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Rude Talk in Athens: Ancient Rivals, the Birth of Comedy, and a Writerâs Journey through Greece
Maybe someday
45
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
9/100Critics
81/100Scholars
Author:
Mark Haskell Smith
Publisher:
The Unnamed Press
Date:
August 17, 2021
Ancient Greek comedies were full of vulgar humor and "rude talk" that can send even modern audiences into fits of laughter. Mixing in reflections on his own career as a comedy writer, Smith explores the life of the forgotten comic playwright Ariphrades and how comedy challenged the patriarchy, the military and the powers that be, both then and now.
What The Reviewers Say
Smith—who is also the author of six novels and two other nonfiction books—uses the playwright’s predilection as a starting point for exploring comedy’s origins, taking many entertaining detours along the way. It’s a resolutely odd book, but also a very funny, frequently brilliant one.
Smith...takes an immersive and irreverent dip into ancient Greece to uncover the origins of transgressive humor. Mixing history, literary criticism, and dirty jokes, Smith pays tribute to a slew of forgotten Greek writers.
A racy, raunchy, entertaining reimagining of ancient Greece..
