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The Ascent of Rum Doodle (and Tim Key's love letter to it)

Started by Shoulders?-Stomach!, June 23, 2020, 12:24:31 PM

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Shoulders?-Stomach!

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/23/mountaineering-yarn-lol-we-bowman-the-ascent-of-rum-doodle

This really made me want to read the book. After reading Svejk, Catch 22 I fell in love with their tone. Upright, formally described, exploring the human attraction to bureaucracy when life is overwhelming in a gently ridiculous and seditious way. I wondered if this book is anything like that.

Have you read it? Should I, or is Key just being odd? (I have no idea)

Sin Agog

Yeah, it's really good.  Might be even better than those Three Men in a Boat books, though it's definitely their lineal descendent, eventually leading onto Python and beyond.

It's not particularly satirical or political, though.  At least I don't remember it being so.  It's more just a bunch of posh fuck-ups and their sherpa cook getting up to surreal antics up a dangerous hill.  I'd recommend Karel Capek's The Absolute at Large for some more sharp Czech satire (albeit, with a much more fantastical premise). https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/816445.The_Absolute_at_Large  If it were a poster, I'd have quoted it in the Guffaw Out Loud thread multiple times.

Shoulders?-Stomach!