2010/11/21 New York
Comedy
Secular
In the November 8 issue of The New Yorker James Wood reviews the Man Booker-winning novel “The Finkler Question” by Howard Jacobson.
In this review Mr. Wood makes some funny and insightful remarks:
“There is comedy and then there is something called the Comic Novel, and these are related to each other rather as the year is related to a pocket diary – the latter a meaner, tidier, simpler version of the former.”
(…)
“The novel is, by and large, a secular, comic form: one can be suspicious of any serious novelist who seems entirely immune to the comic.”
This is undoubtedly true, but could the same thing be said about book critics? Should we be suspicious of any serious critic who is entirely immune to the comic?
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8 comments 
People often say how funny books they read were, while I read the same books and didn't see anything hilarious in it.
For a long time I wondered why I couldn't see the humor and I discoverend it's because I need other people to laugh out loud. (so they can ask "what's so funny" and I answer "oh, nothing, you wouldn't get it, it's in context").
A friend of mine discovered this in me when I was camming with her. I typed something like "hahaha" or "lol", whatever, and she said "but you'r not laughing at all". It was then that I realised this, although I remember it was really funny what she said.
For a long time I wondered why I couldn't see the humor and I discoverend it's because I need other people to laugh out loud. (so they can ask "what's so funny" and I answer "oh, nothing, you wouldn't get it, it's in context").
A friend of mine discovered this in me when I was camming with her. I typed something like "hahaha" or "lol", whatever, and she said "but you'r not laughing at all". It was then that I realised this, although I remember it was really funny what she said.
“This vision, in which Jews are God-like, and non-Jews must inevitably become either God-lovers or God-haters, has the functional utility of interpreting anti-Semitism as a twisted form of love, while by the same token suggesting that philo-Semitism is a twisted form of hate.”
Wonderful !
(Although I never saw one Jew then, as a school boy, I was quite famous for my anti-Jewish caricatures – much better than the stuff the Nazis ever produced, if you ask me)
Wonderful !
(Although I never saw one Jew then, as a school boy, I was quite famous for my anti-Jewish caricatures – much better than the stuff the Nazis ever produced, if you ask me)
Arnon
Show no mercy. Lynch them.Bernard
So secretly, my family loves Jews and I am the person who hates them? Time to reconcile then.Still one problem though. I stopped thinking of Arnon as a Jew, but I haven't stopped loving him.
@Mieke
I do not know about you, maybe your parents wanted to be loved (by God) as much as ‘the chosen ones’.
But I am sure it was my twisted way in search for love and attention.
My mother always said she loved everybody the same, but, I am afraid, in fact she despised almost everybody.
I do not know about you, maybe your parents wanted to be loved (by God) as much as ‘the chosen ones’.
But I am sure it was my twisted way in search for love and attention.
My mother always said she loved everybody the same, but, I am afraid, in fact she despised almost everybody.
Bernard
First I should nuance. Not my entire family is anti-Semite, just some members . But what saddens me, is most of them even never encountered Jewish people, nor ever tried to comprehend what happened during WWII. (except for their version)About your mother, telling you love everybody equally is nonsense. I realised at a very young age that I wasn't my mother's favorite. I have my preferences, so have others. That's good.
@Mieke
I can only speak for myself, for me it was the need to find somebody to love and somebody to hate. A simple and easy way, of course. Some people indeed stick with the easy and simple way to look at the world.
I can only speak for myself, for me it was the need to find somebody to love and somebody to hate. A simple and easy way, of course. Some people indeed stick with the easy and simple way to look at the world.
Bernard
My sister, the eldest, thinks Jewish people are shrewd and not to be trusted. She waits for the day that I'll return from a lecture with Arnon and admit she is right.A simple truth indeed.
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