I just got to thinking about Tom Lehrer- he certainly challenged-'I hold
your hand in mine' I find him quite painful sometimes though
Patrick
ps on right list!!!!!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Anny Ballardini" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, June 14, 2004 8:56 AM
Subject: Re: humour (was: city on the hill...)
> Very interesting what you are writing, and I will be reading this thread
if
> it continues because I also need similar examples for my students (be them
> old or young) to dismantle that logicality given for granted which helps
no
> one but some stale ideas which mine common sense.
>
> Best, Anny
>
> From: "Elizabeth James" <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, June 14, 2004 12:40 AM
>
>
> > Hi Alison
> >
> > I didn't sufficiently express that Stafford Smith's advocacy of humour
> > was not just to the end of making oneself feel better, or (more
> > profoundly) some kind of 'rising above' helplessness and humiliation to
> > win an inner triumph (however, some jokes and irony in the
> > Guantanamo detainees' letters did get through the censors, if one can
> > trust the play), but was more to do with lateral
> > thinking to practical ends, e.g. for him it would be about finding some
> > crazy little point of law to base a court appeal on, and by winning it,
> > actually to prevent an execution. Also presumably about coping with
> > failure and going on working,
> > and ideally, to
> > exchange time spent reiterating deep-held principles in anguished
> > energy-sapping debate for other tactics for cutting the opponent down
> > to size. 'They hate being laughed at', he said. You're right: though it
> > may be useful that kids see that powerful authorities are not
> > unquestioningly revered, there should be more to it. It's not easy!
> >
> > As for comedy as such, I agree with Howard Barker: the rhythmic billows
> > of recorded audience laughter on TV for instance. And even with real
> > people, you hear how, when once they've laughed they're hooked, they
> > respond to the trigger so easily then, whether the joke deserves it or
> > not. And what about poetry? (to try to get back on message). That
> > trigger complicity (not just humour), where the reader is reassured to
> > recognise a reference, or intimately receive a personal confession, or
> > be vouchsafed a piece of wisdom, etc., is presumably one of the main
> > things
> > interesting poets would be consciously avoiding, like every kind of
> > cliche.
> >
> > I'd be interested in recommendations of places where humour has been
> > deployed in innovative / experimental writing, to what effects. Maybe
> > tomorrow I can manage to nominate an example.
> >
> > e
> >
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