''Red-Dirt Marijuana and Other Tastes'' () is a collection of essays and

short fiction A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

works by satirical novelist and screenwriter Terry Southern, which was first published in 1967. It consists of twenty-four pieces which were originally published in ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...

'' magazine, ''

Evergreen Review ''The Evergreen Review'' is a U.S.-based literary magazine. Its publisher is John Oakes and its editor-in-chief is Dale Peck. The ''Evergreen Review'' was founded by Barney Rosset, publisher of Grove Press. It existed in print from 1957 until 19 ...

'', ''

Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the st ...

'', '' Hasty Papers'', ''Nugget'', ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip ...

'', and '' The Realist''. It was re-published in 1990 with a new introduction by George Plimpton. A film was made of the title Southern short story with Southern's involvement by Philip D. Schuman which won a Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival in 1973.

Stories

*"Red-Dirt Marijuana" *"Razor Fight" *"The Sun and the Still-born Stars" *"The Night the Bird Blew for Doctor Warner" *"A South Summer Idyll" *"Put-down" *"You're Too Hip, Baby" *"You Gotta Leave Your Mark" *"The Road Out of Axotle" *"Apartment to Exchange" *"Love Is a Many Splendored" *"Twirling at Ole Miss" *"Recruiting for the Big Parade" *"I Am Mike Hammer" *"The Butcher" *"The Automatic Gate" *"A Change of Style" *"The Face of the Arena" *"The Moon-shot Scandal" *"Red Giant on Our Doorstep!" *"Scandale at the Dumpling Shop" *"Terry Southern Interviews a Faggot Male Nurse" *"The Blood of a Wig"

Plots and themes

Like much of Southern's work, ''Red-Dirt Marijuana and Other Tastes'' presents a detailed portrait of American culture during the 1950s. Many stories, in particular "You're Too Hip, Baby", "The Blood of a Wig", and "The Night the Bird Blew for Doctor Warner", explore the mentality of the hipster and the pretentiousness of

counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...

s. Other stories, like "Recruiting for the Big Parade" and "Twirling at Ole Miss", present unusual non-fiction, and may be viewed as an early form of gonzo journalism. "Twirlin' at Ole Miss" has been cited by

Tom Wolfe Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...

as one of the defining works of the genre and as such it was included in Wolfe and A.W. Johnson's anthology ''

The New Journalism ''The New Journalism'' is a 1973 anthology of journalism edited by Tom Wolfe and E. W. Johnson. The book is both a manifesto for a new type of journalism by Wolfe, and a collection of examples of New Journalism by American writers, covering a v ...

''.Lee Hill - ''A Grand Guy: The Life and Art of Terry Southern'' (Bloomsbury, 2002), p.206 The majority of the book's stories, like the eponymous "Red-Dirt Marijuana", simply present detailed character sketches and bizarre flights of fancy. In "The Sun and the Still-Born Stars", a

Texan Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by bo ...

farmer wages a

surreal Surreal may refer to: *Anything related to or characteristic of Surrealism, a movement in philosophy and art * "Surreal" (song), a 2000 song by Ayumi Hamasaki * ''Surreal'' (album), an album by Man Raze *Surreal humour, a common aspect of humor ...

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ang, Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The ...

ian struggle against a mysterious sea monster. In "Love Is a Many Splendored",

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...

receives an obscene crank call from

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...

. Beneath these strange juxtapositions, Southern explores themes of alienation,

love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest Interpersonal relationship, interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of ...

, and

truth Truth is the property of being in accord with fact or reality.Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionarytruth 2005 In everyday language, truth is typically ascribed to things that aim to represent reality or otherwise correspond to it, such as beliefs ...

. The collection has been widely praised by authors such as

Norman Mailer Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer ...

, Gore Vidal, William S. Burroughs,

Robert Anton Wilson Robert Anton Wilson (born Robert Edward Wilson; January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007) was an American author, futurist, psychologist, and self-described agnostic mystic. Recognized within Discordianism as an Episkopos, pope and saint, Wilson ...

, and Kurt Vonnegut. Joseph Heller characterized it as "the cutting edge of

black comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

References

{{Terry Southern 1967 short story collections Works by Terry Southern American short story collections New American Library books