Culturebox: Free-Range Performance Artist

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culturebox Free-Range Performance Artist The new Fran Lebowitz documentary is an outstanding waste of time. By Troy Patterson Posted Monday, Nov. 22, 2010, at 2:10 PM ET Fran Lebowitz, ace epigrammatist, is further a first-rate conversationalist, a hall-of-fame bibliomaniac, a chronic self-caricaturist, a gal-about-town, the soul of the city, a snappish social critic, a snappy dresser, a popular emcee, a mandarin, a mascot, and the least-prolific great humorist of the American experiment. Surely she has bubbled into your consciousness by way of a quote of the day or floated there from a picture on a party page--eyes adamant with confidence, bobbed hair thick and wavy, lips splendid for making full phrases. She's around, always, and more so than usual this month on account of Public Speaking, a documentary profile premiering tonight on HBO. It's something of an anthropologist's recording of an idiolect, a bit like the project of a landmarks preservation committee, and a lot of fun. How to make a proper introduction? At 27, she published her first book, Metropolitan Life (1978), a collection of comic essays amounting to a virtuoso display of contempt against modern manners, degraded language, and urban indignity. John Leonard, writing the rave review that made it a hit, made a special claim for her tongue and her taste in the New York Times: "To a base of Huck Finn, add some Lenny Bruce and Oscar Wilde and Alexis de Tocqueville, a dash of cab driver. ... Serve without whine." There was little else for a charmed reviewer to do but reprint as many of her bons mots as space allowed. "All God's children are not beautiful," she wrote and he quoted. "Most of God's children are, in fact, barely presentable." Those 15 words speak for themselves with the weight of a thousand. A critic can only observe that the "in fact" provides an essential pause, establishing an exact measure of scorn. To continue reading, click here. Troy Patterson is Slate's television critic. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Anthology of Rap Battle Continues! Avoid Prepaid Debit Cards Like the Ones the Kardashians Are Hawking The Best Wines To Drink at Thanksgiving	Advertisement
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