Book Review: Dare to Be Dull

A Book You Can Buy From Me

Book Title: Dare to Be Dull


Author: Joseph L. Troise

Another funny book by this author: http://www.andrewsmcmeel.com/press_releases/elderberries.html

Date: 1983

Publisher: Bantam

ISBN: 0-553-34046-8

Length: 100 pages

Illustrations: black and white photos by Ben Asen; drawings by Phil Frank and Whitney Cookman

Quote: "It is the inalienable right of all people to be Out of It and Proud of It!"

Back when associatedcontent.com was set up to encourage writers to steer readers to one another, I referred to Silver Spring, Maryland (still the home of Carol Bengle Gilbert) as a "land of dullness." This is the book about the very special kind of dullness I had in mind...

After Lisa Birnbach sold millions of copies of The Official Preppy Handbook, style guides became a recognized genre of American humor. If you liked The Official Preppy Handbook, publishers thought, you might also like Cathy Crimmins' Y.A.P., Jodie Posserello's Totally Awesome Val Guide, Patty Bell's Official Silicon Valley Guy Handbook, The Official I Hate Preppies Handbook, and many many more. The ratio of witty "official style guides" to stores that successfully advertised a distinctive style of clothes came close to one-to-one.

And, with the "conservative revival" of the early 1980s, there was a revival of interest in styles that had been declared, well, dull in the 1970s. Joseph Troise wrote for people who weren't trying to climb career ladders, who had already settled for "dull professions" like dentistry or accounting or "dull occupations" like bus driving, who were too old to be or hate preppies, and who were unenthusiastic about 1970s displays of hipness. He invited this audience to dust off their bowling balls, golf clubs, Scrabble boards, crossword puzzles, and Don Ho records, in preference to neckchains, BMWs, designer luggage, and "tight overpriced clothes with other people's names on them."

If not precisely a fashion, this was indeed a style that existed in the 1980s. Still does, to some degree. Troise envisioned Dullness being passed down even to the grandchildren of those who were willing to enjoy it in the 1980s: "Even ten-year-old children can embrace computers and stamp collecting." Right. If you were ten, or twenty, in 1983 and you've embraced computers, this book has at least a nostalgia trip to offer you.

It was and still is easier to achieve Dullness, as defined in this book, if you live one or more full days' drive away from an ocean. Washington, D.C., is a minor anomaly. Federal offices recruit from landlocked areas, so the Certified Dull Person style flourishes in Washington.

Certified Dull Person style must be distinguished from lack of talent or lack of energy. Certified Dull Persons can have interesting, prestigious, and well paid jobs; Troise lists most government careers, anything involving a computer, law, management, teaching, banking, and scientific research as being equally Dull Occupations with baggage handling and factory labor. One has to get to know a Dull Person well to find out what the person does care passionately about. The point of Dull style is that what one cares about is not fashionable clothes and trendy entertainment.

Some specific Dull styles come and go, but the basic idea of Dullness as a style probably originated in the Neanderthal valley, when a couple of troglodytes muttered to each other that they didn't see any point in painting animals all over their cave...and the style has ignored, defied, and sometimes started fashions ever since.

You're on the way to Certified Dullness if you'd rather eat a tuna salad sandwich or a pizza than the latest expensive fad food at an overpriced restaurant, if you'd rather play ping-pong at home than pay dues and drive out to the tennis club, and if you prefer reruns of classic TV shows to artsy film festivals.

So go ahead and Dare to Be Dull whenever you feel like it. You've already racked up a few Dull points by reading this on a computer, so why not add some more by discovering that oatmeal tastes pretty good, coffee provides as much of a buzz as a healthy person could want, and back-yard games or gardening offer you more actual aerobic benefits than that gym membership or exercise machine you never used.

Dare to Be Dull is recommended to any readers who (a) have friends who urge them to be trendy, and/or (b) collect style guides.
 
According to the Andrews-McMeel web page above, collaborating artist Phil Frank is no longer a living writer, but Joseph L. Troise is still alive and retired, and qualifies for a 10% royalty when you click here to buy the book ($10 includes shipping).