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  #11  
Unread 07-22-2014, 07:50 PM
Paddy Raghunathan Paddy Raghunathan is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed Shacklee View Post
But lack of humor is also extremely funny sometimes.
True, Peter Sellers proves your statement in The Pink Panther series.
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  #12  
Unread 07-22-2014, 09:02 PM
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Janice D. Soderling Janice D. Soderling is offline
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Quote:
Which is more important: humor in one's writing, or humor in one's nature and demeanor?
What a strange question and why would anyone furrow their brow to give it a serious reply.

Which is more important: a pretty face or inner beauty? This might depend on whether you share the goals of Kimberly Kardashian or not.
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  #13  
Unread 07-23-2014, 09:08 AM
Stephen Hampton Stephen Hampton is offline
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Overly serious poems and poets have always irked me; mostly when they are consistently thus; those whose works (and lives) were/are full of malice mendacity and unrighteous (wrong hotheadedness) incivility - boil me! However, I do read them (some) simply because some are very good at their craft. Actually, altruistically, I even love one or two of that kind - rationally we seek no cohabitation.
Humorless humanity naturally, die inside, long before they quietly, lie in-graved; well earned and fit, their silent repose... repose.... repose.
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  #14  
Unread 07-23-2014, 10:19 AM
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W.F. Lantry W.F. Lantry is offline
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"Mithridates, he died old."

But seriously, I'm trying to remember LOL'ing even once while trying to struggle through Milton. That would be like laughing in the dentist's chair. With the drill running. Margaritas bring more giggles than Meredith ever could.

On the other hand, I humbly offer Muriel Rukeyser as counter-argument.



Best,

Bill

Ps. Now that I think about it, that Mithridates poem has my favorite funny sequence. We used to use the first line in workshops whenever a particularly bad poem was presented:

"The cow, the old cow, she is dead;
It sleeps well, the horned head:
We poor lads, ’tis our turn now
To hear such tunes as killed the cow."
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  #15  
Unread 07-23-2014, 12:09 PM
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Rick Mullin Rick Mullin is offline
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There is a palpable difference between poems that are not funny written by writers with a sense of humor, and poems that are not funny written by writers with no sense of humor. One can smell the difference. Ed might agree, given his comment above. Certainly Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther series is the best example of what I'm talkin' about.

By saying that humor is essential to writing, I don't mean to say that what is written needs to be funny. Or light.

RM

Last edited by Rick Mullin; 07-23-2014 at 12:13 PM.
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  #16  
Unread 07-23-2014, 01:08 PM
Gregory Dowling Gregory Dowling is offline
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As a counter to the view of Shelley as completely lacking in humour I suggest reading the following poems: "The Witch of Atlas", "Swellfoot the Tyrant", "Letter to Maria Gisborne". Particularly the last one.
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  #17  
Unread 07-23-2014, 06:12 PM
Paddy Raghunathan Paddy Raghunathan is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gregory Dowling View Post
As a counter to the view of Shelley as completely lacking in humour I suggest reading the following poems: "The Witch of Atlas", "Swellfoot the Tyrant", "Letter to Maria Gisborne". Particularly the last one.
I have Shelley's complete works on my bookshelf, and will definitely read them.

Now give us your counter for Wordsworth lacking in humor. :-)
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  #18  
Unread 07-23-2014, 06:35 PM
Roger Slater Roger Slater is offline
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Well, I'll trust you that those poems contain evidence of a sense of humor, though I've glanced at them and didn't see the evidence myself right off the bat. Still, even a supremely humorless poet whose collected works exceed 1,380 pages (and the man died at age 29!) is bound to leave behind a stray vestige of something resembling humor in a poem or two. I'd say that if the remaining 1,300+ pages are humorless, and most of the people who knew him report that he was bizarrely intense and serious, the case for Shelley the humorist isn't strong.
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  #19  
Unread 07-23-2014, 07:05 PM
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Ed Shacklee Ed Shacklee is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick Mullin View Post
There is a palpable difference between poems that are not funny written by writers with a sense of humor, and poems that are not funny written by writers with no sense of humor. One can smell the difference. Ed might agree, given his comment above. Certainly Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther series is the best example of what I'm talkin' about.

By saying that humor is essential to writing, I don't mean to say that what is written needs to be funny. Or light.

RM
I'll see your Peter Sellers and raise you Margaret Dumont, Rick, and I'm not sure who wins.

Last edited by Ed Shacklee; 07-23-2014 at 07:13 PM. Reason: added a smiley face after being interupted by the woman from Porlock.
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  #20  
Unread 07-23-2014, 08:57 PM
Gregory Dowling Gregory Dowling is offline
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I should also have added Shelley's "Peter Bell the Third". Then there is the fact that he greatly appreciated his friend Byron's Don Juan and his other friend Thomas Love Peacock's Nightmare Abbey which contains a very funny portrait of Shelley himself. Of course, I'm not claiming that any of the works I've mentioned by Shelley are screamingly comic,just that they couldn't have been written by someone who was devoid of humour.
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