I recently acquired the unabridged audio cd of Steve Martin’s autobiography thanks to a Father’s Day-related gift card (thanks Mom!). If you have talked art, culture, drama, or writing with me at all, you know that I consider Steve Martin one of the best contemporary playwrights, screenwriters, and novelists.

Ever since watching VHS rentals of his comedy act from the 1970s, I have always had a hard time explaining what I believe to be his genius, but listening to the autobiography helped my quantify it a little more. In the book he discusses the development and philosophy of his act, and how it influenced his body of work. The philosophy is mixed with anecdote, jokes that killed, jokes that bombed, and life story.

It isn’t a story for all time, but it is a great story of how hard work, talent, and serendipity forged the life and career of an amazing writer and performer. I suppose if you don’t like Steve Martin, you won’t like the book. But I found it interesting, insightful and funny. The audio cd is, thankfully, read by Martin so the nuance and meaning isn’t left to interpretation of a narrator. I have found myself laughing out loud less frequently these last few years, but Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life provided ample opportunity.

Part 1: Introduction

The intervening time between this and my previous post on Children as Philosophers has presented me with my most complete thinking on the subject to date.

Children are Developmental (Or Natural) Surrealists

This, of course, is a term of my own invention which I will define here later. Rather than writing a treatise on the natural philosophy of children, I will discuss my thinking on this topic in segments discussing the beliefs and behaviour of children within the context of the beliefs (primarily the Surrealist Manifestos) and artifacts of the surrealist movement.

So many strange eating experiences in the South.

tiny planets, two hydrogen/one oxygen at a time
counted easily as stars
forge in this one
a chasm that leads eventually to one grander

tiny planets, two sorrow/one suffering at a time
counted slowly as stars
forge in every one
a chasm that leads to one greater

between stone or hearts or both
between the me i know i am and wish i was
between the you that you are and the you that i remember
between the love of what was and the pain of what will be

or maybe they are all the same chasm
are all one
themselves and their like
across three days of darkness to the moon
and the further silence to the great planets
and phobos and deimos
cutting a chasm of all hearts
across the freezing hot black between
my world and yours

It is a strange realization to write 2000 words about buying a very specific product (that is not a plane or a yacht or a MRI or someting) and feel that there is still much more to cover, but about half of the words you have will need to be cut.

That, I think, is a fair contextual definition for “Nerd.”  One who knows far more about a given subject than anyone would care to read.

Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I’ll have a long beard by the time I read them.
- Arnold Lobel