In our well-intentioned efforts to accommodate everyone, I sometimes wonder if we have forgotten that humans are screwed up and full of mistakes and quirks. We went to see a Lyle Lovett concert in July, and he commented in the introduction to one of his songs that he’d written it because “some people just need to be made fun of.” Yes, they do.
I am one of those people. My friends have christened one of my looks as “the laser look of death.” I’ve been laughed at for wearing sparkly jewelry and tripping over my own feet and for missing the punch line of a joke. I’m overinvested in my dog. I yell at the TV when a particular set of politicians does another idiotic and horrible thing. I have scars all over my arms and legs from being careless in the garden. It looks like I’m twelve and have been playing with the boys in the woods all day. I want my husband to wear his “nice” clothes when we go out instead of his comfy jeans. I have trouble relaxing. For all these things and more, I deserve to be ribbed.
I want my readers to enjoy my new book, a collection of persona poems titled Charlene. I want them to laugh and mourn and maybe be a little shocked at what Charlene says. As my colleague said the other day when I complained (quietly) during an interminable meeting that nothing of value was being communicated, “You’re just saying what the rest of us are thinking.” Right. Charlene’s job is to point out the ironies and idiocies of the world—and sometimes I tag along.
Over my years of teaching, I have found many students less and less able to recognize and respond to humor, especially subtler forms like satire and irony. I teach “My Last Duchess,” Robert Browning’s deliciously wicked poem, in which a self-satisfied, narcissistic duke explains to his dinner guest that he killed his last duchess for the crime of being too happy. Her portrait is displayed in his art gallery, where he can finally control her by keeping the painting behind a curtain only he can open. The ironic humor in the poem comes from the duke freely admitting his crime to us, while being so proud of his own behavior. We can see how those things don’t go together and it makes him a kind of (dangerous) fool.
We are in peril of determining that anything that makes fun of another human, their circumstances or location is off limits. I’m not advocating bullying, which is a targeted and sustained attack on someone intended to hurt and humiliate, and which I’ve experienced more than once. That’s what the duke did to his duchess, at least before he killed her. But a little teasing we should all be able to take. And if we include humor that’s edgy in our work then that’s OK, too. Plus, it’s fun to laugh.
One other consideration is the distinction between author and persona. While many poems (and now novels written as autofiction) blur the line between author and persona, finally whatever we write—even autobiography or memoir—is a created self. Which pieces of our lives are included? Which are left out? One must not assume that because Jonathan Swift advocated the eating of children in “A Modest Proposal” that he meant it literally. He was using it to undermine authority, just as Browning undermines the authority of the duke, and satirists today like Jon Stewart, Andy Borowitz, and Stephen Colbert use it to undermine the repressive and cruel policies of our current government. If we can let go of that need for literalness, then much of life becomes, as my friend Rick likes to say, “ridiculous” and thus worthy of being made fun of.
One of the tenets of creativity is pushing the limits. How can artists do that if they are worried about offending? It’s guaranteed that someone will be offended and probably not for the reason we think. Since we can’t control how others respond, we can only be writers who try to express the truest thing we can and then let the chips fall where they may. The alternative is that we become so constrained that we can no longer speak honestly.
Thanks for reading! I’m always happy to hear your thoughts.
Events for the fall:
October 14, Norwalk (CT) Public Library, One Belden Avenue, Norwalk, CT, 6:30 PM: Writers in Conversation, Rick Magee and Jonathan Cohen
November 18, Norwalk Public Library, 6:30 PM: Writers in Conversation, Karen Dukess and Korina Moss, Mystery Novelists!
I love your point about the distinction between self and persona. Also applies to memoir! You are giving readers a portrait of yourself. The "true" self is dynamic, it shifts. Whether in poem, essay, or memoir, the writer is capturing only an instant of selfhood, which can define the persona of that particular piece. Have been thinking about this, your essay was really helpful!
Teasing is in our Peterson blood, that's for sure!! : )