I love Patton Oswalt. He is hands down my favorite stand-up comedian. I have seen him live once and can't wait to see him again. I got his book a couple months ago, when I realized it had finally come out. So far it definitely feels very Patton. I'm having trouble with the song lyrics that he has interspersed throughout the beginning of the book. He is relating how these specific lyrics seemed to go so well with a book that he was reading; it produced in him a kind of epiphany. But I just have problems with lyrics in books. Stephen King likes to do it a lot, and I have problems with him as well. I think the problem just comes from the fact that I think it is really necessary to hear the song to feel the same connection they want you to feel. So I guess I should just stop and look up a song every other page. That will probably cure it...but is probably too much effort for me to put in.
So I just finished the book. Hands down favorite chapter was the D&D one, and the epic poem right after it. I've never played D&D, but I have played a couple tabletop RPG's so I could easily relate. " The Song of Ulvaak" was a truly epic and entertaining poem. The other part of the book I really enjoyed a lot was the greeting card chapter, "Chamomile Kittens". Truly disturbing and enlightening all at the same time. The graduation card was probably my favorite. Excerpt: "Titled I Have Spent Eight Years Learning from the Lives of People who Truly Broke Free from the Structures of Higher Education and Actually Made Their Lives What They Wanted While I Have Failed to Follow Their Example, Will Continue to Fail, and Will Die Unmourned, Confused, and Fat...". I almost forgot to mention the books namesake, Zombie Spaceship Wasteland. I love the title, and I love his thoughts in the chapter. Though...it's still unclear to me which I am.
Overall, I really enjoyed the book. But I had a few problems with it. In general, it seemed disconnected from it's self. The chapters do not have to be read in any particular order, nor would I necessarily say that people need to read the whole book. I think that many of the section could have benefited from at least a little brief explanation as to what was going on. Punch-Up Notes is one section I think that could have been helped by this. It was obvious that it was a script that he had written, that was being reviewed by someone named Scott. But, it was unclear as whether I was supposed to find it amusing that Patton wrote this script in the first place, or that Scott was taking the correcting of the ridiculous shit seriously. It almost seemed like Patton could have written the script as a joke just to see what people would say. I enjoyed the random comic in the middle, fitting for Patton. But...I don't think Patton is an artist, so I have to assume he didn't draw it. Wines for the Glass was also another confusing one. Thought it was funny, but found it hard to see the line between whether or not some of the wines were real (because wine people describe shit in weird ways) or whether or not all of them were jokes and just represented a speckling of douche bags. And the Old Hobo Songs section. I would have said purely a joke a few weeks ago, but I now know that hobos do have some weird codes. So "my ass is full of soup" doesn't surprise me that it means something completely different.
I really love Patton and it did give a good feeling of how he became the man that he is today. The schizophrenic uncle and the grandmother who explained birthday gifts...I can see it adding up. I just wish there was a bit more of his life throw out there for me to read.
Also, I'm so happy to know that Patton loves Stephen King. Stephen is my favorite author, and I love when other people I love love what I love (what the fuck sentence...do you make since?). It's really sad when a hero of yours hates something or someone you truly love. It can leave a bit of a lost feeling.
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