Subject: ONCE UPON A MORE ENLIGHTENED TIME by James Finn Garner

From: "Evelyn C Leeper" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 11 Nov 1995 17:30:39 GMT

ONCE UPON A MORE ENLIGHTENED TIME by James Finn Garner
          Macmillan, ISBN 0-02-860419-9, 1995, 84pp, US$9.95
                   A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		    Copyright 1995 Evelyn C. Leeper

     First there was POLITICALLY CORRECT BEDTIME STORIES, and now there's
ONCE UPON A MORE ENLIGHTENED TIME.  (There is also a volume POLITICALLY
CORRECT HOLIDAY STORIES, described as "for an enlightened Yuletide season."
I guess Garner has given up on the idea of inclusiveness.)  For those
unfamiliar with these books, they retell classic fairy tales (which for
political correctness must be called bedtime stories) in politically correct
language with politically correct ideas.  So all our favorite characters are
now leading vegetarian lifestyles, treating both sexes equally, not being
speciesist, and so on.

     Alas, as with many ideas, what is funny in one book can cease being
funny in a sequel.  (The first Xanth book was funny.  'Nuff said.)  While
the first book also rewrote bedtime stories to be politically correct, at
least there was an attempt to make sense in the terms and concepts used.
People were "differently appearanced" or "vertically challenged."  But here
Garner goes overboard, describing someone who has been in the rain as
"moisture-enhanced" and "dryness-challenged."  The former sounds like a
body lotion, the latter like someone with a drinking problem, and the two
together, when applied to the same person in two consecutive paragraphs,
like overkill.

     I think the problem is that Garner has decided if a little is good, a
lot is better.  But while I like a piece of chocolate, or even a chocolate
sundae, I don't want to drink a quart of Hershey's syrup.  At Intersection
recently, Connie Willis bemoaned the fact that one problem humorists have
now is what Willis called the battle cry of every group: "That's not funny."
But the truth is, 90% of the time it's not funny, and that's as true when
the target is political correctness as when the target is anything else.
It's only when someone with the right talent goes at it that it works.
Garner seemed to have it in the first book at times, but when that was such
a success he couldn't resist writing a second one, and laying it on even
thicker.  Too bad.

%T      Once upon a More Enlightened Time
%A      James Finn Garner
%C      New York
%D      1995
%I      Macmillan
%O      hardback, US$9.95
%G      ISBN 0-02-860419-9
%P      84pp
%S      Politically Correct Bedtime Stories
%V      2

-- 
Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | [email-masked]
"Why are women reading romances presumed to be any more
idiotic than men watching football?"  --Beth Kolko