Sometimes I read these stories and think they're pure gold: whoever wrote them must be literally rolling in the money because everyone is paying him or her for just a line of their work to add spice and pizazz to something that would otherwise lose the reader's attention in the span of a few seconds. I wrote last week that John Hughes' work had that effect on me. This week however I found myself more than a little disappointed with one of the pieces we read. I'll get to that one after I rant about the genius of Barry and The Onion.
Barry's work on the male and female relationship is a definitely overexaggerated form of what I consider to be the major truth amongst all relationships: guys just really have no idea what is going on. Barry's ability to work this exaggeration into his short piece, and then his almost (not quite sure if it actually is) satiric response to women as for how to how to have a successful relationship with human males flowed together so well that I was once again laughing to myself at the innate truths of his work. Barry really exaggerates common stereotypical traits of men (such as distraction along a train of thought and lack of understanding of a relationship) and women (such as overworrying themselves into a disaster) in a way that hit the nail right on the head and allowed him to toy with our imaginations and do whatever cognitive shifts he liked.
The Onion seemed almost like a parody of America's willingness to help others and other nations jumping in. America the big policeman is here to give these people something they desperately needed, but were unable to obtain until America intervened and called for the intervention of others into the affair as well. In this case, Bosnia was missing some vowels (whether they were being hoarded by the government, or there was an economic crisis and shortage I don't remember). The last line about previous letters ending up in the hands of warlords really brought this into a satiric parody of America's current relief efforts. I truly thought that this piece was fairly funny as well.
The piece written by Sedaris however did not amuse me much. Perhaps my sense of humor is just not construed towards this type of writing, but the idea of dressing fancy and the ties and whatnot really just missed the mark with me. I found my self struggling to read all the way through it, whereas with the others before it I had been quite amused. I couldn't quite nail what it was this piece was missing, but I'll reread it later and find out if maybe I was just tired of reading at that point or what.
That's all I got for this one folks, hope that you can all find enough time in the day to have a good laugh or two!
Monday, February 25, 2013
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Vacation '58
Or should I say the story of every vacation of my life? This short story by John Hughes is possibly the greatest literary comical work of art I have seen in years. I laughed out loud on the third floor of Tucker as I was reading this today (and probably scared more than a couple engineers and math majors walking around). I'm actually planning on reading this story again soon just to make sure I didn't miss a single priceless phrase penned by Hughes.
I'm not sure if Hughes just appeals to my sense of humor, or if I laughed so hard because I watch National Lampoon Christmas Vacation every year with my family and we all find it hilarious, but this type of comedy is definitely my favorite: the ridiculous followed by more ridiculousness with just a touch of the slight sense that this could all really happen on any vacation (and I'm fairly certain most of these have happened on people's vacations, including a couple on my own!) Hughes' writing in this piece slowly got more and more unbelievable over time. Starting from the car refusing to start, to having to take a relative across the country with them, (even leaving the dog chained to the bumper is fairly reasonable, even if I didn't find that event particularly humorous) each event just becomes slightly more unrealistic, but Hughes does it at such a subtle pace that the reader is drawn into believing everything more! By the time I got to the car chase, I was totally immersed in the idea that it was still reasonable considering they had already stolen cash from a motel and been swindled by the auto repair man and the sherriff! (At some point I did draw the line, however I must say that point didn't come until Walt Disney was actually shot by Clark Griswold.)
I really enjoyed this short story (in case you couldn't tell). I know that there is a movie based off of this as well (National Lampoon Vacation) and after some research I found out that Hughes actually was the screen writer for the vacation series of movies as well, a fact that helped keep the humor of his tales intact on the screen when translated from the book. Like I said earlier, I will probably read this again tonight just for fun, and I'm definitely recommending it to my dad considering we share the same sense of humor. Although he won't be picking out the cognitive shifts or pointing out superiority theory as he reads it, I'm sure that he will get just as big of a kick out of it as I did.
In summary: John Hughes is in my opinion humor at its finest.
I'm not sure if Hughes just appeals to my sense of humor, or if I laughed so hard because I watch National Lampoon Christmas Vacation every year with my family and we all find it hilarious, but this type of comedy is definitely my favorite: the ridiculous followed by more ridiculousness with just a touch of the slight sense that this could all really happen on any vacation (and I'm fairly certain most of these have happened on people's vacations, including a couple on my own!) Hughes' writing in this piece slowly got more and more unbelievable over time. Starting from the car refusing to start, to having to take a relative across the country with them, (even leaving the dog chained to the bumper is fairly reasonable, even if I didn't find that event particularly humorous) each event just becomes slightly more unrealistic, but Hughes does it at such a subtle pace that the reader is drawn into believing everything more! By the time I got to the car chase, I was totally immersed in the idea that it was still reasonable considering they had already stolen cash from a motel and been swindled by the auto repair man and the sherriff! (At some point I did draw the line, however I must say that point didn't come until Walt Disney was actually shot by Clark Griswold.)
I really enjoyed this short story (in case you couldn't tell). I know that there is a movie based off of this as well (National Lampoon Vacation) and after some research I found out that Hughes actually was the screen writer for the vacation series of movies as well, a fact that helped keep the humor of his tales intact on the screen when translated from the book. Like I said earlier, I will probably read this again tonight just for fun, and I'm definitely recommending it to my dad considering we share the same sense of humor. Although he won't be picking out the cognitive shifts or pointing out superiority theory as he reads it, I'm sure that he will get just as big of a kick out of it as I did.
In summary: John Hughes is in my opinion humor at its finest.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
First time may be the best?
Well, I guess this is a simple introduction to my very first blog! I must say I am not super excited about having one, probably just because I never have had one before and I don't really know if I could seriously commit to one. This blog is really for Honors Lit and Civ II, and I'm hoping I will be able to keep up with it. Shouldn't be too hard right?
Now on to the good stuff: Conversation partners. This is another thing that I am kind of scared about, as I am usually not a huge fan of just meeting new people, so this is definitely going to be something I am going to have to make a conscious effort to take care of. We had our first meeting February 1st and I just have yet to write about it really (I know, I need to work on writing these sooner). My conversation partner's name is Sina Burmeister, and she is from the northern region of Germany. She is studying abroad here and living with her aunt and uncle. She only really knows of one other German student here on campus, so she has a sort of hard time relating to others here at TCU since most students here know little to nothing about German culture. Sina has been able to make friends here though and has come to appreciate the culture here even as she misses the culture back home. For example, Sina frequents Billy Bob's quite often with her friends and says that she really enjoys it even though she occasionally misses the atmosphere that Germany had to offer. Hopefully as we learn more about each other I will gain a greater insight into what that atmosphere and culture is exactly like.
When Sina and I started to talk about humor, I immediately could tell we did not share the same sense of humor (for the most part anyways). I like to laugh at almost anything, while she says that it takes a certain type of humor to appeal to her and make her laugh. Sina is not a huge fan of Youtube and does not often laugh by herself when watching videos or anything of the like, whereas I frequently visit Youtube and watch videos for the sole purpose of laughing and making the day that much better. Sina did say that she often laughs when things happen in person however, and I was even able to coax a few laughs out of her during out conversation. (Ok, so maybe I just think she doesn't laugh that much, but granted it was our first meeting and most first meetings carry a sense of awkwardness. Sina really does like to laugh, just not at my jokes.)
When I asked Sina what the difference was between American and German humor, she had something to say that I thought was really awesome, something that I've been seeing more of during the course of this class. Sina stated "Humor in different places is the same I think, and it depends more on the person than it does the region." I thought this was actually quite true, and the only idea I really have against that is that sometimes the region has an effect only because people are raised to think that kind of humor is what humor truly is. I know that sounds kind of contradictory, but to sum up my thought, "Humor is defined by people's perceptions of situations. Some people think some things are funny, while others would find the same thing boorish. The only effect that regional humor has is to brainwash its inhabitants into a specific definition of what humor is." (This is my own quote, take it as you will!)
With that being said, I almost feel obliged to stick to my perception of humor when it differs from that of others, if only to prevent from conforming to those around me (call it the leftovers of teenage rebellion. Hoping that everyone else who is reading this is having good luck with their blog as well, and that everyone will always find Enough Time in the Day to do what they love most!
Now on to the good stuff: Conversation partners. This is another thing that I am kind of scared about, as I am usually not a huge fan of just meeting new people, so this is definitely going to be something I am going to have to make a conscious effort to take care of. We had our first meeting February 1st and I just have yet to write about it really (I know, I need to work on writing these sooner). My conversation partner's name is Sina Burmeister, and she is from the northern region of Germany. She is studying abroad here and living with her aunt and uncle. She only really knows of one other German student here on campus, so she has a sort of hard time relating to others here at TCU since most students here know little to nothing about German culture. Sina has been able to make friends here though and has come to appreciate the culture here even as she misses the culture back home. For example, Sina frequents Billy Bob's quite often with her friends and says that she really enjoys it even though she occasionally misses the atmosphere that Germany had to offer. Hopefully as we learn more about each other I will gain a greater insight into what that atmosphere and culture is exactly like.
When Sina and I started to talk about humor, I immediately could tell we did not share the same sense of humor (for the most part anyways). I like to laugh at almost anything, while she says that it takes a certain type of humor to appeal to her and make her laugh. Sina is not a huge fan of Youtube and does not often laugh by herself when watching videos or anything of the like, whereas I frequently visit Youtube and watch videos for the sole purpose of laughing and making the day that much better. Sina did say that she often laughs when things happen in person however, and I was even able to coax a few laughs out of her during out conversation. (Ok, so maybe I just think she doesn't laugh that much, but granted it was our first meeting and most first meetings carry a sense of awkwardness. Sina really does like to laugh, just not at my jokes.)
When I asked Sina what the difference was between American and German humor, she had something to say that I thought was really awesome, something that I've been seeing more of during the course of this class. Sina stated "Humor in different places is the same I think, and it depends more on the person than it does the region." I thought this was actually quite true, and the only idea I really have against that is that sometimes the region has an effect only because people are raised to think that kind of humor is what humor truly is. I know that sounds kind of contradictory, but to sum up my thought, "Humor is defined by people's perceptions of situations. Some people think some things are funny, while others would find the same thing boorish. The only effect that regional humor has is to brainwash its inhabitants into a specific definition of what humor is." (This is my own quote, take it as you will!)
With that being said, I almost feel obliged to stick to my perception of humor when it differs from that of others, if only to prevent from conforming to those around me (call it the leftovers of teenage rebellion. Hoping that everyone else who is reading this is having good luck with their blog as well, and that everyone will always find Enough Time in the Day to do what they love most!
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