Comments on: REVIEW: Joseph Larkin’s Arcade Of Cruelty

By: Thom

Thom — Sun, 31 May 2009 03:46:29 +0000

By the way, Marty…writing books that insult and mock the audience (which, mind you, is what you are apparently praising) is neither brilliant nor skilled. Any jackass can do that.

By: Thom

Thom — Sun, 31 May 2009 03:42:10 +0000

“And I must say you all have done a superb job providing him with material.”

He did such a superb job only you and he get the real joke?

He should start a religion, so he and his merry band can lament how the world doesn’t get them-therefore all but his followers are stupid-heads.

By: Matt Maxwell

Matt Maxwell — Sat, 30 May 2009 22:14:59 +0000

Because having to explain the joke makes it a successful or funny joke. Got it.

By: Kevin Church

Kevin Church — Sat, 30 May 2009 22:02:45 +0000

“Glee?” Yes, obviously, there was a lot of glee on my part, seeing Joseph Larkin freak out in my comments and threaten me. Did you even read what I typed, or do you just wait to pipe up with soundbites praising the genius of the guy who said I will pummel you until the word â€œFAILâ€ is tattooed on your stupid fucking face and imprinted on every one of your stupid fucking teeth, even the ones that will no longer be in your smart little mouth, the one thatâ€™s never ever kissed a girl?

Yes, it was a joke, all part of his grand facade. Look at how clever this author is! This guy creates a book of bad cartoons with a thin glaze of metacommentary, sends it to reviewers, gets bad reviews, and then insults them and gets to say “Look! The audience is art! I’m fucking Sam Beckett over here because the theater is absurd!”

The problem is, that joke isn’t funny, and trying to justify it by pointing out that it’s all part of the scheme doesn’t suddenly transform it into art. Larkin is a poor cartoonist and manages to be a worse satirist. Next time, I’ll let the spam catcher eat your comments, “Marty.”

By: Marty

Marty — Sat, 30 May 2009 21:18:21 +0000

Kevin you can’t hide the fact that your response to Joseph was full of glee and amazement based on something that wasn’t there. The evidence is seen right above. Joseph posts something and the Kevin Church internet community consolidates to reaffirm their moral and artistic high ground. Larkin aspires not for this status, rather to make fools of people who do. This is the essence of the book. Larkin lets people make their own jokes about themselves while he observes it. And I must say you all have done a superb job providing him with material.

By: Dave Lartigue

Dave Lartigue — Sat, 30 May 2009 02:01:13 +0000

I assure you Marty, I didn’t “miss it”. I have been in Internet forums and before those, BBSes for some time, and I’m very familiar with the persona Larkin is doing here, because every single online community has about a dozen of them. It’s one of the laziest, easiest “personas” to do, and requires no special talent on the part of the person taking it on. It’s also tiresome and dull. The usage of the standard “look, I’m an asshole saying all sorts of outrrrrrageous things!” doesn’t make his situation any better, it simply exposes that we’re dealing with someone with a pretty meager bag of tricks and ideas. (And to cement that, between his comment and the sample pages on his site, there’s “meh”, “FAIL”, and “hilariously wrong” Family Circus comics. Really pushing the envelope, there.)

By: Mikester

Mikester — Fri, 29 May 2009 23:38:47 +0000

Frankly, I’m more insulted by the implication that Larkin’s “Internet Tough Guy” persona was such an original piece of Andy Kaufman-esque comedic roleplaying genius that we were all bamboozled by it.

By: Kevin Church

Kevin Church — Fri, 29 May 2009 22:06:42 +0000

I don't think I missed this at all, Janetty (and you'll note that I even commented on that being the sort of humor he employs in the book) but surely Larkin has to realize that people who haven't read his book are getting an entirely different impression of him, and that's something that should be discussed. How comfortable would you be if I said, in public, I was coming to your home in Trenton and beating you up for saying mean things about me? I've dealt with harassment from people in the past and took this much less seriously than I could have (some have argued that I should have contacted the police.) I get that it's a character that Larkin is playing out, unfortunately it's got his name and he should accept responsibility for his actions.

By: Marty Janetty

Marty Janetty — Fri, 29 May 2009 22:03:15 +0000

Its pretty clear that Joseph’s post here is in the voice of the character in Arcade of Cruelty. How you Kevin Church (who claims to have read the book) and all your clever fanboys missed this is beyond me. Larkin put out a hook there for his critics to bite on and you all swallowed it right up. Simmer down, I assure you that Larkin has a pretty thick skin to your brand of invective and you are essentially getting excited over being threatened by a comic book character. Larkin: 1, Church & fanboys:0.

By: Thom

Thom — Sat, 16 May 2009 04:30:58 +0000

(Also, thatâ€™s the only time Iâ€™m letting a stupid pseudonym like that slide again, local person whoâ€™s using Comcast.)

Damn…I had planned to make myself more memorable by calling myself Barack Obama. Glad someone else did it first.