

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True Delusion

Revisado: 01-02-21

True Ego is another good title. 70+ chapters of discourse on making movies with studio backing all while touting indie status. Then truly groan worthy chest thumping about how he inadvertently created EBay and Nightmare on Elm Street. I would recommend this book to no one. Try Bruce Campbell's memoirs instead. They are better in every way and far more informative about filmmaking and the industry. Here you learn how to get a $250,000 loan from your dad at 19 to make your first feature film. Then take it through post production with the help of Universal Pictures. A painful waste of almost twelve hours.

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