If comedy is an escape from anything, it is an escape from illusions. The comic, by using the Voice of Reason, reminds us of our True Reality, and in that moment of recognition, we laugh, and the “reality of the daily grind” is shown for what it really is—unreal…a joke. True comedy turns circles into spirals. What before seemed a tiresome, frightening, or frustrating wall, the comic deftly and fearlessly steps through, proving the absurdity of it all. The audience is relieved to know they’re not alone in thinking, “This bullshit we see and hear all day makes no sense. Surely I’m not the only one who thinks so. And surely there must be an answer…” Good comedy helps people know they’re not alone. Great comedy provides an answer.”
—Bill Hicks, “The Wicked Christians,” in LOVE ALL THE PEOPLE: LETTERS, LYRICS, ROUTINES
DAVID LYNCH ON MEDITATION
From an article in Arthur Magazine:
Transcendental Meditation is the way of the householder in that it allows you to stay in the world. Some people like the recluse way and want to go into the cave, and there are mantras that will take you right out of the activity and put you into that cave. But Transcendental Meditation is a way of integrating these two worlds….In the West people think, yeah like I’m really gonna give up my dental practice and go to the cave, but you don’t have to quit dentistry. Meditate before you go to work and you’ll start liking the people that come in and you’ll start getting ideas about dentistry. Maybe you’ll invent something and get into the finer points of a cavity and honing that bad boy.
Lynch talks more about TM and The David Lynch Foundation, his attempt to bring Transcendental Meditation and Conciousness-Based Education to the children of the world, in this Newsweek interview.
Dale Cooper would approve.
ERIC PUCHNER THROUGH THE ROOF
On Charles Baxter’s recommendation, I checked out Eric Puchner‘s first book of short stories, MUSIC THROUGH THE FLOOR. The book really knocked me out. The stories are funny and sad and painted with honest details. There’s nothing close to a dud in the batch. From the NYTimes review:
Some of Puchner’s stories are laugh-aloud funny. In “A Fear of Invisible Tribes,” a carful of driver’s ed students is hijacked while their instructor is paying for gas at a minimart. The robber demands they drive him away but of course they can’t; they don’t know how to drive. One student (named Green Boy for his dyed hair) suggests that the robber let them out and drive himself. “I don’t drive stick,” he replies. “It’s an honest mistake,” says Green Boy. “Anyone could make it. How were you supposed to know?” But another student butts in: “Actually, there’s a big sign on the back? Like in yellow? Caution: Student Driver?” What’s wonderful is how this comedic story slowly evolves into a subtle tragedy, with its heroine – a nervous adult in the class – so frightened of the world she ends up squandering the possibility of intimacy offered by the fellow student who ends up saving her life.
Puchner is a former Stegner fellow, lives in San Francisco, and teaches at Stanford. Read exerpts from “Children of God” and “Animals Here Below” from the Zoetrope website, then go out and get his book.
GOING OUT OF BUSINESS
Recliners. Dust. Daybeds, loveseats. Jerry was old. Going out of business forever. No one in their right mind bought furniture anymore. Sitting down was a felony, and taking a nap was punishable by death.
How did it ever get to this point? He pulled out a stool. Bent his knees. Sat down. Sighed. Waited.
– a so-so fibonacci sonnet from last night’s writing group
WRITING THE FIBONACCI SONNET
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