Reviews for Rationale of the dirty joke

The average rating for Rationale of the dirty joke based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-02-21 00:00:00 Paul Moreno Some readers will like this, some won't. I liked it. I also admire the late Gershon Legman enormously for sticking to his guns with little or no sanctioning from academia. In my opinion, no matter how the political winds are blowing, a lot of the disdain shown toward Legman when he was alive and active in the field (which is a subset of folklorica, really), was not so much that he was too Freudian or insufficiently feminist but because it's a risk to define a field in academia that others aren't already involved in. I think more people should read this work, and what others of his stuff will arise. I wish the prices were lower. I have a sneaking suspicion that his work will come to be more greatly appreciated in the future. Alas, Gershon is no longer among the living, but his work will live and deserves a trial and at least a little respect. Look, some jokes make fun of women. Some make fun of excretory functions. Many make fun of cuckolds, but that isn't always mentioned by the modern politically motivated. But it's a serious work -- nobody confuses it with SEX TO SEXTY and nobody needs to dismiss it out of hand.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-06-13 00:00:00 Malcolm Haggerty My one-star rating is based upon the Kindle edition. This book is an EXHAUSTIVE (and exhausting) 800+ page traverse through sexual humor. And it is only Volume 1 of 2! Fortunately, volume 2 is not available for Kindle. But first, let me point out some positive aspects of the book. The author knows his material, and there are numerous cites to authorities from antiquity, Rabalais, Italian works from the Renaissance, to dirty jokes heard on "transcontinental train" rides from the 1940s. If you like Freud, you will get a pretty heavy dose of it. I am unable to say whether his understanding of Freud is mainstream. But the negatives overwhelm. The author is self-taught and to be honest is a crackpot. He creates an incredibly complex schema (which he explains for over 100 pages) and constantly cites to his various (out of print) books and pamphlets. He rails against the "hippy." You hear a lot about his personal life, his opinions on authors such as Hemingway, and again the hippies. This book desperately needed a firm editor when it was first published. I suspect the book could have been cut in half with good editing. The Freud in some chapters overwhelms the jokes themselves. Jokes are often repeated. On top of that, the Kindle publisher should be ashamed. Minor typos are abundant. It is clear that nobody at the publisher wanted to proofread the book and relied solely on OCR scanning. For example, "die" is printed in place of "the" throughout. In sum, if you are interested in the subject matter, and happen to see a reasonably priced used copy for sale, by all means buy it and browse the book when you are bored. If you can find a used copy of volume 2, get that because it apparently contains a Bibliography of the entire work which would be very valuable. I would not recommend plowing through the book from front to back.