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Books
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| Book
Review: "The Spam Letters" and "The
Best of the Joy of Tech"
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© 7-23-04 Dr. Neale Monks
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- Book: The Spam Letters
- Author: Jonathan Land
- Publisher: No
Starch Press
- Publication Date: June 2004
- ISBN: 1-59327-032-1
- Info: xii + 210
- Price: $14.95
- Book: The Best of The Joy of Tech
- Author: Nitrozac and Snaggy
- Publisher: O'Reilly
& Associates, Inc
- Publication Date: November 2003
- ISBN: 0-596-00578-4
- Info: ix + 183
- Price: $14.95
Geek culture draws upon selected slices of contemporary
culture such as Star Trek and annoying television
commercials, and blends them with more tech-orientated
plagues and anxieties, like spam e-mail and computer
operating systems. It has its own pantheon of celebrities,
like Ellen Feiss and Steve Wozniak, who mean little
or nothing to the outside world. The Internet is
of course the geek's natural habitat, and unsurprisingly
many web sites have sprung up as venues for geek
humour, and two have recently spawned printed-paper
collections of their best material as well.
The Spam Letters
Jonathan Land is man who obviously has far too much
time on his hands. He crafts witty, often savage
replies to spammers seemingly in the hope of eliciting
some sort of response. Usually, and predictably,
he doesn't get any sort of reply at all, but in a
few cases he does, and these give rise to the best
parts of the book, where his increasingly irrational
messages contrast sharply with the seriousness of
the spammers in their efforts to make a sale. Nigerian
419 fraudsters prove the most fertile ground for
this since the spam they deal in is designed to solicit
a personal response.
A big problem with this book is that most of the
spammers don't reply. So what you have is a collection
of e-mails sent to probably bogus e-mail accounts,
which will either entertain you or not depending
on what you think of Land's sense of humour. His
sense of humour is rather pointed to say the least,
and rich in profane and pejorative wording. Since
a lot of spam is sex-related, it's no surprise that
spammers selling Viagra, porn sites, and other such
products and services. His reply to Amy the porn
model and supposed student as a high school senior
looking for tips on getting into UCLA is priceless
(p. 166).
Some of the jokes are in bad taste, for example
one reply where he pretends to be a manufacturer
of counterfeit Hilfiger and other brands of designer
clothing and sells to the "inner city"
market (p. 29). He opines that he does a service
by allowing his purchasers to get these goods for
less than the price of a firearm. Admittedly, it's
a good gag, but when the number-one cause of death
for young African-American men is homicide, a joke
like this comes awful close to being racist. Another
line includes a comment on how Land cannot employ
any more American Indians under local employment
laws unless they are "cripples" as well
(p. 39). In context, it's funny, but some people
will inevitably find this sort of humour insulting
or inappropriate. There are plenty of other race
or culture-based jokes that some readers might object
to, such as the linking Japanese businessmen with
schoolgirl-style pornography (p. 176) and Catholic
priests with paedophilia (p. 111).
Having said all this, if you don't mind your humour
rough, then there is plenty that should make you
grin. Land is clearly a witty and clever man, and
his replies do throw a spotlight on spammers and
the wares they peddle. The shame of the book is that
there are too few conversations between the author
and the spammers; instead, most of the book is a
series of monologues by Land on a theme of e-mail
spam. The book feels a little self indulgent because
of this, since what you are doing is reading Land's
jokes without getting a sense that he is trying to
achieve anything beyond entertain himself.
The Best of the Joy of Tech
In short, this book is the finest slice of geek
humour out there, so go out and buy a copy now. You
won't be disappointed.
Really, that's all I need to say, but to wheedle
this review out to the regulation twelve hundred
words, I should say a little more. Nitrozac and Snaggy
produce the best geek-humour cartoons on the Web,
the Joy
of Tech. Most of the cartoons are based around
computers or computer users, as is fitting, though
a few draw on other aspects of geek culture, in particular
aliens and science fiction (especially Star Wars
and Star Trek). One of things that even casual readers
will pick up on is that while Mac and Linux computers
are looked on with affection, though not infrequently
critically, Windows and Microsoft receive merciless
lampooning. Marketing gimmicks like the annoying
Verizon Wireless "Can you hear me?" guy
get their comeuppance too.
There's also a lovely sense of irony that pervades
Nitrozac and Snaggy's work. They know they are geeks
and they are drawing cartoons for geeks, but that
doesn't stop them poking fun at geeks for their (to
the outside world at least) inexplicable sense of
priorities. There's a nice cartoon with this theme
showing a pair of geeks bemoaning a wireless network
failure on a cruise ship, while ignoring the jumping
whales, spectacular scenery, a David Pogue cabaret
act, live jazz, babes in bikinis, and adventure sports.
Some of the best jokes are hidden around the actual
cartoons, adding some extra value to the collection
over what you see at the web site, like George Lucas
suggesting that a few Ewoks might improve a certain
cartoon or the wonderful iPhoto-like palette for
improving the appearance of your family. But the
biggest bonus comes with the "JoyWords"
section at the back, where the authors comment on
the cartoons and provide the results to online polls
based on a particular cartoon. Be sure and read the
reasons why the totals may not add up to 100 percent!
Steve Wozniak and David Pogue provide a foreword
and introduction respectively, and that two geek
celebrities like these should do so probably says
as much about how well-liked the Joy of Tech web
site is as anything else. Wozniak's essay is a thoughtful
analysis of geeks and the world around them, in particular
what defines the shared geek culture and what makes
them laugh. Pogue's is rather more about the cartoons
and the artists, and pins down some of the things
that make the cartoons so popular. He also reveals
Nitrozac and Snaggy's real names.
The only real problem with the book is the lack
of an index. Though each cartoon has a number, they
aren't arranged in the book numerically but rather
by theme, and this makes it difficult to shuffle
between the comments in the JoyWords section and
the actual cartoons themselves. But this minor inconvenience
aside, this is a great book that will amuse every
geek in your family. Now, go out and buy it.
- Dr.
Neale Monks
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