tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post6455949271188901925..comments2024-03-27T02:55:10.109-07:00Comments on Irish Papist: In Praise of HumourlessnessMaolsheachlannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09406722311993627528noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-18884087777699297422013-01-11T01:18:31.888-08:002013-01-11T01:18:31.888-08:00I have never seen (except in clips) Laurel and Har...I have never seen (except in clips) Laurel and Hardy, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Abbot and Costello or the Three Stooges. I keep meaning to try them.<br /><br />Despite my above post, I am not at all anti-comedy or anti-humour. I'm a big fan of the Carry On films, the Office (American version), Flann O'Brien, Fawlty Towers, This is Spinal Tap, Flanders and Swann, lots of others...I guess "humourlessness" was a provocative term to choose. I just think we've got to the stage where you are hardly allowed to be serious of solemn about anything. I've noticed that I prefer to socialize with older people rather than younger people because younger people's conversation so often seems confined to banter and badinage.<br /><br />There are some Laurel and Hardy DVDs in the library where I work. I might take one home for the weekend, actually!Maolsheachlannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09406722311993627528noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-16267491610363452912013-01-10T16:38:35.079-08:002013-01-10T16:38:35.079-08:00Oh, I don't know. A book with a chapter on ho...Oh, I don't know. A book with a chapter on how the decline of humourlessness has played out in and damaged various branches of the arts: literature, film, television, music, painting and sculpture, theatre, and so on? Maybe not.<br /><br />Agree with you ultimately about the Marx Brothers. Despite the moments of sublime goofing (another one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-c1Oz0ZwQQ), I'd still rather watch even an average Laurel and Hardy movie like The Bohemian Girl than Duck Soup. TBG has only a couple of truly hilarious scenes (like the wine bottling) but there is always something deeply endearing - and indeed serious - about the relationship between the two that the goofiness never submerges. And I love the way they transpose it from setting to setting. mickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13984879719516554591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-15853198513382048592013-01-10T01:19:19.602-08:002013-01-10T01:19:19.602-08:00Thanks for your too-kind words, Mick.
I don't...Thanks for your too-kind words, Mick.<br /><br />I don't think I would get a whole book out of these reflections!<br /><br />Actually, I have written a few novels and a book of horror short stories, though none were ever published.<br /><br />I sometimes have other ideas for books, though I very much doubt I will ever write them. Books I would like to read, really. I would like to read a book-length study of the well-trodden path from radical to conservative, an account of the various writers and intellectuals and others who took it, and how it has changed over time. I also had an idea for a book called The Book of Cranks which would be a history of -isms, basically-- nudism, veganism, neopaganism, young fogey-ism, post-humanism-- but in as sympathetic a tone as possible because I actually like cranks and conspiracy theorists and zealots of various kinds. I think they make the world more interesting. (One problem with the title would be that in America "crank" has a much more pejorative connotation than in Ireland and Britain.)<br /><br />I would also like to read a book that examined the religious and political and social beliefs of well-known figures like politicians, writers, directors, scientists and so forth-- because I am always insatiably curious as to what, for instance, Winston Churchill's religious beliefs were.<br /><br />The problem with all that is that I don't think I have the dedication for it and I don't understand copyright well enough to know how to draw from other books without plagiarizing.<br /><br />Orthodoxy is my favourite book in the world but I've never been sure about the end. In my post, I deliberately didn't make too much of Christ's apparent humourlessness in the Gospels because I think that would be presumptious. I always think it is dangerous to put words into Christ's mouth (even when you are C.S. Lewis writing Aslan) or to say what "Jesus would have done". I have no idea what Jesus would have done-- he seemed to constantly surprise his own disciples.<br /><br />I do think there are sublime moments in the Marx Brothers but it's the tone of sustained flippancy I don't like-- everything is for the sake of a gag and there's no more to it. I know lots of people would consider me a philistine for that though.Maolsheachlannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09406722311993627528noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-86913587563240420752013-01-09T16:13:14.344-08:002013-01-09T16:13:14.344-08:00If you ever write a book, this might be your theme...If you ever write a book, this might be your theme. Wonderful stuff, even though I'm not sure I go along with everything<br /><br />So what do you make of the last few sentences of Orthodoxy?<br /><br />PS I would say there is something almost sublime in the way Groucho Marx talks himself into declaring war https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9Wh66FXZJQmickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13984879719516554591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-25729647726362085592013-01-09T11:20:21.379-08:002013-01-09T11:20:21.379-08:00Thanks for that! I will correct accordingly.
Look...Thanks for that! I will correct accordingly.<br /><br />Looking up that paragraph actually has me browsing through the book again!Maolsheachlannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09406722311993627528noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-50448559625356020332013-01-09T09:20:07.923-08:002013-01-09T09:20:07.923-08:00Prof. Bloom's book is titled The Closing of th...Prof. Bloom's book is titled <em>The Closing of the <strong>American</strong> Mind</em>. It's available for download in <a href="http://archive.org/details/ClosingOfTheAmericanMind" rel="nofollow">text</a> or <a href="http://archive.org/details/AllanBloomTheClosingOfTheAmericanMind" rel="nofollow">audiobook</a> formats at archive.org.Jonny Stephenshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16013553597620008162noreply@blogger.com