Word: leyner
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Leyner combines a mastery of both language and absurd imagery, barely giving his readers time to recover between...
Probing deeper into the problems of modern masculinity, Leyner's essay "Hulk Couture" is sure to become a manifesto for all non-jocks living in Mather-a perfect expression of their sartorial feelings toward the body-building lifestyle. In this piece, Leyner assumes the persona of a "buff buff" who advocates losing the spotter when one pumps iron because, "When there's nothing to keep a barbell stacked with 375 lbs. of iron plates from collapsing onto your throat but your own two arms...well, if that doesn't get the ol' fight-or-flight response going, then nothing will...
...Leyner's satire extends to modern life and stereotypical Jewish angst. "Young Bergdorf Goodman Browr, " his adaption of Nathanial Hawthorne's dark masterpiece, satirizes paranoia apropos to Jewish-extraterrestrial conspiracies, Six Degrees of Separation, and the gauntlet to be run when trying to escape those downright annoying perfume sales-woman at the department store who insist that you sample their scents: "We've daubed your wrists, your lower arms, your chest, your stomach, your ankles, calves, knees...Let's see...Hey, if you don't mind, how about the upper portion of your buttocks...
...Leyner's paranoid rhapsodies continue in "Great Prentenders," an essay on the dominance of a thespian conspiracy in modern society--the idea that your neighbors, for example, are not really neighbors, but actors hired by realestate salesmen to convey the image of an ideal neighborhood. Leyner calls this the "De Niro-ization' of culture...Migratory shifts back and forth from the real to the simulacrum [that] will calibrate the rest of history." "The Mary Poppins Kidnapping" pokes fun at the over-sensitive parents who worry that all forms of media, even the innocuous products of Disney, are dangerous influences...
...Leyner loves to take you behind closed doors to follow him on his imaginative paranoid ramblings. Maybe senators give one another tattoos--during session--corresponding to their ideology and accomplishments, or lack thereof. Has the medical industry been suppressing data (at the behest of the federal government, of course) that proves criminal activity causes physical attractiveness, the soca