CPC 2020 VOL 4: Mark Twain Prize to Dave Chappelle…The Thillers of Frederick Forsyth

And This Year’s Mark Twain Prize Goes To…Dave Chappelle

After watching the Raptors get beat by a basket by the Trailblazers, I flipped around the dial and caught almost all of the Mark Twain Prize special on PBS.

Dave Chappelle is a unique comedian, because his philosophical point of view about life and being a black man in America is on a high intellectual plane. But he’s really not so much about the jokes per se as he is about the stories that he tells that may or may not have a joke in them, but always make an excellent point that can really get you thinking.

Most people will know Dave from the comedy sketch show he did on Comedy Central back in the early part of the century. It only lasted three seasons, but it was a major league hit series, and made him a regular on every talk show going.

After that he basically just did standup for a couple of years then pretty much disappeared for more than a decade, no explanation publicly available. But when he came back, it was really like the world was waiting for him, and it was also like he’s been there all along.

Dave’s acceptance speech at this event was interesting because he focused mainly on the craft of comedy, and it’s importance in the world, especially today. He made it clear that most successful comedians are the ones who tell speak the greatest truth, and he encouraged everyone who had any aspiration to become another Dave Chappelle to go for it with all they have.

As a show, The Mark Twain Prize was really funny, because, well there were a lot of comedians on it with great Chappelle stories. So I’m glad I decided to flip around instead of heading off to do whatever it was I had planned.

You can see his acceptance speech and more on on the PBS web site at https://www.pbs.org/show/mark-twain-prize/

You can find out more about Dave here  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Chappelle

Frederick Forsyth…The Real Deal In Thrillers

Like many Frederick Forsyth fans, I started reading his books right from the get go in 1971 with The Day Of The Jackal.

First of all, each book is a self-contained story. He does not seem to have any real interest in creating sequels or having a series built around one character, which is really quite an oddity in the thriller market where the whole idea is to get people hooked on your guy and coming back for his or her latest adventure.

There’s nothing wrong with that, and that school of marketing has produced some pretty amazing characters and compelling stories. Jack Reacher, Lucas Davenport, Virgil Flowers, (thet Fuckin’ Flowers, Harry Bosch and Lisbeth Salander and Harry Hole spring most immediately to mind.

The second reason has to do with the kind of books Mr Forsyth is writing, which are , in fact, hybrids of history and thriller fiction in which his fictional characters are actually incorporated into the genuine history of the area where his stories are set.

I’m sure he is taking a bit of license here and there, But basically, as you move though any one of his books, you also get a very good lesson in the geopolitics of the regions in which his stories take place.

I personally love this because I am not a non-fiction reader other than a few biographies of musicians and writers I like, so for me this is tantamount to killing two literary birds with one stone.

The Forsyth book I am currently reading is called Avenger and it tells the story of a guy who was one of the famous Vietnam war American tunnel rats, who later became a lawyer, with a sideline of bringing those who commit wars crimes to justice.

This story has a bit to do with the Vietnam War, which is where his character, and a couple others are established, the Bosnian War, where the crime he is avenging was committed, and.wherever he has to go to get the bad guy, which the main character, Cal Dexter, is still figuring out, as far as I have read.

In a way you can see that creating one character who would have enough back story to get involved with all the different main stories simply would strain the character’s credibility to the breaking point.

I still have three or four more books to go before my reading list is complete. And one of the best things about Frederick Forsyth books each being so self-contained is that you can start reading anywhere in the list below, and have yourself a jolly good time. Mainly because the quality of Mr Forsyth’s writing, simply never falls below ‘outstanding’, and has been that way since his first book.

The Day of the Jackal (1971)

The Odessa File (1972)

The Dogs of War (1974)

The Devil's Alternative (1979)

The Fourth Protocol (1984)

The Negotiator (1989)

The Deceiver (1991)

The Fist of God (1994)

Icon (1996)

The Phantom of Manhattan (1999)

Avenger (2003)

The Afghan (2006)

The Cobra (2010)

The Kill List (2013)

The Fox (2018)

Here’s a link to some background on Mr Forsyth.

https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/frederick-forsyth/

Tune in next week when one of my features will be a list of Network TV shows that are actually worth watching. It will be a short article.

You can follow Jim:

On beBee: https://www.bebee.com/bee/jim-murray

On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-murray-b8a3a4/

On Facebook: https://tinyurl.com/y97gxro4