For one of my book clubs, I'm reading The Sellout by Paul Beatty. It's...difficult. The author himself describes his motivation for writing the book as: "I wanted to make myself flinch," and this is the perfect way to describe the experience of reading it. You will flinch. A lot. And if you think a satire about slavery—albeit a well-written, legitimately funny satire about slavery—sounds reprehensible, you will hate, hate, hate this book. If you just can't crack a smile at a good joke about misogyny or the holocaust or any other serious subject, you will loathe this book with your whole soul. And I must tell you: I do not hate or loathe this book. It's not fun to read, but damn is it funny.
It's actually the perfect thing to be reading on January 20, 2017. I'm going to wager that dark satire will be on the rise for the next few years years. I'm not lamenting this: I love satire. It's also really hard to write well, and now lots of good authors are likely to be inspired to try it. The Onion has spent many years perfecting the art, but now that reading the New York Times feels like reading like the Onion, you really need some finesse to pack the right satirical punch. I think the whole nation would really benefit from a Catch-22 for the Trump era. It would be a public service.
I've been thinking about this because I think I've offended some people lately by making jokes about life in Trump's America. This has happened with coworkers, my family, and in routine polite conversation. Usually I'm joking in order to lighten the mood away from utter despondence; I find incessant anxiety and hand-wringing to be mind-bendingly boring. But also, and quite honestly, there is just so much good material in the world nowadays. Almost any joke I hear that includes the phrase, "I have the best words," is at least worthy of a dark chuckle.
Is the world ending? Quite possibly! But as I learned from Marilynne Robinson, Dante reserved a whole circle in hell for the sullen and wrathful, those who refused to find any joy and laughter in the never-ending human farce we inhabit.
And on that very topic, The Sellout has some stuff to say about offendedness:
It's actually the perfect thing to be reading on January 20, 2017. I'm going to wager that dark satire will be on the rise for the next few years years. I'm not lamenting this: I love satire. It's also really hard to write well, and now lots of good authors are likely to be inspired to try it. The Onion has spent many years perfecting the art, but now that reading the New York Times feels like reading like the Onion, you really need some finesse to pack the right satirical punch. I think the whole nation would really benefit from a Catch-22 for the Trump era. It would be a public service.
I've been thinking about this because I think I've offended some people lately by making jokes about life in Trump's America. This has happened with coworkers, my family, and in routine polite conversation. Usually I'm joking in order to lighten the mood away from utter despondence; I find incessant anxiety and hand-wringing to be mind-bendingly boring. But also, and quite honestly, there is just so much good material in the world nowadays. Almost any joke I hear that includes the phrase, "I have the best words," is at least worthy of a dark chuckle.
Is the world ending? Quite possibly! But as I learned from Marilynne Robinson, Dante reserved a whole circle in hell for the sullen and wrathful, those who refused to find any joy and laughter in the never-ending human farce we inhabit.
And on that very topic, The Sellout has some stuff to say about offendedness:
"What does that mean, I'm offended?" I asked the unrequited love of my life, talking to her through the panoramic rearview mirror..."It's not even an emotion. What does being offended say about what you feel? No great theater director ever said to an actor, 'Okay, this scene calls for some real emotion, now go out there and give me lots of offendedness!'"
"That's saying a lot coming from a callow farm boy who's never been offended in his life because his head's too high in the clouds."
"That's because if I ever were to be offended I wouldn't know what to do. If I'm sad, I cry. If I'm happy, I laugh. If I'm offended, what do I do, state in a clear and sober voice that I'm offended, then walk away in a huff so that I can write a letter to the mayor?"
