Reading 1

When I went to read the texts to prepare for Monday’s class I was surprised (but definitely pleasantly so) to find that these were not tales about playing Indian in the woods or about pranks pulled by irritating little boys, but the stories of girls. Most of the time it seems like successful and renowned comedians are men. (However, I will admit that most of the time I favor a stand up male comedian’s act or role in a movie over that of a woman,) so these stories definitely took me by surprise. I kept giggling and thinking to myself “it’s funny cause it’s true.”

I think that both Ephron and Parker utilized comic techniques effectively in their tales on the trials of womanhood. To me, these stories were much more humorous and relatable to me than those of O’Henry and Thurber. There were ageless themes in both of the texts that I think translate better to the modern era than some of the other stories.

Similar to “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, there were components of Parker’s “The Waltz” that seemed more tragic than comic to me. The whole premise of being stuck in a marriage described with such agony is downright depressing, but Parker’s comedic merit arises from the delivery of this dark message. She employs really interesting structure throughout the passage with the interspersing of the real remarks and conversation she has with her dance partner that are contrasted with her actual thoughts. I have always really enjoyed writing that is stream of consciousness and that includes many witty remarks—like those of Parker. And of course there is the infamous cognitive shift present in this story. After four and a half pages of detail about the misery the dancer feels as inspired by her partner and the burning hatred that she has for him she admits, “Ah I couldn’t bare to have anything happen to him. I love him.”  Now I will admit that woman are extremely hot and cold in all matters of their life, especially when it comes to love and relationships, but Parker’s tale surprised me. Especially when you find out that the incompetent dance partner is in fact her life partner.

 The most outstanding technique that both Parker and Ephron effectively use is, in my opinion, exaggeration.  From the Parker’s rant on every possible downfall of her counterpart’s existence to Ephron’s tragic life without breasts I couldn’t help but be reminded of Morreall’s discourse on the positive ethics of humor. I think that both of these pieces could arguably be the character’s “coping” with their trials through venting that at least we perceive as humorous. The exaggeration of both of these characters is very relatable for women and men alike. Woman because we similarly act as if 5 days of menstruation is the apocalypse; Men because they often fall victim to these exaggerated rants. In a piece of literature on the follies of womanhood I think exaggeration is definitely an effective and necessary technique.

Ephron’s “A few words about breasts” captures the awkward struggle of adolescents and women everywhere. Again, the exaggerations well as the stream of conscious narration were effective. The betrayal that the narrator felt as her friend “continued on without her” to puberty was especially comic and relatable to me. I remember being in elementary and middle school and insisting on doing literally everything with my best friend, Jordan. I laughed at this part because I totally can see myself feeling the same as the author about this situation. I also related to this story because my family could definitely have inspired the Raksob family’s outrageous description. Not with the fancy living accommodations perhaps, but my mother has literally been nicknamed the ‘queen of extreme’ by all of my friends. Our was was infamous for the snack cart (yes, a giant cart) that she keeps constantly overflowing with all things junk food and her overachieving culinary exploits. However, the “competitive remarks about breast size” discourse was definitely my favorite part of this week’s reading assignments because we all know how competitive women can be, especially about body and self-image.  To top it off, I think that the narrator’s rejection of her friend’s consolation as being “full of shit” was funny because I think at one point everyone has felt as dejected as the narrator, and totally called out those expressing empathy with a similar jab.