Grasp Two Performance Artists Kidnap Their Boss And Do Things With Him Articulated By Scotch Wichmann Depicted In Electronic Format
place in San Francisco's historically seedy Tenderloin district, "Two Performance Artists" tracks Hank amp Larry, who, unsurprisingly, are occasional programmers during the day and performance artists at all times.
They're necessarily propelled by manic optimism, as their performances are generally not well received though their descriptions are hilarious, and they're almost never paid.
Their day jobs are draining corporate numbers, and Hank amp Larry's liturgy of complaints against their employer and his comically fragile operating system remind this reader of the general state of things around Windows ME and the origins of the Open Source movement.
The book is set in San Francisco, and it is a REAL San Francisco I've lived in SF foryears and in the Bay Area for, but it's a stretch to call it today's San Francisco There are pay phones, nobody's texting or face booking, and the google buses didn't run Hank or Larry over as they're wine drunk stumbling through the streets.
Instead it's a romanticized version of the tenderloin reminiscent of noir films and the lates,
Early in the book there's a diversion into office politics, and it becomes Dilbert on acid, some of these passages are among the funniest of the first half of the book, somehow the day to day experience of working in an office comes off as more maddening than repeatedly sitting on tacks one of their more well received performances.
The book really takes off when the title comes to fruition and the two performance artists kidnap their boss.
Their boss's transformation and Hank amp Larry's evolving relationship with him is unexpected and the arc from there on out is a great amount of fun.
On paper the only place where they live, Hank amp Larry are ostensibly terrorists, and an abhorrent pair at that.
Thankfully, the ever present Daliesque absurdism is the saving grace that prevents the second half of this book from being a playful entry in the "Saw" series.
The strange and terrible things Hank amp Larry do their boss, each other, and themselves are so far over the edge, you can't help but laugh.
Ultimately, a fascinating and entertaining trip inside the mind of an insane new author, It's not often you can accurately describe a book with one word, but you can for this book: ZANY!
It has literally been FOUR MONTHS since I read this book and I'm still not sure what to say.
This book defies description, really, It is disturbing and intriguing and outrageous and raw and gritty and disgusting and smart, Needless to say, gentle folks in search of a heartwarming Hallmark tale won't really find it here, I'm extremely openminded and liberal and artsy, but there were sections of this book that make me umcomfortable borderline squeamish slash offended.
It is chalk full of scathing social commentary that pushes the reader's boundaries and tolerance with each turn of the page.
No one is safe from the author's criticisms be it a corporate Microsoft creep or a pretentious big wig art critic.
This book begged the reader to answer the question: What is art Is this it Or this or this
My rating may indicate my torn feelings about all of this.
I didn't love it, but I respect all the things that it is trying to do, I guess I found out that I'm a wimpier reader than I thought,
To get a glimpse inside the madness, you can view the trailer for the book here: sitelinkCheck it out!
P.
S. NetGalley you're the tits even when I'm the pits, A hilarious and surprisingly assured debut, Incredibly original, exceptionally perceptive, cinematic and legitimately thoughtprovoking, Wichmann's voice is as refreshing as a bucket of cold water on a hot summer's day and I for one can't wait to see what he does next and to see Two Performance Artists find the audience and attention it most certainly deserves.
A! Two Performance Artists Kidnap Their Boss And Do Things With Him is exactly what it says, kind of.
I don't believe I've read a book with a blatantly entertaining disassociation from reality, The things that happen here just don't happen in real life, but dumb and dumber Hank and Larry manage to pull off a sort of charmed existence.
You just don't meet attractive women and get jobs this easy in real life if you are those guys.
Maybe it's a San Francisco thing, . .
Anyways those two kidnap a thinly veiled analogue to Bill Gates and imprison him to turn him into a performance art machine.
This machine is a transcendental ideathe ego falls away until there is only performance art, Now, what Scotch Wichmann should do here is add a meta element to the equation and write a nonfiction memoir about his kidnapping of Bill Gates and the billionaire's subsequent transformation into a performance artist through the usage of Two Performance Artists.
Disclaimer: I will not be held responsible in the event Scotch Wichmann or any other party does in fact actually kidnap Bill Gates for reasons, or not, inspired by my comment.
As I read on, I realized my two young children are performance artists, So I should not be angry towards them when they pull some shit but should instead engage my inner critic and regurgitate their performances with pretentious interpretations: children are natural performance artists unrestrained by the larger ideas of the world if one might interpret shit on the walls as psychic soiling of the mind's tabula rasa, you must take their age into account and extrapolate from there.
At this point, I'm telling you, they're fucking going shamanic!
Excuse me for a moment while I shake Scotch Wichmann's choreography from my mind Shaking Wichmann's Choeography From My Mind Like A Wet Dog.
Scotch posits that Performance Artists are latterday shamans, Shamans are engines of the supernatural thought processes in touch with the spiritual world, and the shaman's function is diverting rational thought processes into magical reasoning to allow a higher order of universal understanding.
However, the definition that I believe to be most relevant to Two Performance Artists diverts from the usual usages of the term: a shaman is one who escapes from a psychosis through art.
This book is performance artit is definitely escaped from Scotch Wichmann's psychosis, and while it is not for everyone, some of you will find yourself absurdly abandoning any aesthetic and moral convention in bouts of emotional incontinence to egg on our two heroes and their protege towards an uncertain but certainly cringeinducing future.
Take That, Bill
Given the author's serious performance artist c, v. what I expected here was something like the literary version of giving William S, Burroughs a hammer and a can of spray paint and letting him loose in a china shop
What I got is more restrained, witty, well plotted, honest, observant and carefully structured than I could have imagined.
This book is loaded with sly observations and deadpan sendups of mainstream and fringe art and performance, and may be the single funniest and most effective takedown of Microsoft and corporate culture, ever.
And, totally unexpected, it has a generous and good humored heart beating at the center of all of the carefully orchestrated zaniness, with an everyman hero one can get behind.
The most shocking thing is that it isn't shocking it's freewheeling, rude and energetic, but like all appealing performance art and/or satire, at least to me, there is a controlled intelligence behind it all.
The book is dead on funny, There are extended set pieces Larry and Hank's performance of "Decoy Tattoo with Meat", or their new hire training as programmers.
There are extended rants San Francisco in the winter comes to mind, as does Larry's explanation of why worn out programmers put Easter Eggs in their programs.
And then there are razor sharp one liners and throwaway lines, There is a hint of melancholy that runs through the book these guys are sort of losers and sort of delusional.
But there is also a hopefulness and sense of undefeated optimism in the background as well,
This isn't patronizing or condescending or smug The author doesn't hate his audience or the poor corporate schlubs he describes.
He takes the reader into his confidence and levels with him, or pretends to level with him, while offering glimpses of a different reality.
There is neither contempt nor a superior air in this book it is full of life, rueful observations, hard truths, soft truths, regret and energy.
So, broad brush, broad laughs, broad humor and an almost surgical skill with the withering shot what's not to like
Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book in exchange for a candid review.
Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.
Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review, No other consideration was offered, expected or received,
When I received a random email one day from a very nice lady asking me if I would want to participate in this blog tour, I had NO IDEA what I was getting myself into.
Interesting storyline Check. Book cover that catches my attention Check, Inability to tell anyone no Check check CHECK haha, I had to give it a try,
Hank and Larry are performance artists that are forced to get "real" jobs, going back into the world of computer programming, only to find out that no one really "programs" anymore, that what companies really want are the young guys that do what they're told and never admit all the problems that the programs actually have.
They are treated like outcasts, forced to do an insane amount of work in an insane amount of time, and their boss right above them doesn't even try to cover up the bad feelings he has for them.
And then they have their "brilliant" idea, . .
After reading the first couple of chapters, I wasn't so sure I was going
to like this book.
My reason: It's a comedy and I had only laughed out loud twice, It's not the Two Performance Artists Kidnap Their Boss And Do Things With Him's fault or even the author's it's totally me, While others are laughing at the mainstream comedic movies and television shows, I sit there silent, They look at me, wondering why I'm not laughing I look at them, wondering why they are, It's not that I don't get the jokes, I just don't like things that are stupid and only semifunny.
Back to the book I must say that it got better and better with each page, This book is filled with the unexpected there's no guessing what will happen next here and quite a few really funny moments.
By the end of this book, I was upset that there wasn't more, The antics, the sarcasm, the things these guys went through and did just, plain. WOW. Hank and Larry are performance artists on the seedy streets of San Francisco where art fans flock to see what crazy performance they'll do next with chainsaws, roller skates, or lard.
Fame and fortune seem just around the cornerprovided Larry can keep his best friend Hank's paranoia and delirium from spiraling out of control.
But when poverty forces the performers to take computer jobs working for a ruthless billionaire CEO, their boss's hundredhour workweeks, relentless corporate propaganda, and soggy breakroom burritos turn them into nervous wrecks.
Hungry for revenge with their dreams of glory fading, Hank and Larry plot their greatest performance ever: to kidnap their billionaire bossand turn him into the greatest performance artist the world has ever seen.
The first performance art novel by a performance artist, Two Performance Artists is a madcap caper comedy about two best friends determined to tackle the American Dream with bird feathers, duct tape, and a gummy AK.
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