Tuesday, April 21, 2009

More crazy book titles

Sometimes the funniest things are unintentional. People really come up with crazy stuff without even trying. Click here for more insanely titled book covers.

Here's my favorite. Chapters include "How To Eat With Your Pussy," "Nursing a Sick Pussy," and "Exercising Your Pussy." This is a total gas. It'll make the perfect gift for pussy cat lovers.


I know that these books, despite having unbelievable titles, are real. I own one of them -- Foreskin's Lament by Shalom Auslander. It's a memoir by someone who grew up in a very conservative religious community. Auslander comes off as angry and funny at the same time.


A note on the foreskin for my non-Filipino readers:

Summer in the Philippines, from March to May, is the time when pubescent boys have their foreskin removed. Those living in the city go to medical doctors, where the operation can go on without a hitch. Boys in the provinces aren't so lucky. They go to the village doctor or folk healer (the herbolario) who cuts the foreskin with a knife, chews guava leaves, and then spits them on the wound to "disinfect" it. This is all done without anesthesia. Wonderful.

Circumcision is a right of passage here in the country. Parents don't usually have their newly born baby boys circumcised. They have their sons undergo the operation when they're 11 or 12 years old, somehow believing that the ordeal would make their sons "more of a man" whatever that means. I was circumcised when I was a baby, so what does that make me? Don't answer that.

4 comments:

Dave said...

Guava leaves! Auslander would faint dead away. I saw him at a reading in Baltimore last fall and he was hilarious. He said many folks still try to get him interested in their denomination of Judaism, in what amounts to a buffet-style invitation: Have you tried the Reform? The Conservative?
Here's a link to that post: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/books/blog/2008/10/shalom_auslander_at_breathe_bo.html

Helen said...

Peter, I swear you post about the craziest stuff...nonetheless, they are hilarious. I'm Filipino, and I remember as a child hearing about the guava leaves. Ugh! So glad I'm a female. LOL!

sumthinblue said...

I saw a news feature about it the other day, and the doctors said it really doesn't serve any other purpose than continuing tradition.

This is one of the reasons why I like being a girl :)

Portobello's coffee said...

I was circumcised when I was 9. Very traumatic! My lola would boil some Guava Tea and she made me pour it on my thing. Que horror!