Patrick wrote:
"Personally, I think people who want to pigeonhole Lolita as
a 'funny book' are embarrassed by the fact that Nabakov used
Lolita to undermine his readers' sensibilities.'"
Uh, isn't one of the uses of comedy to undermine
sensibilities? In fact, that's one of the reasons humor is so
culturally specific, because it depends upon at least
tweaking, if not breaking, a culture's ideology. And boy did
I not get the sense from Richard and the others that thought
Lolita was funny that they thought the funniness in any way
undercut its greatness, quite the opposite
Bringing it closer to home, much of Willeford is laugh out
loud funny. And then you start thinking about some of the
things you're laughing at
-- humor that makes you think, and sometimes confront the
values of your culture and yourself.
Mark
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