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Fri 18 Mar, 2005 09:29 pm
I am looking for a very short satirical version of the "Confessions of St. Augustine". It is very much in the style of Maurice Sagoff's "Shrinklits" but it isn't any edition or reprint of Shrinklits that I can find.
I think it was in a book (rather than in a magazine or journal) but I'm not sure. It was read prior to 1988 but I can't pin down a year of publication.
It is not in Parrott's "How to be remarkably well read in one evening", MacDonald's "Parodies", nor Parrott's "How to become absurdly well informed about the famous and infamous: a collection of brief biographies". It's not in "Hopalong Freud and Other Parodies" by Ira Wallach, either. I searched an old (manual, hard copy!) cumulative index to the New Yorker but I'm not sure how complete the index is.
I've tried parody searches, satire searches and poetry searches. I have asked a few Augustine scholars, none of whom recognize it ... but most of whom want it!
Simple stuff, poetically, I'm just winging it stylistically here. This is NOT the actual poem:
... born under the African sun
... growing up had lots of fun
... late in life, Epiphany!
... [and you can be?] a Saint like me.
Does anyone know the actual published piece?
Thank you for your help.