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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

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?