Canonical books that AREN'T funny -- S/D

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If it ain't funny, it ain't genius.

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Thursday, 30 December 2004 06:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Wrong.

― Michael White (Hereward), Thursday, 30 December 2004 06:42 (twenty-one years ago)

The Bible - Not Funny.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Thursday, 30 December 2004 06:43 (twenty-one years ago)

The story of Absalom = genius /=not funny.

― Michael White (Hereward), Thursday, 30 December 2004 06:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Absalom! Absalosm! = funny = genius. I'm right.

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Thursday, 30 December 2004 07:18 (twenty-one years ago)

are Thomas Hardy novels funny in any way?

― ryan (ryan), Thursday, 30 December 2004 14:52 (twenty-one years ago)

because i figure if Hardy is funny this theory is surely correct

― ryan (ryan), Thursday, 30 December 2004 14:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm with Lee on this one.

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 30 December 2004 14:58 (twenty-one years ago)

(maybe Hardy is the novelistic version of Schopenhauer and since Schopenhauer is indeed hilarious that means Hardy is funny by default)

― ryan (ryan), Thursday, 30 December 2004 15:02 (twenty-one years ago)

The Book of Job is funny.

― LSTD (answer) (sexyDancer), Thursday, 30 December 2004 16:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Anyone else have this experience: when you were a precocious
teen, reading classic novels and getting caught up in it, the passionate seriosness of it all, and then going to a york notes or whatever to see what it says about it, and finding out the whole thing (according to the critic anyway) was a satire, and all the characters' actions and emotions were being satirised..

And then eventually it hits you: 99% of all literature is satire.
Oh! for the death of innocence

― Bumfluff, Thursday, 30 December 2004 16:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Ulysses = funny
Gravity's Rainbow = Funny

Rabbit, Run = suck

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Thursday, 30 December 2004 18:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't know that a truly humorless book could be considered "genius" in any way. In fact, I'm sure not. But Anna Karenina and War and Peace are rarely, if ever, funny. Paradise Lost is not. The Divine Comedy isn't anymore, if it ever was. Faulkner someone said, and that's OTM. Though he could be so, darkly.

It's an appreciable theory (and anyone who wants to knock Updike is alright by me. Although his poems are utterly hilarious, if not at all intentionally.) Holes in it, though.

― Dark Horse, Thursday, 30 December 2004 19:34 (twenty-one years ago)

War and Peace is funny. What about the part where Nikolai (?) realizes that he is in love with Sonja (?) when she's all dressed up as a gypsy with a burnt cork beard and moustache? It's all like, I didn't think you were hot until I saw you dressed up as a DUDE.

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 30 December 2004 19:40 (twenty-one years ago)

And I'm sure there's some pithy stuff in Anna Karenina.

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 30 December 2004 19:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Dude, Hardy is comedy gold - when Arabella hits Jude in the head with a hog's dick? Hi-friggin-larious. And just think of those names! Diggory Venn? C'mon.

― Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), Thursday, 30 December 2004 20:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Faulkner can be very funny indeed. The denoument of As I Lay Dying turns the whole purpose of their journey on its head, making it humorous and pathetic. Fairly sick take on the Southern tall tale, but funny nonetheless.

― stew, Thursday, 30 December 2004 20:46 (twenty-one years ago)

"My mother is a fish"

― stew, Thursday, 30 December 2004 20:46 (twenty-one years ago)

The part in the Bible where Lot's daughters get him drunk and fuck him so they can get pregnant is a hoot.

― Steely Zan (AaronHz), Thursday, 30 December 2004 21:28 (twenty-one years ago)

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