It’s fun to drive around in Los Angeles and every time you pass by a strip mall with signs in English, Spanish, Tagalog and Thai to say “that strip mall looks like a Thomas Friedman column.” Rolling Stone columnist Matt Taibbi (author of the infamous “52 Funniest Things About the Upcoming Death of the Pope” piece) gets a bit more clever than that in this review of Friedman’s latest book, Hot, Flat and Crowded. For added fun David “Get Your War On” Rees has created a comics version of the review. From “Flat N All That,” available in its entirety in the New York Press:
Like The World is Flat, a book borne of Friedman’s stirring experience of seeing IBM sign in the distance while golfing in Bangalore, Hot,Flat and Crowded is a book whose great insights come when Friedman golfs (on global warming allowing him more winter golf days:“I will still take advantage of it—but I no longer think of it as something I got for free”), looks at Burger King signs (upon seeing a “nightmarish neon blur” of KFC, BK and McDonald’s signs in Texas, he realizes: “We’re on a fool’s errand”), and reads bumper stickers (the “Osama Loves your SUV” sticker he read turns into the thesis of his “Fill ‘er up with Dictators” chapter). This is Friedman’s life: He flies around the world, eats pricey lunches with other rich people and draws conclusions about the future of humanity by looking out his hotel window and counting the Applebee’s signs.
More after the jump …
Arthur Magazine 