From Creationists
(2006)
Like all city children of my generation
I revered the Marx Brothers. I don’t recall bothering to
understand why they were so funny, but I looked forward to each
of their movies for what I knew would happen: they would
dismantle any society in which they found themselves.
Everywhere they went they brought chaos and confusion. Nothing
could stop them.
Groucho, Chico, and Harpo may not have been the only comedians to outrage propriety, violate custom, and make a shambles of the hope of human dignity, but they disdained the dramatized self-usage of a Keaton or a W. C. Fields, offering instead the brazen assertion of themselves as Marx brothers no matter what names were assigned to them by their screenwriters. Always they stood outside the milieu of their movies, heaping verbal or physical abuse on any character actor who had the misfortune to serve as their foil. They were unremitting surrealists. Even their musical interludes— Chico at his piano, Harpo at his harp— had no discernible dramatic justification. What made them the most radical of their profession was that their comedy, unmediated by anything like normal sentiment, went to the root of the vital social pretense that life is purposeful and the universe subject to reason.
Groucho, Chico, and Harpo may not have been the only comedians to outrage propriety, violate custom, and make a shambles of the hope of human dignity, but they disdained the dramatized self-usage of a Keaton or a W. C. Fields, offering instead the brazen assertion of themselves as Marx brothers no matter what names were assigned to them by their screenwriters. Always they stood outside the milieu of their movies, heaping verbal or physical abuse on any character actor who had the misfortune to serve as their foil. They were unremitting surrealists. Even their musical interludes— Chico at his piano, Harpo at his harp— had no discernible dramatic justification. What made them the most radical of their profession was that their comedy, unmediated by anything like normal sentiment, went to the root of the vital social pretense that life is purposeful and the universe subject to reason.
—Creationists
“Doctorow’s playful
title... masks a serious purpose— to examine the mystery
and the magic of human creation... Although each [piece] bears
Doctorow’s signature intelligence and lyricism, each has
a singularity, as well... [He] has no peer in his powerful use
of imagery... A first-rate collection from a first-rate
writer.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“One of the delights of E.L.
Doctorow— beyond the simple enticement of
smartness— is his joy in lyricism. He just can’t
avoid his love of language... He tools along in a swirl of lush
and near-exotic imagery of ideas that is at the same time
utterly, almost prosaically accessible... These are
illuminating, essential essays... Doctorow [is] one of our more
brilliant writers.”
—Baltimore Sun
“A distinctive, provocative
collection... fascinating.”
—Deseret Morning News
“Brilliantly written,
Doctorow’s cultural and literary analysis abounds in
acute literary characterizations and mordant
observations.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Creationists exhibits another
aspect of [Doctorow’s ] talent, the analytic, expository,
essayistic one... Those readers who enjoy a writer’s
privileged insights into his fellow craftsman will be
[enlightened].”
—Chicago Tribune