"If there's anyone out there who can look around this demented slaughterhouse of a world we live in and tell me that man is a noble creature, believe me, that man is full of shit."
-Newscaster Howard Beale (played by actor Peter Finch) in the film, Network
In Wes D. Gehring's American Dark Comedy: Beyond Satire, he writes about film mostly. But I find his breakdown of the genre to be rather helpful, especially in a classroom/academic setting, where we are looking for text book definitions and explanations to help guide us to understanding the genre. He has several interrelated themes that he uses for dark comedy film, but we can apply them to the literature we've read as well. These three themes are:
1) Man as beast
2) The absurdity of the world
3) The omnipotence of death
In the above quote, Howard Beale compares the world we live in to a slaughter house. He's reduced man to animal, and is saying we are destroying one another. Howard Beale is considered a 'mad prophet' because he speaks the truth and calls out the American audience for being consumed by television. Here is Beale's amazing speech on the 'tube':
"You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here, you're beginning to believe that the tube is reality and your own lives are unreal. You do. Why, whatever the tube tells you: you dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you even think like the tube. This is mass madness, you maniacs. In God's name, you people are the real thing, WE are the illusion."
In a way, man as beast has turned into man as object by this point in the film. We eat, sleep, and drink the 'tube'. How true it is today. We all quote from television shows. You guys have no idea how annoying high school lunch was in the 90's when Seinfeld was a hit. Every week, you'd hear the play by play of an episode. I couldn't even watch or appreciate that show until it was off the air and came back in syndication. I digress. The point is: Man as beast. So back to that.
In Day of the Locust, we get many allusions to the animal. Miguel wears a sweater that makes him look like a gorilla. Abe is compared to a dog, or at the party he attacks (butts like a goat) Earl. And then there is sex and sexuality which can be said to be an animalistic urge. A man that can't control his urges is considered a beast.
Could you elaborate on the 'man as beast' theme? Examples from the texts we've read, or films we've watched.
The second theme is that the world is absurd. Life is absurd. We've talked about this in class. Life is out of our control. We're participants in a game; the point is to survive (and not go crazy while doing so). Gehring writes: 'Black humor absurdity is usually presented in two ways--through the chaos of an unordered universe and through the flaws of mortal man' (36). I hate to say that we are all victims of life, but in a way, we are.
To go back to Beale's brilliant 'bullshit' speech:
"Bullshit is all the reasons we give for living. If we can't think up reasons of our own, we always have the God bullshit...We don't know why we go through all this pointless pain, humiliation, and decay. So there better be someone somewhere who does know. That's the God bullshit."
What is Beale saying here? Have we created our own man-made bullshit? Is this absurdity something that we've created? Or something the institutions created? Yet we have created the institutions as well--government, church, television, networks, corporations. Why not blame the institutions? Why not attack them? The real world is not a rational world. Bullshit is lies. The lies have turned into the truth. And in the end, we believe it all. We consume the tube. We are the tube. Tomorrow, I'll hear people talking about and quoting their favorite shows (My Name is Earl, The Office, Scrubs) and I'll want to shout and get 'mad as hell' and say to these people: "What's wrong with you? Don't you have your own thoughts, ideas, and stories to share? Do you have to recreate scenes from your favorite television show? Is this how we bond or connect these days? Is this human interaction? These scripted sitcoms and lame ass jokes? And are they really funny, or do we laugh because the canned, fake audience laughter shows us where to laugh?"
Who am I kidding? I'll be right there talking about Alec Baldwin's Redd Foxx impersonation on 30 Rock. I am the tube.
I've left out the last theme of the omnipotence of death. I'm sure I could fill a whole blog post up on that one. I'll do write a post on it next week.
Bibliography
Gehring, Wes D. American Dark Comedy: Beyond Satire. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996.
6 comments:
Strangely enough, as I read the part of your post about people quoting 'Seinfeld' episodes, my coworker was trying to describe the plot of a 'Seinfeld' episode to me. Ha, I guess not too much has changed. As far as 'man as animal' goes, I could reference the film you took a shot of for your post ('Videodrome.') Somebody like Max Renn who would like to think of himself as an animalistic character acting out his own urges without thought (and doing so on live television) pales when confronted with actual animal instincts. When Nicki Brand invites him to actually become a part of the 'Videodrome' show instead of just a bystander, he doesn't really know what to do. To me, this film parodies a whole group of people who would like you to believe they're in touch with their primitive roots, when in reality they're all just wearing another Hollywood mask.
An example from our reading would be the nudist beach story by David Sedaris (the name escapes me) which finds someone admittedly refined getting in touch with one of the most characteristic traits animals exhibit; being nude. Oh yeah...that story is probably called 'Naked'...just like the book. Oh well, I'm not deleting anything. Anyhow, whereas many portrayals of the animal instinct seem to weigh the pros of being refined, Sedaris' story examines the benefits and even necessities of such instincts. To him, there seems to be something liberating about walking around in the buff, and understandably so. After all, clothing is something enforced by humans. Personally, I think 'man as object' (from 'Network') is infinitely more dangerous than 'man as beast.' Assuming we're not talking about giant rocks or something, most of the objects man takes on characteristics of are man-made. When the machines built by man become the man himself, it's like boiling out all the impurities that make him human. If machines had individual personalities, they'd be classified as impurities or dysfunctions. Sure, it's a frightening thought to believe that deep down, we're just as vicious as a pack of wild cougars tearing apart a deer carcass (I'm assuming they would eat a deer if one was present...) But, this fear should not propel anybody to the opposite extreme, which would be the absence of ANY animal instincts. It seems as though modern writers of dark comedy (including the writers of 'Network'...70's is still pretty modern) have picked up on this, and thus the transition to 'man as object.' With everyone working so hard to control their animal urges, satirists have realized the danger of the opposite. In this vein, a decent example would be Patrick Bateman in 'American Psycho.' His character literally becomes the products he uses every second of every day, from beauty care to electronics. Of course, his urge to murder is a 'defect' and a very animalistic urge, but he goes about it in such a methodical and mechanical way that it's almost as if he programmed himself to do it. He has somehow justified it to himself and therefore made it part of his 'cogs and gears' and just another task to be carried out by his human machine. I think his character points to the future of 'man as' themes. It's a comparison between 'man as animal' and 'man as object,' and we see that a 'man as object' who has molded his personality flaws into something completely calculated isn't much different from the worst 'man as animal' accounts.
You are absolutely right. It seems like nowadays you can gauge how popular or funny a movie is by how many people can join the scene when you begin to recall it. I know that if I stood up in class and yelled "Ladies and gentlemen,
can I please have your attention? I've just been handed
an urgent and horrifying news story. I need all of you
to stop what you're doing and listen." Half the people in the room would shout "CANNONBALL!" after me...and then continue on with their favorite Anchorman quote. I'll admit that I do it too, and in a way I despise it myself. I remember watching something on TV (though I can't remember what) and I knew instantly "Shit, this is going to be coming out of everyone's mouth tomorrow." And I was right. It's gotten so bad that you can actually PREDICT the stuff people will latch on to. Which I'm sure networks have realized, and therefore make sure there shows are full of it! It's a vicious cycle really. What bothers me most about the whole thing, is that it bothers me when people quote movies wrong. It bothers me a lot. Which then forces me to repeat the quote CORRECTLY so that person can learn. But what have I just done? Spread the stupidity! Shit! I am a true example of the absurdity and animalistic nature of man. I can't control my urge to a) not quote any stupid line I hear and b) to correct people when they say a line wrong. I'm a monster! I can't stop! And it's really not what the TV or other people tell me is funny. I very rarely laugh at TV shows. Only once in a while will I truly "lol" as they say. Yet there I am later, spouting off that same stupid shit that I didn't laugh at in the first place. What the hell is wrong with me??
I love dark comedy, but it's sort of an alarmist one-trick pony.
We can't just live in fear of everything all the time, but that's sort of what dark comedy comes down to: fear. I mean, there's fear of artificiality, fear of instinct, fear of modernity, fear of religion, fear of technology, fear of death. It's just fear, fear, fear. But why does any of it have to be bad? Isn't it all just facts? Won't the future always come, won't technology always advance, won't new institutions always be created, and in the end won't death always be waiting?
Sure, it's absurd. Sure, it's ridiculous. Sure, it's scary. But I feel like it'd be so much healthier to approach it all as an exciting tragicomedy adventure instead of sitting around patting each other on the backs for appreciating how tortorous and doomed the world is.
I guess I appreciate John Waters so much because he's not trying to make a social commentary. None of his films have any "socially redeeming value." They're just present and you just react. There's no inherent meaning. There's no hate or fear or message.
But gossh. Man as object. That's my favorite. I'm glad Network and American Psycho go there. If I could be an object, I would. I'd be a pair of leather high tops in Geordon Nicol's closet. And I don't think there's anything so wrong with that.
To suggest that people are anything other than objects is to grasp at the concept of a soul. A ghost in the shell. And that's something that most philosopher's stopped thinking about a century or more ago. Why are artists (writers, painters, directors, etc.) so far behind? Why do they insist on fighting modern thought?
I mean if we're going to say humans have special spirits living in our bodies that have special powers of imagination and creation, than why don't we all become animists? I mean, it'd be just as rational to assume that televisions have souls. And socks. And iPods. And blankets. And trees. And ants. And viruses. Why stop at humans? Or even animals? What makes us so special?
But Network is really one of my favorite films. It's up there. Top fifty, maybe top twenty-five, maybe higher. But the message it sends is just absurd. It's just a big blame game. So what about the bullshit of the tube or of God? The bullshit has always been and always will be. Have fun with it. Quote your favorite movies, reenact your favorite scenes, laugh at Sarah Silverman's newest lamest joke. I will. And I'll have fun. Which seems a lot better than sitting around pouting about the state of things.
So what if it means I don't have my own thoughts, ideas, or stories? Does anyone? I really believe there's nothing new under the sun. There's only quotations and remixes and mash-ups of everything that has come before. We're all DJs. Let's have a party.
Can't say that I agree with the "nothing new under the sun" remark, but then again, should it really matter? I don't think so. If I went about thinking that the best was behind us- comedy, dark comedy, dog food, porn, etc, etc- I wouldn't waste my time thinking about it, let alone sign up for a class which concentrates specifically on it- comedy.. There's material everywhere. Wonderfully terrible, and goofy situations are surfacing, resurfacing, and rummored to surface, or resurface nearly everyday. Moreover, Man has yet to be compared to every object, nor have I heard man compared to every beast. And so what if "the albino waitress, who porked like a rabbit" has already been taken. The idea (that in particular) can always be altered, and moved, to fit any number of seperate situations. (This is a terrible example, but quick and to the point) It's like pulling 5 different characters, out of 5 different books, and placing them in a single situation which none of them have seen before.
Maybe that's simplifying it a little too much. Maybe it's just shady plagerism. Either way, you could always scrap it, read the news (not colbert)and place your beast, object, or gas like character in the setting of your choice.
Make it influencial, make it funny (or don't make it funny), but whatever you do, just make sure that somebody dies. And if you throw in the right re-actions (generally opposite of what the reader would do), and the scenerio is close enough to the news story at hand, then there's no reason a body couldn't manufacture yet another dark comedy. Still not good enough? Sit down and write. Write until you think of something that hasn't been thought of yet. Or like correcting off-quotes, take the idea and correct it as well.
Then make sure somebody dies. Because I don't think we've read anything yet (dark comedy) where a character didn't die.
Hey, there you go... We'll all write a fake news post where nobody dies.
People are tired. They don't want to think for themselves or be/create something original for the simple fact that no one has time to do that shit. The vast majority of people are relegated to spend their time in a repetitive, soul-crushing, compartmentalized job working for some asshole. They don't have the luxury of sitting down at noon and writing a sonnet just for beauty's sake. You're never gonna finish that screenplay you started in college because you've gotta work this air gun and install dashboards on Honda Civics all week. I'm sure we'd all like to be creative people and get paid for it. Even if you're not good at it, I'd argue that there's as much bad writing on television/film as good writing. Very few people, I would say, actually enjoy what they do with their lives (for most people that means jobs). No one constructs their life around enjoying their life. No, we work to provide food and shelter; the point of our existence is to continue existing, and we are miserable. The truth, or reality, of the matter is that we live in an age of complete escapism. And because we're constantly running away from our own lives, the escape becomes our life. That's why apathy is so prevalent in our social consciousness, nobody wants to deal with anything. They don't want to think about it, so what do they think about? Anime or whatever else provides the largest break from reality possible. We immerse ourselves in stories and worlds where exciting and amazing shit happens continuously, and people have adventures. Nobody actually has adventures. I want to have an adventure but I can't, so the only thing I can do is watch some other guy have one. People only have a vast knowledge of one thing today (besides their prospective fields I guess), and that's TV/entertainment . It's the only thing to talk about, because it's the only thing that you know everyone else does too.
nothing is really ever new. the creation of something is simply in reaction to something else. the consequence of an event or person or thing or whatever. but what's so wrong with that? that's how it's always been. it's not because people are lazy or are doing too many other things to be creative. that's not it at all. in my opinion it's just because nothing can be completely new, completely without influence of something else. ideas, literature, philosophies, art, a created whatever, isn't completely new, it's just a little different from the thing that came before it. that doesn't make it any less awesome or legitimate.
i don't think that existing just to exist makes everyone miserable. i think working and providing is very satisfying to some people. not for me or maybe you, but for some, maybe even a lot, it is. i'd love to get paid to be creative. i'm a writer, but sitting down at noon to write a sonnet would not satisfy me at all. i don't know very many people it would.
escapism is a must. again, what's so wrong with that? i don't think anyone would criticize laura ingalls-wilder for playing with a ragdoll after a long day of dealing with a blind sister in a home made of a mound of snow. but people sure like to harp on people that watch tv. even people that watch tv harp on people that watch tv. what makes one form of escapism better or worse than another? even "artsy" things like writing or drawing or playing an instrument are ways to escape. some people enjoy going to work at their shitty jobs to escape their overbearing spouse or messy house or heathen children. who is anyone to say that tv is worse on some weird moral level? it's just different. less productive? probably. but whatever.
life is an adventure, but only if you think of it that way. anyone's life can be an adventure. i love how absurd things are. it makes life exciting. it's like, what ridiculousness will happen today?! today i adventured to the gas station to buy a newspaper and searched my wallet frantically for my other quarter while a line of people waited behind me. the heat was on! i couldn't find it and had to pay with a ten, only to get to my car and find the quarter in my pocket. rats! that alone gave me a little kick in my giddyup, and i highly doubt that'll be the most exciting thing that will happen today. some people might think that's pathetic, but those are just people with bad attitudes.
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