Comments on: Holy Tango of Literature

Holy Tango of Literature

mendel — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 17:07:45 -0800

~~Anthology~~ Holy Tango of Literature: "The question of what would happen if poets and playwrights wrote works whose titles were anagrams of their names is one that has been insufficiently studied in the past." Francis Heaney has published his book online under a Creative Commons license, along with the Holy Tango Basement Tapes.

By: Fontbone

Fontbone — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 17:46:29 -0800

This is awesome... I was giggling during the introductions, before I even got to the main text. The text itself is even better. Thanks!

By: steef

steef — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 17:51:10 -0800

I'm as far as Basho's "OH, SOB," and I've got tears in my eyes I'm laughing so hard. [HOTDOGS I IS.]

By: piers

piers — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 17:51:25 -0800

You've made my evening.

By: booksandlibretti

booksandlibretti — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 17:54:48 -0800

I am at work, and I laughed until I cried at "I Will Alarm Islamic Owls." William Carlos Williams is so easy to mock, and yet this is brilliant. This might be the first time that finding free things online has ever made me want to buy anything. No, really.

By: thatwhichfalls

thatwhichfalls — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 18:20:43 -0800

Some of these are incredibly good:

SKINNY DOMICILE EMILY DICKINSON I have a skinny Domicile— Its Door is very narrow. 'Twill keep—I hope—the Reaper out— His Scythe—and Bones—and Marrow.

He loses on the Maya Angelou one though - it's too good.

By: tellurian

tellurian — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 18:46:51 -0800

This is brilliant, thanks mendel. My favourite so far: KIN RIP PHALLI.

By: trip and a half

trip and a half — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 19:10:21 -0800

[This is terrific.]

By: kenko

kenko — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 19:30:01 -0800

I remember when these (or some of them) were on Modern Humorist. The navigation always sucked, good to see they're collected.

By: fvw

fvw — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 19:32:07 -0800

Utterly brilliant, thanks for posting. now i write onetwothreefourfive poemsjustlikethat Jesus

By: kenko

kenko — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 19:32:43 -0800

"toilets" for T. S. Eliot reminds of Auden's palindrome: T. Eliot, top bard, notes putrid tang emanating, is sad. I'd assign it a name: gnat dirt upset on drab pot toilet.

By: rkent

rkent — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 19:43:28 -0800

DAMMIT, DAVE DAVID MAMET Ha! I've read that before; it was the first thing I thought of when I saw this FPP. I'm SO glad there's more.

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 20:08:20 -0800

~~I hoist dogs.~~ ~~Gosh, idiots!~~ ~~It's goodish.~~ This is good.

By: jrossi4r

jrossi4r — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 20:10:36 -0800

Stellar!

By: amro

amro — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 21:14:43 -0800

This is ingenious and hilarious!

By: Joey Michaels

Joey Michaels — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 21:36:26 -0800

Wonderful. Just wonderful.

By: dilettanti

dilettanti — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 22:07:29 -0800

The Basho, Shakespeare and Wilde entries are alarmingly good (though I'm taking a tax class now; YMMV on the Wilde), and there are many, many gems. Thanks, mendel!

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 04:11:40 -0800

Both beef stew!

By: yankeefog

yankeefog — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 07:14:25 -0800

Brilliant stuff. I've been a fan of "Holy Tango" ever since it first appeared on Modern Humorist, and I'm thrilled to get the whole thing.

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 08:09:54 -0800

Oh, yes. These are fantastic, and I'm thrilled to learn that not only are there more than MH published, but that they've been collected in dead-tree format as well. Well done, mendel.

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 08:15:01 -0800

Great stuff. I heartily recommend buying the book itself. I got it for my father-in-law for his birthday a few weeks back and was able to sneak a peek at all the ones that weren't on MH (or that I missed at the time). I will say, with the world-weary tone of an early Francis Heaney adopter, that I enjoy the ones that are truly genre parodies (e.g. Skinny Domicile, Dammit Dave, IRS Law Code) more than the exact parodies of individual works (even though I also laughed uproariously the first time I read 'Islamic Owls'). It's like the great Beatles parodies: The Rutles are fine, but every song is an exact spoof of one Beatles song, whereas Utopia's Face the Music finds the common cliches among two or more Beatles songs and turns them into new, funny songs.

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 08:31:49 -0800

And thanks to soyjoy, I've just added Utopia's "Deface the Music" to my list as well. This is the thread that just keeps on giving!