Read, in Boskin, American Political Humor, Touchables, and Taboos. pp. 80 - 84
In Watkins, From the Walls of Jericho (Rudolph Fisher), pp. 116 - 130
In Baker, Lieutanant Scheisskopf (Joseph Heller), pp. 347 - 357
Next Tuesday marks the general election. Boskin wants us to think a little about the limits of political humor within the American culture. The theory is that the system itself is off limits, more or less, the characters which inhabit the system–the big bosses, the politicians, the do-gooders are fair game for humorists. You’ll see some of the results here.
Plenty of culture clash in From the Walls of Jericho. You’ll meet a lot of “experts” on the “race problem,” not the least of whom is J Pennington Potter. Make a list of the names of the chacters here–note the subtle (and not-so- subtle) ways the author uses names to shape the characters he presents to his readers. Fred Merritt and Agatha Cramp..quite a pair. But a pair of what?
Joseph Heller is uses names to enhance his humor as well. Those of you who know some German (especially some vulgar German) will that right from the start. Think of this scene as slapstick and put your visual apparatus to good work to understand(?) what’s going on. Is Patriotism itself the butt of Heller’s humor, and if so, does that put it in the taboo character?
For Thursday, October 28
The Stump Speech,
George Caleb Bingham
Well, Monday didn't quite happen as planned, did it? But at least the equipment worked well enough to get the end of O Brother Where Art Thou? in. I've revised the calendar considerably. The Take-home is now due on November 4. We'll do what was scheduled for October 25 on October 28, and delay Primary Colors until next week.
