Kalman's Hubris

 

Matthew Spear

Dr. Juniper Ellis

EN346D.01 Seminar: Humor Studies

20 March 2023

The Principles of Uncertainty

            Maria Kalman’s The Principles of Uncertainty cries out to me as a desperate attempt to portray a faux reconciliation with death which the author may not be as comfortable with as she might like to believe. Kalman returns to the theme of death, and more specifically, the finite nature of life, multiple times during this book of illustrations and thoughts, For example, in the first section she uses exclamations such as “POOF” and “Goodbye *blank*” multiple times to refers to the passing or extinction of species and people such as Dodo birds, Baruch de Spinoza, and Johannes Kepler. In this manner I see the thin veil of Kalman’s nonchalant demeanor slipping. I believe based on my impressions from this boom that Kalman would like to believe herself to be and portray herself as someone who is comfortable with mortality, comfortable enough even to make light of it through jovial quips about the passing of other beings, despite the death of her husband from cancer in 1997. Her meditation on having tea and cake with her aunt by the seaside in Tel Aviv where she suggests her aunt’s kitchen is her own immediate heaven again suggests to me an aloof and false humility. She has her moments of humility, but even these seem to me to be merely employed by her as part of her ethos, part of her rhetoric by which she portrays herself as a wise and simple and unselfish being who is contented with her lot in the world. Well, I don’t buy it. I think she is just as scared as the rest of us, if not more scared, about her mortality and the inevitable death that awaits us all. Additionally, I do not appreciate her attempts to portray herself as if she isn’t, I find it insincere and vulgar. The end of things is not something to be grappled with lightly.

 

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Final Reflections

       One of the most exciting things I have learned throughout this class is the broad scale of healing and social action that can occur from humor and how the different types of humor weigh in to form a particular narrative around complex topics. Before taking this class, I had experienced people utilizing humor in their lives to talk about issues that might be weighing heavy on their minds or conflicts they need to get off of their chests, but I never did I imagine humor being associated with sexual assault; or racist stereotypes by individuals that have been victimized to heal their pain and move past their trauma. The articles we read for class regarding the role of humor in social change and sexual assault put the power of laughter into a new category for me where I had not yet recognized its purpose. The power of humor to heal should be shared by individuals who have been victimized to break down oppressive structures surrounding them.       The funniest thing I experienced in
Read more

Principles of Uncertainty

  Sophia Starkey   Dr. Ellis EN 346D  19 March 2023 Principles of Uncertainty Response             The idiosyncratic inner monologue that Maira Kalaman presents is exceptionally relatable and incredibly touching. She constantly is in a tug of war with Time and what anything means if it all disappears one day. She recollects “the realization that (you/me) going to die and the attending DISBELIF- is not that the central premise of everything? It stops me dead in my tracks a dozen times a day. Do you think I remain frozen? No. I spring into action. I find meaningful distraction” (46). I, too, have had the inevitable dread about the deeper meaning of everything I am doing and how my worries and anxieties are nonsense because they cannot change a thing. Her mention of meaningful distraction is so prevalent in finding meaning and purpose. I, too, can appreciate the beauty and elegance of fruit platters or sitting in a garden. Some things do not need to be pressing. Everything is not a fire d
Read more

Tyler Perry’s Madea

Matthew Spear Dr. Juniper Ellis EN346D.01 Seminar: Humor Studies 3 April 2023 Tyler Perry’s Madea             Tyler Perry’s Madea is doubtlessly a di v isive character in popular culture. A black man playing a large, loud black woman via the medium of drag performance is likely to turn heads no matter the setting. However, the book “Don’t Make a Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings” offers a unique perspective on this character as well as the insights she might offer. When I began reading this text, I expected, frankly, some cheap and punchy toilet humor on the part of Tyler Perry in order to further cash in on his wildly successful Madea character. But the prose I discovered was far more developed, using comedy as a medium by which to show the good attributes and deep flaws of a character that Perry says was “inspired by his mother and aunt.” By keeping this inspiration in mind we as readers may be able to gleam more meaning from Madea and her whims, and view her instead as a m
Read more