Everyone knows Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, as the king of workplace humor. His insights into the crazy world of business have long been on display in his hugely popular comic strip and bestselling books like The Dilbert Principle. But theres much more to life than work, and it turns out that the man behind Dogbert and the Pointy-Haired Boss has an equally outrageous take on life outside the cubicle.
Adams ventures into uncharted territory in this collection of more than 150 short pieceson everything from lunar real estate to serial killers, not to mention politics, religion, dating, underwear, alien life, and the menace of car singing. He isnt afraid to confront the most pressing questions of our day, such as the pros and cons of toothpaste smuggling, why kangaroos dont drive cars, and whether Jesus would approve of your second iPod.
I want to say up front that I really appreciate Scott Adams' humor and his attempts to reduce the amount of induhviduation in the world. I have been on his DNRC mailing list since 1995.
That said. . . I don't mind folks who clean up and publish material from their public blogs and have bought more than one book which was at least partially developed this way, but IMO it's really cheesy to then remove the blog entries from your public web archive. Scott, you would sell just as many books, and get more blog readers, without this cheap ploy.
This is one Scott Adams book that I'll be getting from the library rather than buying.
If you have been following the Dilbert Blog by Scott Adams then you should have read most (if not all) of the entries. But that doesn't mean this book is not worth it. In fact, all of the chapters in the book have been deleted from the blog so the only way you can read them now is to buy this book. It also makes a great gift to someone who doesn't read the blog. Highly recommended.
I don't know whether you have to appreciate Scott Adam's "dark side" to enjoy this book, but it helps. His dark side? His non-cartoon creations, whether business-related or not. Of these, they range from The Dilbert Principle to God's Debris. The TEXT drives the deeper meanings, and not the drawings.
In Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain!, Adams steals from his blog and looks at the world through his Dilbert-framed sunglasses. You immediately are transported to Adams' world:
"Thanks to hurricane Wilma, nothing has crapped on our Eyewitness News van for hours. Back to you, Bob."
"If I'm dumb enough to buy water, I'm certainly dumb enough to pay too much for it."
"And the one thing worse than a moron with an opinion is lots of them."
"Rule 472: Before you touch a monkey god's tail to cure your leprosy, make sure the tail doesn't have a little hole in the end."
This book is organized (?) as a series of short chapters, reading as a blog in that you can "feel" his timeline as Adams vacations in Maui, plans his wedding, and so on. Don't miss Hi Jean (p. 19), Try this at home (p. 36), Adopting (p. 55), and German cannibal (p. 120). You will learn about the Scott Adams Diet (p. 101) and the Albra Cadaver (p. 107).
The book includes Dilbert strips that didn't make it past the editors, and a surprising amount of political-social-ethical insights. For example, should inDUHviduals respect the beliefs of others? Adams gets serious...
"Many of our biggest world problems are caused by different religious views. But its not socially acceptable to even discuss whether those views originate from the almighty or a drunken guy whizzing on a tree stump. At a bare minimum, just to pick one example, either Christianity or Islam is completely and utterly wrong. The beliefs are mutually exclusive. Muslims believe all Christians will burn in Hell. Christians believe that the Koran is fiction. They both can't be right. (They could obviously both be wrong if the Heaven's Gate guys turn out to have it right.)" (p. 116).
Witty, humorous, caustic, satirical, sobering, scathing, insightful... expect everything from this book, because it IS another thought experiment.
