The Genius And Emptiness Of Richard Pryor

The Genius And Emptiness Of Richard Pryor
Richard Pryor is shown during interview at the Regency Hotel in New York City on Aug. 1, 1977.(AP Photo/Ron Frehm)
Richard Pryor is shown during interview at the Regency Hotel in New York City on Aug. 1, 1977.(AP Photo/Ron Frehm)

“Is stand-up comedy literature?" David Henry and Joe Henry, a fraternal author team, ask this as Furious Cool: Richard Pryor and the World That Made Him enters the home stretch. Their answer cites Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams, and follows a confident discussion about the resonance of Pryor's Live on the Sunset Strip with Dante's Inferno, a discussion made alongside a daring critical interpretation of Eudora Welty. Thus, their answer to that question is an excited “Yes, of course.” Or in a different mood: Their answer is, “Does a man pursued by a bear shit his pants in the woods?”

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