Customer Reviews
Blue Movie - Nathaniel West-gone-porn? - By: gary shooter, 18 Dec 2006 
Terry Southern's novel "Blue Movie" is often reviled or dismissed by critics as a mean-spirited rehash of "Candy." The latter is regarded as "innocent"(a curious word to usein this context) while the former is regarded as the dyspeptic afterthoughts of a soured roue. I think this is fundamentally wrong. To be sure, some might find the subject matter of "Blue Movie" to be, as it were, a bit much. However, I think the novel is best regarded as a comic-porn rethinking of Nathaniel West(informed by both the satirical vision of West & the often ignored absurdist aesthetic underlying this vision)populated by grotesques from Edgar Allan Poe's comic fiction(particularly "The Man That Was Used Up" - anybody familiar with this story will automatically see the connection/somebody get busy writing an academic paper!). Hostile critics ignore the icy grace of the prose(by far superior to the writing of "Candy," which sometimes shows its haste). This book is relentlessin its determination to "go too far"(if I might borrow the title of an uneven but insightful book by Tony Hendra). Readers inclined to propriety will definitely not find it to their tastes. But readers inclined to find laughs at the nihilism implicitin the Sexual Revolution of the hippie era will find this something of a treasure drove. Indeed, there is an almost apocalyptic air to the book, again reminiscent of Nathaniel West's "Day of the Locust." Unlike "Candy"(prosecuted as porn but obviously a joke from beginning to end), "Blue Movie" is indeed at times genuinely erotic. That is what is disconcerting about it. Should I really be enjoying something like this? Southern's knowledge of Hollywood grotesques & lunkheads is unerring. The brother-sister incestin this novel comes again, I think, from Poe. And long-term Terry Southern fans will no doubt be blackly amused by the gracious little tribute to his collaborator on "Candy," the sometimes cantankerous & egocentric Mason Hoffenberg(ironic given the often ugly legal history between the two)- a fictitious adaptation of Hoffenberg's "Until She Screams"(why isn't thisin print, incidentally?). One might regard this novel as a comic attempt to drive the reader until he/she screams. This book certainly can't be described, by & large, as subtle. What good is subtletyin the face of chaos & nihilism? Those who take the post-Sexual Revolution sexual terrain for granted will be darkly amused by the content of this novel. Those with tender sensibilities would be well advised to brace themselves. Like "Dr. Strangelove," this book announces - "This is the Void - you might as well laugh!" The novel is funnier & better written than some stodgy critics would have you believe. (And it's a damn sight funnier & sharper than Martin Amis's leering, morally ambivalent excursions into the world of porn!) Terry Southern's literary grace residesin his exquisite ability to blend the hieratic & the demoticin one literary text. His stylistic touch herein that regard is peerless. And, if indeed you want to go too far, you have a truly great guide here to conduct you. Stay away - or go all the way. It's your choice. The book is a tombstone for an era - & a gateway opening out onto ours. Greg Cameron.
Savage satire of both Hollywood & the Catholic Church - By: , 17 Oct 1999 It is almost impossible to review as it moves on so many levels. However! The idea of an exploitation movie as 'art' is new territory. The full ability of a top director who is using quality actors; lighting & hollywood standard equipment drives down on the topic. Just how do you get the ultimate climatic shot of sex: Southern tells you how. How to maintain an erection? No problem. Persuading quality actresses to do hard core?? The desire of small countries to finance movies & getin the loop. The denouement of the attack by immoral moralists of the Catholic Church was the only part that didn't ring remotely true (no I'm not RC). Sex & Fun. Say no more
