In honor of Scandinavians everywhere we get to have class on Tuesday, rather than on Monday. Isn’t that just great? Leif Erikssen discovered the "New World" years and years before that Columbus fella. But we Scandinavians always forget where we put things. So yesterady was Leif Erikssenday, and we got it off. How about that.
Scientific Proof we Vikings Discovered America First!
n. Check the date of the story behind the link
For TUESDAY, October 12 Happy REAL Columbus day!
I’m going to assume two things. First, that I bit off a little more than we could chew in the assignment for last Thursday, and second, that people were out doing something celebratory for on the Monday holiday, so NO NEW READINGS. I’ll see how Thursday goes, and it is likely that we’ll hold off on the Boskin and Chesnutt until Tuesday–maybe some of the Numskulls and Tricksters, as well.
For your memory’s sake, here’s what I wrote about Boskin and Chesnutt.
Read, in Joseph Boskin, Editor, The Humor Prism in 20th Century America
African American Humor, Resistance and Retaliation (Boskin)--pp. 145-157
And in Watkins,
The Passing of Grandison, By Charles W. Chesnutt: pp. 30 - 44
We've already touched a bit on the different uses of humor. Resistance and Retaliation will elaborate on that theme a bit. Do note that cross-class issues can also use the humor of resistance and retaliation. Georgia Tales showed some of that. We've also noted that cross-gender humor may also have elements of resistance and retaliation in it.
You're going to find that passing in the story The Passing of Grandison is a play on words. So is the name Grandison I'm not going to tell you what that play on words is, but I may ask who "got it", when we discuss this tale.
You're going to be able to discover resistance and retaliation in this story, and also resistance and retaliation in the life story of Chales W. Chesnutt, pictured at the left. Click on the image to reach a website devoted to him and to his works.
You'll also find tricksters and numskulls in the story...and maybe we can spend a little time sorting out which is which--and thereby assure ourselves that numskulls and trickster typology is color-blind. You've probably seen the first word spelled numbskull, if you've seen it at all. I've preferred to spell it as Watkins gives it to us. But I won't be pedantic about it. Spell it either way in your journal
For Thursday, October 14
Read, in Rourke, Strollers, pp. 91 - 114
And in Baker, The Death of Julius Caesar. (Leo Rosten)pp. 70 - 77
plus
Broadway Complex (Damon Runyan)pp. 78 - 88
We return again to Rourke to pick up one more type–the comic actor. (We may return again, we’ll see how the time goes, but this is the last that I’ve booked into our extravaganza. I expect most of the people in this class have seen, or participated in amateur theatricals. (If you haven’t, you’ve missed something–see some pretty good pre-professional acting over in the Barn (or if you insist, the Performing Arts Center).
As you read, you’ll notice that there’s a natural relationship between the Minstrel Show (and the emergence of race humor) and the creation of humor on and for the stage by traveling companies of players. You may have encountered melodrama and enjoyed the way the audience cursed the villain, swooned over the heroine, cried for the widow, and cheered the hero coming to the rescue. We’re not going to do much with this, if anything. We are going to look at Burlesque, and at its child, Vaudeville–and later, at the grandchild, standup comedy. But standup is in our future.
From the 1943 "race" movie, Stormy Weather. Some of the best comic dancing you'll ever see.
I think the Leo Rosten piece makes illustrates a number of the ideas we’ve been developing so far. Caesar (or as Mr. Kaplan says, Scissor,) is, of course, Shakespear’s Caesar. We’re introduced to some interesting inter-class conflicts here (witness the names of the faculty), and also some not so subtle fun poking at Academic Pretentiousness. It won’t take long to get the point, but make sure that you catch the verbal play–funny both visually and aurally (try reading aloud...get over being self-conscious). The great Scissor drops dad. I hope father wasn’t hurt.
The English had generations to learn how to be “polite” audiences. In Shakespeare’s own day, theatre was entertainment for the masses, or at least for those with a few pence in their pockets. As Rourke shows, nineteenth century American audiences were pretty rowdy and also pretty passionate. Runyan’s story shows that sense of passion didn’t abate in the 20th Century, though it may have moved a rung or two further down the social ladder. Follow the trials and tribulations of Ambrose Hammer, theatrical critic and erstwhile playwright. Ambrose gets “hammered” in more ways than one–you’ll see how as you work through this story.
