"The [newspaper] run last night at work was exceptionally slow. Didn't get off till 5:30 a.m. Went in at 10:45 p.m. They could only run one insert machine until they finished the mail. They still don't have enough part-time help in the mail room. I was reading Outlaw of Gor, the second book in the Gor series. I had eighty pages left to read when I came to work. They were running so slow that I had time to finish the book and separate the mail. A-- was off last night, so they sent down M-- A-- to help me during the city part of the run. We were talking about books, so I began telling him the story of Outlaw of Gor. I told him everything I remembered, which was almost all of the book. He thought the part where the Sleen attacked Tarl Cabet of Gor was funny. I kind of did a spoof on the story. Then both of us started spoofing the story, saying we were of the caste of warriors and proud and brave as we mount our mighty Tharns. It got pretty corny, but then, the book's kind of corny, but it's a good kind of corny."
MANHOOD REDO: Shades of Conan the Barbarian. Sometimes traditional masculinity is pretty corny, and sometimes it's good to make fun of it.
Showing posts with label humor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label humor. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Sunday, December 2, 2007
JOURNAL EXCERPT: March 31, 1978 8:00 am
"Actually it is the first of April but I wasn't home last night, so I'm writing now. Went to see Steve Martin with R-- L-- last night, then went drinking at the Santa Fe Station Club. Went to work about 1:00 am and the pressroom hadn't begun printing papers yet. Computer had broken down. Didn't begin the run till 3:00 am. Got off work about 7:30 am. Writing this after I got home from work. I am tired and am going to bed."
MANHOOD REDO: Steve Martin is a Kennedy Center Honoree this month; there was an article in today's Washington Post about his career. When I saw him -- at Texas Tech University, I think -- he was still in his banjo, white suit, arrow-through-the-head phase. I can't remember whether he'd already been on Saturday Night Live. I appreciated his sense of humor because he didn't wield it like a knife. The only time I can remember him being caustic and cutting during the evening was his reaction to a heckler when he said, "I remember when I had my first beer," and I felt he had good cause.
In the world of traditional masculinity, it's not unusual for humor to be used as weapon, and then when someone complains that it's hurtful, accuse her or him or them of not having a sense of humor. I learned how to wield that weapon, and used it especially in graduate school, but I've never been comfortable with it, which explains why my efforts to be funny have been categorized by others as self-deprecating. In my early teens, I loved reading more than any other the Marvel comics that spoofed Spiderman, X-Men, Daredevil, Ironman, and all the other superheroes who made up the Marvel canon. Later on in high school and college, I drew a comic strip called Starman (before there was a TV show called Starman), a superhero who gained the ability to float and twinkle after sprinkling ashes (he thought they were pepper) from a Grecian urn over his scrambled eggs. It was kind of Charlie Brown becomes part of the superhero world. I used the same formula to create Anti-Rape Man: Henry Niemeyer, a mild-mannered children's book writer, who in the hospital wing with a clandestine feminist laboratory, accidentally gains superpowers to prevent sexual violence while searching for a restroom after drinking too much hospital coffee. What better way to spoof aspects of masculinity as they've been traditionally represented in the comics?
Of course, the sixties Batman did it long before I ever did. I am sure it was an influence on me as well.
You can find the link to "The Saga of Anti-Rape Man" in the links section of this blog.
MANHOOD REDO: Steve Martin is a Kennedy Center Honoree this month; there was an article in today's Washington Post about his career. When I saw him -- at Texas Tech University, I think -- he was still in his banjo, white suit, arrow-through-the-head phase. I can't remember whether he'd already been on Saturday Night Live. I appreciated his sense of humor because he didn't wield it like a knife. The only time I can remember him being caustic and cutting during the evening was his reaction to a heckler when he said, "I remember when I had my first beer," and I felt he had good cause.
In the world of traditional masculinity, it's not unusual for humor to be used as weapon, and then when someone complains that it's hurtful, accuse her or him or them of not having a sense of humor. I learned how to wield that weapon, and used it especially in graduate school, but I've never been comfortable with it, which explains why my efforts to be funny have been categorized by others as self-deprecating. In my early teens, I loved reading more than any other the Marvel comics that spoofed Spiderman, X-Men, Daredevil, Ironman, and all the other superheroes who made up the Marvel canon. Later on in high school and college, I drew a comic strip called Starman (before there was a TV show called Starman), a superhero who gained the ability to float and twinkle after sprinkling ashes (he thought they were pepper) from a Grecian urn over his scrambled eggs. It was kind of Charlie Brown becomes part of the superhero world. I used the same formula to create Anti-Rape Man: Henry Niemeyer, a mild-mannered children's book writer, who in the hospital wing with a clandestine feminist laboratory, accidentally gains superpowers to prevent sexual violence while searching for a restroom after drinking too much hospital coffee. What better way to spoof aspects of masculinity as they've been traditionally represented in the comics?
Of course, the sixties Batman did it long before I ever did. I am sure it was an influence on me as well.
You can find the link to "The Saga of Anti-Rape Man" in the links section of this blog.
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