Monday, March 28, 1960 University Daily Kansan
Page 3
By Calder M. Pickett
Associate Professor of Journalism
THE COMIC TRADITION IN AMERICA, edited by Kenneth S. Lynn. Doubleday Anchor. $1.45
Kenneth S. Lynn, in his foreword, observes that the chief criteria for selection in this anthology of American humor was the ability to make him laugh.
Lvnn laughs at the strangest things.
There are predictable selections in this work—parts of "The Biglow Papers," "Rip Van Winkle," "The Celebrated Jumping Frog," some Uncle Remus. All men of good will (except sophisticated university students of 20 or thereabouts) can laugh at these.
Or Mr. Dooley. His description of his cousin, George Dooley, an admiral at Manila Bay, or Teddy Roosevelt, who was all "alone in Cuba," are funny. One can laugh.
What makes some of these other selections funny? The mood, in my opinion, is more one of bitterness. I was curious when I first saw the names of four of those included: Poe, Hawthorne, Melville and James. Not usual in anthologies of humor, you might say (though Constance Rourke makes an interesting case for James' "The American" falling within the American tradition of humor).
The Poe piece is rather funny, a good bit of criticism that tells one how to write for a rather specialized magazine. Poe is laughing at himself as well as at such folks as the Transcendentalists, who bored him stiff.
Hawthorne's humor is a rather forced allegory about a ride on "The Celestial Railroad," which finds him going through some good John Bunyan country, with Bunyan folks all over the place. Hawthorne finds a cavern no longer inhabited by those "vile old troglodytes," Pope and Pagan, with a new, Germany-spawned giant there instead — "Giant Transcendentalist."
Melville's humor, as Lynn carefully points out in an introduction that should thrill all good seekers-after-animal-imagery in American literature, is right in the tradition of those who fancy themselves high-flying birds (Ahab, Davy Crockett and so on). It is "Cock-A-Doodle-Doo! or the Crowning of the Noble Cock Beneventano." This piece ends on as gloomy a contrivance as one might expect from this supreme humorist (I expect some doctoral dissertation one of these days will analyze "Moby-Dick" as humor — but I hope not).
Well, enough of the surprise items. The dialect boys are out in force here, but even they, Dr. Lynn notes, are really savage commentators on mankind (I repeat: "What is he laughing about?"). Franklin and Irving get the story started. Fine. Then come Longstreet with his Georgia buffoons and backwoods clowns; Seba Smith, who apparently is taking some sharp jabs at Jackson; Thorpe's "The Big Bear of Arkansas" (not really humor, says Lynn, but one assumes it made him laugh); that glorious fraud Davy Crockett (all Texans and kids who wore coonskin caps five years ago may find me in 204 Flint); George W. Harris, Joseph G. Baldwin and the rest.
No humor in the 20th century, says Lynn. Except in, well, perhaps Pasternak, Camus, Sartre, Faulkner, Hemingway (like that riotous commentary called "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber"), Lillian Hellman and Arthur Miller. Oh yes, I must quote Lynn's predictable little dig at the humor of America's Slobbovia: "The end product is, of course, television, wherein the jokes of the Negro, the Jew, the Irishman, and the frontiersman have all been suburbanized into what may very well be the most nallid vernacular humor in history."
n d vernacular author in history.
Hey, remember that real yocky scene in "The Scarlet Letter"?
Worth Repeating
We'll make a deal with the state of California. If they will keep Fred Hall and send Chancellor Murphy back, we'll give them another governor to boot.-St. Mary's Star
FORBESARAMA 1960
Don't miss this thrilling show of air power, feature the U.S.A.F. "Thunderbirds."
See the Buddy Knox orchestra Friday, April 1. Tickets cost $1.00 and are available from AFROTC Detachment no.280.
March 31 - April 1 - 2 - 3
FORBES AIR FORCE BASE
Ku Klux Klan Burns Crosses To Protest Sitdown Strikes
ANNISTON, Ala. — (UPI) — Ku Klux Klanmen in Alabama and South Carolina burned scores of crosses over the weekend in acts of defiance against Negro demonstrations protesting segregation in the south.
Dozens of flaming crosses were seen along highways in the Anniston, Ala., area Saturday night, and a fire bomb was thrown into the yard of a Negro home.
Witnesses reported seeing a white man throw the home-made bomb into the yard, but no damage resulted because the bomb failed to ignite.
Police said they received at least 100 complaints about the cross-burnings in Alabama. Twelve men were picked up by police in connection with the incidents. Five were charged with obstructing a highway and later released, along with the others.
'13 Clocks' Tickets Go on Sale Today
Tickets for "13 Clocks," a dance drama, will go on sale today at the University Theatre box office.
The dance drama will be presented at 8 p.m. April 4 through 9 in the University Experimental Theatre.
Tickets are $1 without student identification cards and 50 cents with student ID's. They can be purchased at the University Theatre Box Office from 1 to 5 daily.
Gordon Beck, instructor of speech, said:
"Because of the limited seating it is wise to get tickets early. We usually sell out within the first two or three days."
"Love is just a chemical reaction. But it's fun trying to find the formula."—J. D. Shantel, chemistry professor.
The cross-burnings coincided with a huge Ku Klux Klan meeting in Monroeville, Ala. Hundreds of Klansmen, many of them robed and hooded, held a rally at the regional coliseum. Then they formed a motorcade to a home where a 20-foot cross was burned and new members were initiated.
Approximately 50 crosses were burned in a six-county area of South Carolina Saturday night, with as many as 40 reported burning at one time.
Union Urges Picket Against Chain Stores
OTTUMA, Iowa—(UFI) —United Packinghouse Workers Union, AFL, has urged all locals in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Colorado to picket Woolworth Stores in protest against segregated lunch counters in the South.
The District 3 Council, which includes those five states, voted to picket at their meeting here over the weekend.
KGDL ANSWER
His Majesty Still The Most Royal
LIVERPOOL, England — (UPI) Mrs. Annie Tedcastle knitted a few tiny garments for her best friend's grandson, wrapped them up and addressed them, and as a joke wrote "to his majesty the baby" on the package above her friend's address.
The tiny garments were delivered to Buckingham Palace and Mrs. Tedcastle's friend, Mrs. Mabel Kelsey, got a nice thank you note from a palace official.
Hypnotism Kept Off Market
LONDON-(UPI) — The Market Research Society has prohibited its 600 members from using hypnotism on persons they question.
Have a WORLD of FUN!
KOOL KROSSWORD
ACROSS
1. Did 80 mph
2. The Swiss look up to 'em
3. Yearning wood
4. Place for defense mechaarms
11. Lion's VIP
4. Assert
13. One (Spanish)
14. Lions' restaurant in Rome
15. Moreicky
16. Small island
18. Unit for women
19. Unappreciative date
20. One of the Shah's names
25. &
26. Winged
27. Skipping, as't my Lou
28. Gift store establishments
30. Actor Alistair ___
31. Given money
33. Hangout
35. Hawaiian tree; an altered oak
36. The Land of West
37. Poker money, from Uncle?
40. People who enjoy hot music (2 words)
42. The Land of Germany
43. The Scriptures (2 words)
44. What the lazy are big on
45. They're French
46. "She's just my ___"
DOWN
DOWN
1. Neat tree
2. Jazzman's "box"
3. What we hope you're doing right now (3 words)
4. Goddess, like Sophia?
5. Kind of cry (2 words)
6. Phone to your best gal? (2 words)
7. Have you been born?
8. AWOL cats?
9. Short argument
10. Where to find Kool's filter
11. What Kools are as refreshing as (2 words)
12. You can depend on it
13. Celestial arcs
14. Smokers are for "Kool's Menthol Magic"
15. Incision
16. Tiny communist
17. Communist's end
18. mouthed
19. They feel clean and smooth due to in your throat
20. Robinsville
21. Grand old name
22. On your toes
23. Italian family with much taste
24. Sigma's last name
25. Small hundredweight
ARE YOU KOOL ENOUGH TO KRACK THIS?
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9 10 11 12 13 14 15 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 36 37 38
33 34 35 36 37 38
39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47
No.9
YOU NEED THE Menthol Magic OF KOOL
1960, BROWN & WILLIAMSON TOBACCO CORP.