One Hand Jerking: Reports From an Investigative Journalist by Paul Krassner

One Hand Jerking: Reports From an Investigative Journalist Reviews

• 
  Brett

  Paul Krassner's collection of essays and columns--most of which have previously appeared in counterculture magazines or blogs--is at various times hilarious, maddening, shocking, nonsensical, inspiring and idiotic. Krassner is a 1960s counterculture icon who the FBI describes as "a raving, unconfined nut." He was one of the founders of the Yippies, a 1960s counterculture group, and his tales of friendship include Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey, Lenny Bruce, Hunter Thompson and Abbie Hoffman. He has interesting things to say about events of the 1960s, his satirical writing of the time, and events current as of the 2005 publication of the book. His description of a satirical piece he wrote about LBJ and the JFK assassination reveals just how hard it is for some people to realize satire when they see it, and his description of a work he commissioned after the death of Walt Disney is as funny as it is just plain wrong. Speaking of wrong, this book is riddled with typographical errors. I wonder if anyone proofread the thing. I'm not exaggerating when I say that there were probably at least 100 typos in the book. That doesn't take away from the messages he's sending, but factual inaccuracies do. Still, it's an entertaining, shocking book, and although I didn't read it in the bathroom, it would be the perfect book for that since it's broken up into 2 or 3 page segments! 318 pages
• 
  Zack

  This book contains more recent references to US pop culture--like Janet Jackson's tits at the Super Bowl--plus intelligent consideration of Bush II's deliberate erosion of citizens' civil liberties, human rights, etc. via 9/11, also an interview with Robert Anton Wilson. The voice of former sixties "radical" and lifelong dissenter in the name of absurdity Paul Krassner gives me hope that the bad guys never fully triumph as long as you keep contending with them, I mean as long as you're doing your part to blow their cover a little, as long as you're not entirely submissive. Someone sent me an article today detailing how the Obama administration is quietly expanding the government's impunity in wiretapping. I posted links to it on my facebook and MySpace pages. I'd still like to believe Barack's a good guy, but I'll spread the word just in case. I'm gonna interview Krassner again soon, so we'll talk about that. I'm forging a freelance career for myself right now and a combination of Paul Krassner 's investigative satire and Robert Anton Wilson's guerrilla ontology is about the style I'm after.
• 
  Deb

  Perfectly what I would expect from Paul. He is still insightful, dangerous, and hilarious. He is also now 72, which is kind of scary, since I never realized he was *that* much older than me.
  
  This was a really quick read (started on the bus this morning; finished on the bus on the way home), and a really great one, although it was a touch weird to be holding this on a bus through several fairly religious neighborhoods, given the title, and the cover pic of Paul dressed as the Devil. Still, if I read a work of his, and did not feel at least a touch uncomfortable, I suspect he would not have done his job.
• 
  Robert Ross

  I had never heard of Paul Krassner before, but now feel as though I were deliberately avoiding him, or else sorely in the dark. His irreverent humor and gift of satire mark him as one of those voices you wish could be spewed over the air waves with the same intensity and saturation as Rush Limbaugh, who is a big, fat idiot (Al Franken says so!).