Round and round the garden and the end of moping

I’ve found that the darker the
drama the more you need to
search for the comedy. If you
don’t let the audience off the
hook occasionally to laugh when
you want them to, you’ll find
them roaring with laughter during
moments you didn’t intend.
One of the endearing features of
the human race is that we can’t
generally keep serious for long.
Be thankful for it. If we could
we’d probably have become
extinct long ago.

AYCKBOURN ON COMEDY

Tired of my moping. Even my co-workers at the writing lab are asking me what's wrong. All right. I'm officially sick of myself. The weather's so nice lately. I'm going to do something nice for myself once summer comes--there'll be no school. And I can go somewhere far away. Maybe Maui. Maybe Peru. Somewhere exotic. I just wish I was rich then I can go anywhere and not have to worry about a thing. Wouldn't that be lovely.

Saw a fantastic play last night. Called "Round and Round the Garden", it was written by Alan Ayckbourn-- called Moliere of the Middle Class by his critics. I watched part of the Norman Conquest Trilogy last night. Ayckbourn wrote the same evening with the same characters and plot in three separate plays each a stand alone work in three different settings. I saw the one--as suggested in the title--set in the garden. It was hilarious. I always think there is something admirable about comedy writers. They are always the more frank and honest of writers. Besides, I think it takes much more ot make someone laugh than to make them cry. As always the academic snobs don't think much of Ayckbourn because they much prefer the political, social, anything that they can sink their critical teeth into to analyze. Comedy--blah, they can't wrap their minds about that--they are too high minded for humor of course. Especially since Ayckbourn is so popular. It is assumed, of course, that the popular things are trashy and most people have bad taste.

Lately, I think literary criticism just pure bs. They leech off creative hard work and they feel it their sacred duty to differentiate high art from low. All the while forgetting that people need to be entertained. It's just part of the human condition. Of course this is very low minded of me, but I think I am going to scream if I have to ever read Lacan, Derrida or any of those philosophers. I used to think they were so cool--they lost their appeal quite a while back.

Maybe I'm turning American--people here don't like abstract thoughts. And every single book on writing I have read reiterates the importance of the concrete. This is of course, simply the American preference in the way they read. For God's sake, they dare criticize Julio Cortazar for putting philosophical thoughts in his work. (hello, he's Argentinian.) Everything has to be easy and acessible, concrete and we are not disrupt the continous dream of fiction for the readers--right. Except there are more types of readers out there than simply Americans. What can I say, Americans.