Were you surprised by reactions like Mobilios, or is the comic touch purely intentional?
At my first public reading, I was surprised when people laughed. I was not intending to be humorous, I suppose. In fact, it’s hard to try to be funny. But I was adopting certain personae, writing from the viewpoint of characters who had difficulty functioning in the world, and often what they did and said was funny just because it reflected a funny reality. A recent example: I’ve been writing letters of complaint (as ‘stories’). So here is a very earnest letter of complaint written by a woman who is seriously disturbed by the graphic design of a package of frozen peas. There are good reasons for her to be seriously disturbed, having to do with organic foods and bad agricultural practices, etc., and she is very specific about her reasons, but her complaint and the form of it are, unbeknownst to her, humorous. Humor has been so central to my life and my own functioning for so long, now, that it’s hard to imagine that I didn’t know the stories were funny early on. Now I know, but again, I
Related Questions
- Do you recall Mr. Bonsell saying that he was surprised with the reactions of the teachers, he thought that they had been cooperating throughout, correct?
- Were you surprised by reactions like Mobilios, or is the comic touch purely intentional?
- Were some people surprised that a comic book got nominated for Best Short Fiction?
