[lit-ideas] Re: Irvine Welsh and humour
- From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 09:30:46 -0500
DMc:
> Are things really that bad over there, or was Irvine just in appallingly
bad
> taste as usual
I don't know, but I sure laughed when I read it. The line between social
respect and social sanctimony is an ambiguous one. One of the English profs
on the old Phil-Lit once tried to silence me by citing Hanna Arendt's claim
that humor was not possible after Auschwitz. I corrected him by pointing
out that Arendt never said any such thing, rather it was Adorno who had
claimed that poetry was no longer possible after Auschwitz -- which is a
patently absurd statement since it is essentially a poetic one. The prof
sneered at me as if I were stupid for thinking that he didn't know that. I
found that very funny. Probably the only time I ever found him funny.
Mike Geary
Memphis
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donal McEvoy" <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2004 6:10 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Irvine Welsh and humour
> In a Q&A piece in the UK Observer this weekend, the famous Scottish author
> recalls being asked by American journalists [specifically New York, afair]
> whether there was anything he would not joke about. He explained,
"Auschitz,
> as a close family member died there". Being met with looks of sympathy
etc. -
> he further explained "They slipped and fell out of a machine-gun tower".
>
> The reaction was what is now here sometimes known as "tumbleweed" (after
a
> gag popularised by UK comedians Reeves and Mortimer - making an noise like
> wind blowing tumbleweed in cowboy films whenever a quip falls flatter than
a
> sky-scraper when a plane..er, whenever a quip falls flat. Very flat).
>
> Are things really that bad over there, or was Irvine just in appallingly
bad
> taste as usual (you should have seen the shell-suit he was wearing in the
> accompanying photo)?
>
> Donal
> Impeccably behaved as usual in Blighty
>
>
>
>
>
> ___________________________________________________________ALL-NEW Yahoo!
Messenger - sooooo many all-new ways to express yourself
http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
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