Dissecting the Croak, Part III

The Things They Carried

Speaking of "The Things They Carried"...awesome fucking story.  I loved it. Funny, sad, bittersweet, cleverly and consistently structured. Humanizing. Ingenious. The theme of carrying weight so appropriate and descriptive of things tangible and intangible and so consistently and appropriately applied, yet never so much so that it weighed the work down.

Lieutenant Cross attempts to redistribute the weight he carries, prioritizing the weight of responsibility for his men over the weight of his fantasy love for Martha, the girl back home. But can he, the soldiers or anyone put the intangibles down? Can you lighten the load or merely replace one intangible for another like Freud’s screen memory? The “messiness of these events” are contained and carried in packs on backs, in feet on humps, in minds, hearts and guts and turned into O’Brien’s narrative of the Vietnam War. A catalog of things the soldiers carried turns out to carry a lot of emotional weight.

Note:  "The Things They Carried" is a short story within a book called The Things They Carried.  I read a comment written by a vet on one of the sites I surfed who said O'Brien's book was a precious gift to Vietnam vets.  The other comments by vets on various sites indicated a similar, shared affection for O'Brien and his book.  Also, there is a beautiful message from father to son in that video I posted.

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Things_They_Carried
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_O%27Brien_(author)
http://www.rajuabju.com/literature/thingstheycarried.htm
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/133518.The_Things_They_Carried
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125128156
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127133594
http://www.npr.org/2011/06/02/136503834/returned-combat-veteran-anxiety-trumps-logic
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2010/04/wednesday-on-the-newshour-writer-tim-obrien.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnNMUYJ9fm8  (Youtube has the entire story as an "audio book" from PRI in seven parts.)

Chameleon Lenny

I just read "Tall Tales from the Mekong Delta" a short story by Kate Braverman. It was written in 1990 and won the Best American Short Story 1991 and the O.Henry Prize. It was orginally published in Squandering the Blue, a short story collection.

Kate Braverman said:

"I once said that “Tall Tales” is my version of “Little Red Riding Hood” at the millennium in Los Angeles. It’s an ancient story, an archetypal tale, set beneath the tattered palms in the ruined California tropics under all that vivid and tawdry blue. It’s about predators in a cutting-edge city at the end of a mean thousand years.

'Tall Tales' is about the legacy of Vietnam, which continues to infect the American conscience, often in unexpected configurations. It’s about tarnished consciousness and some unspeakable sordid pulse at the core of the American Dream. On one level, its about the irresistible lure of evil, it’s strange sheen. It’s about relationships between men and women itself. It was here before us and it will remain when we are gone. It has something to do with sexual obsession and the glamour of danger and the fragility of ordinary life. It’s about power and survival in a landscape where the boundaries between dream and reality have dissolved, probably to a rock-and-roll beat."

It's a good story.  I found it intensely creepy and disturbing in no small part due to the fact that I "know" that guy.  I "know" Chameleon Lenny.  I've met him and interacted with him and I know what he is about.  I left him behind.  I like him back there.  In my past, not my present or future.

So yes, the story reminded me of guys I've known in my own life, as well as points made in recent essays I've read for class including one by Marita Sturken (who referenced Freud and his theory of "screen memories") and others we have read about history and cultural memory (American Political Lit).  It reminded me of the current conversation going on in my Black Lit class about pimps and whores and playing the (psychological) game.  The story reminded me of the lyrical significance of sense memories and sense descriptors used in “The Gangster We Are All Looking For” by lê thi diem thúy (more readings from class).  Here so much is blue, blue, blue.  “There is only this infected blue enormity elongating defiantly.  The blue that knows you and where you live and it’s never going to forget.”  Blue is like a screen memory.  Her addiction, the chameleon, is a load she can replace, but never put down.  Much like the death of Lavender for Cross in “The Things They Carried" (another reading and a fantastic story.)

The story reminded me of movies by Adrian Lyne and Zalman King. Stories about dysfunctional desire that is as much of a game as the one in the pulp fiction books we’re reading for that Black Lit class. 9/12 Weeks, Wild Orchid, Fatal Attraction. Chameleon Lenny and what he offers are a fatal attraction for the narrator of “Tall Tales from the Mekong Delta.” Hollywood glorifies him. Society makes him a kind of hero.  This woman takes him like a drug.

The story reminded me or made me think of a lot of stuff, which I suppose is the mark of a good story or an indication of where my mind is at, particularly being in the midst of a bunch of analytical lit classes.  Of all the stuff it reminded me of, though, it reminded me most of men and situations I have known in my own life. I know this guy. I have sense memories stored in my body too, which is why I felt a little sick reading “Tall Tales From The Mekong Delta.” I understand the draw. I understand the consequences. I also want to reach through the story and stage an intervention. I know Chameleon Lenny. I’ve met him before.  She should run, not walk.


Links:
http://www.katebraverman.com/talltalesfromthemekongdelta.html
http://www.katebraverman.com/talltales.html
http://www.amazon.com/Tangled-Memories-Epidemic-Politics-Remembering/dp/0520206207
http://wrt.syr.edu/pub/reflections/19/salibrici.html
http://lozoquals.blogspot.com/2010/12/book-review-tangled-memories-by-marita.html
http://ushistory.wikispaces.com/Sturken+-+Memories
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gangster_We_Are_All_Looking_For
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Things_They_Carried
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_O%27Brien_(author)
http://www.rajuabju.com/literature/thingstheycarried.htm

Olivia Newton-John's Daughter Defends Graphic "Horror Film" Video As "Artist's Job"

Olivia Newton-John's daughter defends graphic video

People are talking bans for the music video because they feel the video legitimizes or glorifies suicide.

"The video shows Chloe appearing to snort a powdery substance, lying in a bed with slit wrists and holding a gun to her head. After the death of Amy Winehouse, the project has been steeped in controversy.

'It's so funny -- I don't think I went that far,' says Chloe. 'It was a metaphor for what I was going through, so I wasn't like, 'Yeah I want to slit my wrist or put some electrical devices in a bathtub.' It was just about being in a lot of pain and dying inside in front of the one you love and them not noticing what you're going through.'

Still, after receiving such strong negative feedback, Chloe released a more positive video with the intention showing her fans that she's 'alive and well.'

What do you think of the video? Is it art, or is it going too far?"

She says it is "the artist's job to challenge ideas."  Maybe she can find some inspiration or relief in her Dad's teepee.

Links:
http://www.etonline.com/music/112804_Olivia_Newton_John_s_Daughter_Chloe_Lattanzi_on_Her_Graphic_New_Music_Video/
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43933901/ns/today-entertainment/
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/olivia-newtonjohn-silent-on-daughters-graphic-shockrock-music-video-20110725-1hw36.html
http://blog.zap2it.com/pop2it/2011/07/chloe-lattanzi-olivia-newton-johns-daughter-makes-horrid-inscrutable-video.html
http://instinctmagazine.com/blog/chloe-lattanzi-says-play-with-me-in-her-cray-cray-new-video?directory=100011
http://www.starobserver.com.au/celebrity-2/2011/07/22/dark-road-for-newton-johns-daughter/57450
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYou42GVpRQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdJZRZDxqao
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWa-K8xHUos

Newz Blurbz. Oh the humanity! (July 28, 2011)

Today's theme is alcohol.  Amy Winehouse possibly dying from alcohol withdrawal, a drunk road-raging driver killing someone with his car and then pounding his chest like a gorilla before demanding that the cops shoot him in the head, a father and stepmother enjoying a night of drinking with their drug-addicted and suicidal son who dies after the festivities, doctors recommending annual screening for alcohol and sexual assault issues, teens in England abstaining and being "less tolerant of drinking."  Those story details caught my eye.  Paz de la Huerta just annoys me.

Amy Winehouse: Family believes singer may have died from alcohol withdrawal

Paz de la Huerta Admits to Smackdown With The City Star, Ordered to Sober Up

Witness to fatal crash: SUV driver pounded chest 'like a gorilla'

Las Cruces Father And Stepmother Charged After Death Of Suicidal Son

"A father and stepmother are charged with intentional child abuse for providing alcohol to their suicidal and drug-addicted 15-year-old son who lost consciousness and died 10 days after a night of drinking with his parents."

Women Should Be Screened for Alcohol Abuse at Least Annually

"Obstetrician-gynecologists should screen and counsel women at risk of drinking and alcohol dependence, especially those who are pregnant or at risk of pregnancy; and health care providers should routinely screen all women for history of sexual assault, according to two Practice Bulletins from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists published in the August issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology."

More teens abstain from alcohol, NHS figures reveal

"More than half of younger teenagers in England are abstaining from alcohol, the latest figures from the NHS Information Centre show."

"Chris Sorek, the chief executive of Drinkaware, said: 'These statistics are not just encouraging because they show a drop in the number of children who have tried alcohol, but also because they show a positive shift in attitudes.'"

Q&A: The Author of Unwasted Talks About Socializing Sober

"I was bothered by all of those addiction memoirs—I call them “junkie lit.” They're voyeuristic, focusing on the wild and crazy episodes, and then there's this burning bush moment in the last chapter when the addict decides to quit. The books remind me of romantic comedies in which the struggle of a couple getting together is the whole movie. But real life comes after that."

Dissecting the Croak, Part II

Four Theorists Deconstruct a Joke

I will number each sentence or unit of meaning in the following joke so it will be easy to identify it in the discussion to follow.

The Tan

1.  A man goes to Miami for a vacation.
2.  After a few days there he looks in a mirror and notices he has a beautiful tan all over his body, with the exception of his penis.
3.  He decides to remedy the situation, and have a perfect tan all over his body.  So the next morning he gets up early, goes to a deserted section of the beach, undresses, and starts putting sand over his body until only his penis remains exposed to the sun.
4.  A couple of little old ladies happen to walk by shortly after the man has finished shoveling sand all over himself.
5.  One notices the penis sticking out of the sand.  She points it out to her friend.
6.  "When I was twenty, I was scared to death of them."
7.  "When I was forty, I couldn't get enough of them."
8.  "When I was sixty, I couldn't get one to come near me."
9.  "And now they're growing wild on the beach!"

So why is this amusing?

Superiority theorists:  We feel superior to various characters in this story.  The punch line (#9) can be taken as a revelation of ignorance.  And the segments preceding it reveal a good deal about her sexuality and frustration.

Incongruity theorists:  The fundamental absurdity of a penis sticking out of the sand instead of being between a man's legs, where it belongs (in the first place) and of a person thinking that penises can grow wild on the beach, like wildflowers (in the second place) is the source of the humor.  One expects penises to behave and to stay shielded from public scrutiny.  The punch line (#9) reveals the incongruity.

Psychoanalytic critics:  The humor generated from the joke stems primarily from its sexual content.  The humor is related to sexuality and the matter of sexual development in people and, in particular, to sexual hunger.  The punch line (#9) represents a kind of wish-fulfillment, a sexually paradisiacal state for this woman where penises grow wild on the beach and are thus easily attainable and in as great a quantity as may be desired.  Sexual repression, which Freud postulated as being the price we pay for civilization, is no longer a dominating force.  The man, it could be argued, also has unconscious exhibitionist tendencies.  There may also be a regressive aspect to the woman, who does not seem to know that penises always come attached to men - a means, a good Freudian might argue, of escaping from penis envy.

Cognitive perspective:  The jokes establishes a play frame which is generated by the man's bizarre behavior - his desire to tan every inch of his body.  This play frame allows us to view the crazy notion that penises might grow wild on the beach as humorous, something not to be taken seriously.  The semiotic analysis of this joke shows something else.  The punch line (#9) sets up a paradigmatic opposition which contrasts nature with culture.  It is this set of polar oppositions that gives us an insight into the real meaning of the joke.  Whether people realize this at the conscious level is beside the point.

This entire blog post is an excerpt from the Introduction chapter, pages 5-7, of "An Anatomy of Humor" by Arthur Asa Berger.

Link:
http://books.google.co.in/books?id=aZkRJJnc6BUC&pg=PA57&dq=Davies,+Christie.+Ethnic+Humor&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=0_0#v=onepage&q=Davies%2C%20Christie.%20Ethnic%20Humor&f=false
http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Humor-Arthur-Berger/dp/0765804948

Dissecting the Croak, Part I

One day this frog was bored, so he decided to call the psychic hotline.The psychic asked the frog, "what do you want to know." "Tell me something about my love life," said the frog. "In the very near future you are going to meet a very beautiful young woman," said the psychic.  "Cool, where? at a disco or a party?" said the frog."No," the psychic replied,"next month in her biology class!"

"Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it."  - E.B. White

"Almost all the jokes that I have found touch on a certain social boundary, susceptibility or 'threshold of embarrassment.'  The most popular joke categories deal with sensitive questions like sex, gender relationships, foreigners, aggression, religion, money, sicknesses, death, disasters and scandals.  Much of the pleasure of humor lies in the short-lived, playful, light-hearted overstepping of a social boundary." 

"...the most widespread jokes are without a doubt jokes about sex and gender relationships..."

"...I can easily distinguish elements crucial to the understanding of all categories of jokes:  the distinction between jokes in which a boundary is transgressed and jokes that themselves transgress a social boundary."  - from "Good humor, bad taste: a sociology of the joke" by Giselinde Kuipers

"Joking entails a dynamic process where the characteristics of the joke teller and the audience interact with the embedded meaning of the joke.  It is the interactions among these factors that determine whether efforts to be funny are acceptable or not."

"Freud argues for the cathartic effect of joking, especially in areas of unconscious turmoil about human sexuality and aggression.  Humour is seen as a safe outlet that prevents the teller from expressing his hostilities in more destructive ways." - from "No Laughing Matter: Boundaries of Gender-Based Humour in the Classroom" by Aysan Sev'er and Sheldon Ungar

"We know that when we verbally depreciate the humanity of people it is much easier to treat them in inhumane ways."  - from "An Anatomy of Humor" by Arthur Asa Berger

Boundary-pushing jokes and sacred cows.
Do sacred cows make the best hamburger?
Is it so wrong it's right?
Do you sometimes laugh against your better judgment?
How do you maintain the balance between funny and offensive?
How far is too far?  When and how does a joke become a boundary transgression?
Bad taste or much needed levity?
Where's the line, how is it determined, how do you know it, who sets it, why and who polices it?
Are older people more easily offended than younger people?  Are women more easily offended than men?  Are Americans more easily offended than Europeans?  And if so, why?  And does it matter?
Do jokes based on tropes of discrimination and bigotry like race, gender and sexual orientation let the hot air out of the balloon and tweak the destructive accepted conventional wisdom of the time and place or only add to the destructiveness and propagate hate and ignorance?  Do ethnic jokes, for example, "reinforce stereotypes and hostile feelings" or do they help people "deal with hostility verbally instead of physically"?
Is "politically correct" a worthy and achievable ideal?  Useless or overused?
Are some of our greatest modern social commentators and philosophers comedians?
Do people just need to lighten the fuck up?


Links:
http://www.froggyville.com/jokes.htm
http://www.bookbrowse.com/quotes/detail/index.cfm?quote_number=228
http://books.google.com/books?id=uk_WHTCTN9YC&pg=PA121&lpg=PA121&dq=boundaries+of+humor+and+jokes&source=bl&ots=uDr0R__FjJ&sig=Ifxovpm2HrShoakZxnXI7i3mLTA&h
http://www.jstor.org/pss/2959937
http://books.google.co.in/books?id=aZkRJJnc6BUC&pg=PA57&dq=Davies,+Christie.+Ethnic+Humor&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=0_0#v=onepage&q=Davies%2C%20Christie.%20Ethnic%20Humor&f=false