Humor is not my strength. I don't think I've ever tried writing a humor piece. I'm not witty or clever. So, when I read humor pieces, it is something I am unfamiliar with. Sometimes I think things are funny, but I'm not sure if that's supposed to be the funny part. With all of that said, there were many parts of Sedaris piece I enjoyed. I loved the fact that he was pretending to be a Shakespearian character. It was easy for me to imagine a theatrical kid acting like this the whole day. I have a friend who I instantly thought of when I read this section of the article. Throughout all of his ridiculous comments, I couldn't help but smile.
The section with Lois and David acting on stage was my least favorite. For some reason I lost a lot of interest when I read Lois becoming the favorite of the workers. She did nothing, no work. Still, she was the beloved and David was still the "weird" kid. I think I disliked it because I hope I don't become that kind of teacher. To not notice a student for all the hard work they put into an assignment, play, song, etc. Everything about this section felt unfair.
One aspect that was disheartening for me was his mother's character. She was so negative towards her son, from beginning to the end. I know mother's get tired and I'm sure if and when I become a mother, I will be rash at times. Still, it was hard for me to connect to her and that made truly enjoying the piece more difficult.
I did find humor in the piece. He enabled me to feel like the younger him. I wanted to speak like Hamlet and act like a mime. Still, when I hear the name David Sedaris I expect to be laughing continually. I hope to read another work of his and fall in love with it, more than I did with this. All of it made me realize how difficult humor is. What if I think a situation is hilarious, but no one else does. I commend humor writers. I feel bad critiquing that skill because it is one I know I lack.
Angela Payaban
Hey Angela,
ReplyDeleteI thought his mother was hilarious. She seemed worried that her son would end up like the actor Sedaris looked up to for most of the piece, and wouldn't that have been a shame. Her outrageous reaction to his miming made me laugh, even though it probably hurt his feeling when he was young. By adding that incident, though, he is allowing us to laugh at it.
I didn't mind the part when Lois is getting praised for doing nothing and Sedaris is ignored. It just rang true to me. Life is that way most of the time. So the way that he sarcastically wrote about it was funny to me.
Kayla Santos