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David Katzman's Reviews > Sewer, Gas and Electric: The Public Works Trilogy
Sewer, Gas and Electric: The Public Works Trilogy
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An odd book that was very entertaining and energizing at times. It’s an absurd satire of capitalism, racism and environmental collapse. And yet, at other times, the off-the-cuff tone bothered me and came across as having too much fun with some painful issues. Yes, in the right hands one can produce comedy on (almost) any topic or theme. With the right touch and tone you can critique the powerful with humor—like Stephen Colbert or George Carlin. But it’s a razor edge because the risk is that it comes across as appropriation of painful issue for comedy. In Sewer, Gas and Electric, a central aspect of the story is the premise that a pandemic virus swept the world (!!!) and within a day, killed and dissolved the bodies of all black people with African ancestry. Now imagine this premise in a wacky comedic novel. You can see how dicey this is.
After watching the racially aware TV series Lovecraft Country that was based on the novel by Ruff, I gave him credit in the beginning that this was a satire. But as the book went on, it began to feel problematic. The irony became a cheap shortcut to squeeze humor out of cruelty. It’s not good sci-fi or even a good metaphor to propose that a virus could racially target the genes of all black Africans. Racial oppression is a social/cultural issue. Biological differences are minor and the conflation of the two is an ugly reminder of when scientists tried to measure the heads of black people and say they were an inferior race (just as white supremacists do today). I’m looking at you Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Ruff also spends quite a few pages critiquing Capitalism and Ayn Rand’s philosophy of selfishness primarily via Socratic dialogue between one of the main characters and the disembodied head of Ayn Rand (programmed A.I.). Frankly, his arguments soft pedal the flaws in Capitalism and let her off far too gently. In fact I found them relatively weak sauce.
Sewer, Gas and Electric started with an electric spark in style and content, but over time it wore on me and failed to live up to the themes it was satirizing.
After watching the racially aware TV series Lovecraft Country that was based on the novel by Ruff, I gave him credit in the beginning that this was a satire. But as the book went on, it began to feel problematic. The irony became a cheap shortcut to squeeze humor out of cruelty. It’s not good sci-fi or even a good metaphor to propose that a virus could racially target the genes of all black Africans. Racial oppression is a social/cultural issue. Biological differences are minor and the conflation of the two is an ugly reminder of when scientists tried to measure the heads of black people and say they were an inferior race (just as white supremacists do today). I’m looking at you Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Ruff also spends quite a few pages critiquing Capitalism and Ayn Rand’s philosophy of selfishness primarily via Socratic dialogue between one of the main characters and the disembodied head of Ayn Rand (programmed A.I.). Frankly, his arguments soft pedal the flaws in Capitalism and let her off far too gently. In fact I found them relatively weak sauce.
Sewer, Gas and Electric started with an electric spark in style and content, but over time it wore on me and failed to live up to the themes it was satirizing.
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Reading Progress
October 18, 2020
–
Started Reading
October 18, 2020
– Shelved
February 8, 2021
–
Finished Reading
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fire_on_the_mountain
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Feb 10, 2021 03:34PM
Appreciate this kind of well-reasoned review. Thanks for taking the time.
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Peter wrote: "Appreciate this kind of well-reasoned review. Thanks for taking the time."Cheers. Thanks for the comment.
Excellent review. I can definitely see how the author's premise would require laser-targeted writing skills to make this subject comedic without coming across as too cruel (or cruel at all). I don't know. I agree that done right, just about anything can be funny, but it depends on where you find the humor. A few months after 9/11, I remember a comedian (forget who) had a joke about 9/11 that went something like, it was a terrible, terrible day, all those deaths and yet you know, somewhere in a tiny part of most people's brain is this thought of "well, hell, this screws up my plans." The punch line was even super-good-special-people thought, "well, shit, there goes my plan to spend the day reading to the blind." And I always thought that was funny (although my written version probably isn't) because even though 9/11 is in the joke, it's not the source of the humor. The humor is yes, it was a horrific day, but let's all recognize that a tiny part of our brain did think for a minute how this carnage f*cked up our plans--even the most gracious of us were for a moment selfish. That to me is an excellent example of how to walk the line of finding humor about something that is totally devoid of humor. (if my comment seemed unnecessarily long and rambling, my apologies.)
Kristina wrote: "Excellent review. I can definitely see how the author's premise would require laser-targeted writing skills to make this subject comedic without coming across as too cruel (or cruel at all). I don'..."No need to apologize, hah! Long comments are more than welcome. It's just a tough thing to not appear to be appropriating trauma for your own benefit as a narrative "hook." It's all about the context and there's a lot of subjectivity involved in how it's received. In this case, it seemed like mining something inappropriately.
David wrote: "Kristina wrote: "Excellent review. I can definitely see how the author's premise would require laser-targeted writing skills to make this subject comedic without coming across as too cruel (or crue..."Depending on the context and the writer's style, this plot of a pandemic killing only people of African descent could really come of as some kind of racist wish list. Plus, did only people with black skin die? Because (as we know from the ancestry-tracing tv shows and personal DNA testing), many people with white skin are of African descent.
Kristina wrote: "Depending on the context and the writer's style, this plot of a pandemic killing only people of African descent could really come of as some kind of racist wish list. Plus, did only people with black skin die? Because (as we know from the ancestry-tracing tv shows and personal DNA testing), many people with white skin are of African descent."This is a bit of a spoiler so I'm going to put tags on it in case anyone reads this by accident. (view spoiler)
David wrote: "Kristina wrote: "Depending on the context and the writer's style, this plot of a pandemic killing only people of African descent could really come of as some kind of racist wish list. Plus, did onl..."Well, your spoiler killed any remaining interest I had in this book. That sounds absolutely ridiculous. No thank you.
Kristina wrote: "Well, your spoiler killed any remaining interest I had in this book. That sounds absolutely ridiculous. No thank you."Yep. Understandable.
