I Lied

Of course I have time to Google "Ignorant idiot," and in doing so, I discovered that the book I must have read at some point in the mid-eighties was: "Stand on Zanzibar." This is a 650-page book, full of details, characters, and plot development, but it appears all I took away from it was the title of a book written by a character called Chad Mulligan. The book was actually entitled "You're an Ignorant Idiot," and now I am left to wonder whether I read another book which ripped this off, or if my own fevered brain conflated "I'm OK, You're OK" with "You're an Ignorant Idiot" to create a new fictional book title.

Regardless, my friend Ruth thought "I'm OK, You're an Ignorant Idiot" was hilariously funny and the two of us flogged that joke until it was well past dead and in need of a decent burial.

Comments

[Elke Sisco]

I loved "Stand on Zanzibar". John Brunner is one of my favorite sci-fi writers. I love that narrative style of his, starting out with a snippet and another one and another one, until he has about a dozen different stories going, and then he intertwines them neatly. My favorite of his is "The Sheep Look Up".

And I think "I'm OK, You're an Ignorant Idiot" needs writing. Have you started yet?