Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - [Homestead] On writing to amuse

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: Homestead <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Homestead] On writing to amuse
  • Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2008 07:45:57 -0500

ON WRITING TO AMUSE

With the acumen always engendered by fine beer, Don and I were discussing the difficulty of writing with humor. In this age of political correctness and hyper criticalness, to attempt to write humor is to enter a pit of writhing vipers seeking a succulent target. To attempt to write subtle humor is to add alligators waiting for a body to eviscerate.

There are two safe ways to accomplish the basic humor challenge, although subtle humor is near impossible. The first is to be so outrageous, so over-the-top, that no one above third-grade level could possibly think the writer is maliciously serious. Tvo and I did this complicitly for years.

The other way is to write only for the amusement of one’s close friends, as reckoned by relationships that have long survived vigorous repartee-caused gasps of shock. I have the irrepressible need to do this.

Close friends know me for the sweet and sometimes silly soul that I am. They know that the only time my insult is serious is when I write about leaders who shame themselves by their actions, who claim to esteem the masses while serving themselves and their friends.

We are all responsible for what comes out our mouths and off our fingers. If a reader were to express insult, I would apologize—and that would likely be the end of their readership. If a friend was outraged, I would congratulate him on his sensitivity, then question his self-esteem, then expect defensiveness, then expect the possibility of several years before reconciliation.

But if a wife were to express consternation, the writer would open a bottle of good wine, command soothing music, and speak gentle and loving compliments and suggestions.

Is that too subtle?


  • [Homestead] On writing to amuse, Gene GeRue, 07/20/2008

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page