Without Feathers (Day 2)

Today we read.

• "The Whore of Mensa": Allen is parodying the hardboiled detective novel made popular by writers like Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon). Think of Humphrey Bogart as the narrator and you’ll have the idea. Mensa is a national program/club – entry into which is based on I.Q. The idea then of whores who intellectually stimulate their johns is a very funny and creative idea.
• "Death, A Play": Allen was a philosophy major in college. He is also interested in psychology. The two main philosophical ideas this play refers to are existentialism and Nihilism. Existentialism is a type of writing or the study of answering the question: what is the meaning of life? Existentialism tries to explain what the meaning of life is. Some people believe we are alive for a reason, others are Nihilistic and say that there is no point in our existence, that there is no purpose to our lives. Kleinman is representative of everyman. He represents all of us. We sometimes don't know what our purpose in life is (Kleinman doesn't know his purpose in the play, for example). By the way, we are all being "stalked" by death, just as Kleinman is being stalked by the maniac. Death is the great equalizer. All living beings are going to die. Along with LOVE, DEATH is one of the most common themes in literature. Woody Allen made this play into the film: Shadows and Fog.

HOMEWORK: Reading--please read the next 4 pieces in Without Feathers on your own. This includes a second play, as well as some funny brief short pieces. As you read, pay close attention to comedy techniques we've discussed: hyperbole, overstatement/understatement, incongruity, innuendo, irony, etc. The following guide can help you decipher the humor in the selections.

• "A Brief, yet Helpful, Guide to Civil Disobedience": People were protesting the Vietnam War when Woody Allen wrote this book. Even this serious topic is humor-fodder for writers. The allusion to The Trojan Women is referring to a Greek Tragedy (see: God) about the women of Troy banding together to protest the Trojan War.
• "Match Wits with Inspector Ford": In the 70’s books such as 5-Minute Mysteries were very popular. The idea was that the author gave you a very short mystery or crime. The answer to the “riddle” was in the back of the book. A fan of whodunits will enjoy this parody.
• "The Irish Genius": This is a parody (similar to Lovborg) but dealing with the poet William Butler Yeats. Yeats was an Irish culture fanatic and wrote “Irish” lyrics celebrating Gaelic and Irish legends. His poems drip with allusion and Allen plays around with this idea by providing fake “footnotes.”
• "God, a Play": Poking fun at Greek Theatre, Allen is also joking about writers and the process of writing a play and the challenges of performing it. Allen was a playwright before he became a film writer. So you can assume the Writer character is partly autobiographical. Of course, the character of “Woody” is also Allen’s alter-ego in the play. Enjoy the absurdist ideas of the piece. By the way, the machine reference in the play is a reference to: Deus Ex Machina (or God from the machine) referring to a contrived ending of a play (a God comes down and fixes the characters’ problems--the epitome of lazy writing!)

What's coming up and what should you be writing next? Try one of these humor prompts:

Comedy Techniques to Try: Use incongruity, hyperbole (exaggeration, overstatement, innuendo, or understatement), and ridiculous situations, settings, or characters. 

Some idea prompts include:

1. Your writer's journal has been lost and buried for 100 years. When it is uncovered, what do scientists (or scholars or clergy or the common person) think of you? Do they consider your writing insightful, prophetic, scandalous, inspired, dangerous, etc.? 

2. Like Gorey's "The Unstrung Harp" tell the story of yourself as a famous author. Feel free to include photos or drawings.

3. Pick a favorite or hated non-fiction type of book and write a parody of that form. For example, a game manual, a how-to book, a cookbook, advice about how to raise children, a self-help manual, astrology, a bestiary, a history of some alien or forgotten race, a textbook, an advice column, etc.

4. Write the performance companion notes for a play or opera or musical or the liner notes of an album that should never have been made.

5. Rewrite a well-known scene from a Shakespeare play (perhaps a lost scene from Romeo & Juliet, for example) or rewrite a well-known fairy tale or Bible story with annotations.

6. Write a silly rhyming poem or children's book, like Shel Silverstein or Dr. Seuss. Take a look at these links for inspiration. Silverstein. Dr. Seuss.
7. Rewrite your detective or horror story draft as a comedy. Use comedic writing techniques to change your horror/mystery draft into something ridiculous.
8. Choose an author you hated or loved in school. Write about the "secret life" or the "hidden manuscript" from this author (with writing samples that echo the author's style).
9. Write a short scene or play (or film) in play script format from a one-word title that overdramatizes itself. Ex. LIFE or SICKNESS or ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT or FLOOD or CHAOS or LOVE or MISERY or WORK or BOOK or CAPITALISM or ART or YODEL or PLESIOSAUR. You get the PICTURE. The play can be about anything as long as it's funny (or attempting to be) and uses some of those comedy techniques....