Early October Roundup

–The Daily Telegraph has posted an article by Christopher Howse on “bed rotting”.  Here’s the opening section:

One of my favourite books, Illustrations of Madness by John Haslam (1810), tells of how the unfortunate James Tilly Matthews, plagued by a gang operating an Air Loom from a cellar under London Wall, was subjected to the miseries of lobster-cracking, knee-nailing, bomb-bursting and apoplexy-working-with-the-nutmeg-grater.

He did not mention bed rotting, which on TikTok has attracted 310 million views, though not mine. It must be dull viewing, for bed rotting is nothing more than a jokey name for staying in bed all day not doing much more than watching television and fiddling with a telephone. It’s very popular with people aged 12 to 27 (Gen Z) who feel burnt out, on account of lockdown and parental expectations.

It sounds to me very much like the life of bright young things in Evelyn Waugh, except that they were a trifle more gregarious. In Black Mischief, Sonia and Alastair are in bed during the day, each with a telephone and a goblet of black velvet, a backgammon board between them, and some other people in the room playing the gramophone or trying out Sonia’s make-up. It is clearly very boring. Then the dog makes a mess on the bed…

–Australian writer Nick Bhasin recently had an article in the Sydney Morning Herald in which he pines for the days when comic novels were widely available. The article opens with this:

I was at an event recently, talking about my novel. It’s a “comic novel” – as in, one that is meant to be funny. When someone asked me what it was similar to, I paused.

There are a lot of influences that inspired the humour but I couldn’t think of one book that would helpfully answer the question. “Is it like A Confederacy of Dunces?” someone else asked. “That’s the only book anyone mentions when people talk about funny novels. No one knows the names of any others.”

No one is writing stories designed to make people laugh any more.Credit: Aresna Villanueva

Could that be true? I wondered…

After ruminating about the relative lack if comic novels currently on offer, Bhasin recalls the 20th century golden age of that genre:

…As part of my research for my book, other than mining the depths of my soul for truth and justice, I looked into other comic novels, new and classic, especially satire. I came across a lot of the usual suspects – famous books I had already been familiar with, often because they had been adapted into movies or TV shows.

The Sellout by Paul Beatty, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, Less by Andrew Sean Greer, American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis.

Humour is never taken seriously, even though it is literally the only thing that matters in this short, brutal existence.

Certain authors consistently came up as writers of comic fiction: Philip Roth, Kurt Vonnegut, Terry Pratchett, Nathanael West, Nora Ephron, Carl Hiaasen, Evelyn Waugh, Mark Twain, Steve Toltz, Marian Keyes. (A lot of white dudes on these lists, I know. But that’s a conversation for another time.)…

Bhasin’s comic novel is entitled I Look Forward To Hearing From You.  Here’s his description:

…my intention was to write a story designed to make people laugh. Now, the laughs are derived from very dark, very uncomfortable circumstances while exploring “serious” themes like grief, racism, male body dysmorphia and mental illness. But that’s what makes me laugh. I don’t know what to tell you.

So I filled my book with as many jokes as possible. It’s a satire of early 2000s Hollywood, so I made up hundreds of movie and TV-show titles, working very hard to balance the comedy with the sadness. But to me, if it makes people laugh, that’s the bigger achievement. As Judd Apatow has said, “It’s not hard to make people cry. Kill a dog.”…

It is currently for sale in Australia. Thanks to Nick for sharing this.

–A website called BookishBay.com has posted an entry on the life and writing of Evelyn Waugh.  It is very tidy and nicely presented but adds little to Waugh studies. Here’s an item from the opening summary:

Waugh’s contributions to literature remain impactful, with his works continuing to be studied for their wit, social commentary, and stylistic complexity.

The complete posting can be consulted here. No author is mentioned. Somehow, a contribution by AI is suspected.

–One of our readers has forwarded a YouTube posting relating to the recent death of Alexander Waugh. This consists of a well-produced 3-minute compilation of video and audio clips of Alexander relating to his work with the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship. Here’s the link. Many thanks to Dave Lull for sending it.

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