1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Dan Jenkins to be inducted into World Golf Hall of Fame

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by hondo, Dec 15, 2011.

  1. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member

    And I remain a big fan of Semi-Tough, but there's no way it's published today by a major house -- and not because it wasn't well-written, but because if frequently lapsed into political incorrectness in some of the nastiest ways imaginable.
     
  2. SoCalDude

    SoCalDude Active Member

    There was some of that, too, in "You Gotta Play Hurt" with the TCU play calling.
     
  3. Birdscribe

    Birdscribe Active Member

    It was Orangejello and Limejello, Don. But point taken.
     
  4. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    Lemonjello was the half-brother.
     
  5. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    Which is what made it great.

    I don't think PC has ever been Dan's thing. His tweet a couple of years back is proof of that.
     
  6. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    I always thought of Semi-Tough as sort of literary anthropology, a treatise on "how Texans talk dirty." Re-read for the first time in decades just last year when I found an old paperback cleaning the garage. Dated, yes, but I laughed just as hard and often.
     
  7. Double Down

    Double Down Well-Known Member

    This is one of my favorite opening sentences ever, from a feature he wrote for SI on Joe Namath in 1966.

    Stoop-Shouldered and sinisterly handsome, he slouches against the wall of the saloon, a filter cigarette in his teeth, collar open, perfectly happy and self-assured, gazing through the uneven darkness to sort out the winners from the losers.
     
  8. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member

    I hear that. The book remains sui generis, and most of the humor remains hilarious. It's the offhand racism that's offputting, and S-T is by no means unique among DJ's novels, for that.
     
  9. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member

    Prototypical, and still delightful.
     
  10. UNCGrad

    UNCGrad Well-Known Member

    Im re-reading "Dead Solid Perfect" once again (hopeful that Kenny Lee Puckett can hold off Donny Smithern again), just because it's a quick-as-hell read and I was inspired upon hearing of DJ and the Hall. The racism is rampant, but I'd say all of it is spoken from the voice of the most ignorant and least educated characters in the book. I think that's the point, and the device that's being used.
     
  11. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    Did Gruber (or whatever the fictional high school was) lose again? Did it say so in the paper?
     
  12. Huggy

    Huggy Well-Known Member

    Is that the one with the Needhams in it?
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page