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PARTISAN REVIEW
For the sake of brevity, I will cite several such aphorisms which
move the speaker and listener to reconstruct and mentally see the
whole preliminary plot and structure of the implied joke, the whole
clockwork which has brought it to life and set it in motion. The "ini–
tiated ," that is, those who know and remember the premises that
underpin these formulas, can catch the meaning immediately, inter–
preting the image as a kind of universal idea from only the punch
line, such as "Not a bad beginning of the week! " or "And our life is
any different?"
One refers to ajoke where aJew is being taken to his execution .
He asks the guard what day it is and is told that it's Monday. "Not a
bad beginning of the week!" quips the man going to his death. The
initiated know that the other punch line belongs to a joke about
Rabinowitz, who is trying to escape across the border but is seen by
an approaching guard. Looking for a way out , Rabinowitz spots a
pile of dog shit, drops his pants and squats over it. The guard asks
him what he is doing, and he tells the guard that he is attending to
his bodily needs . "But that's a pile of dog shit!" says the guard . "And
our life is any different?" asks Rabinowitz.
In spite of its cutting straightforwardness , the truth the joke of–
fers always has a multiplicity of meanings and touches several
grooves in our consciousness , among them the feeling of sadness and
hopelessness regarding our condition . I will try to illuminate this
with two concluding examples . The first joke is about universal in–
justice and at the same time about the victory of art over reality.
If
you wish, it is the theme of "Mozart and Salieri": Two Voroshilov
marksmen (of the prestigious Soviet paramilitary organization) are
walking down Tverskoi Boulevard past the Pushkin monument, and
one says to the other, "How unjust!
It
was Dantes who hit the mark,
but the monument was raised to Pushkin ." (Pushkin was killed by
Dantes in a duel.)
The second joke , which is also replete with sadness and
wisdom, offers advice about what we should do in the most unpleas–
ant and desperate situation. When there is no salvation , and life
seems dreadful , everything becomes obscene . It is at this point that
the joke appears to be a consolation, for it has crossed all boundaries
of decency or propriety . Before us is a most gloomy vision of life but
one which is healed by laughter, by art's humor and nothing else.
Question : What should a girl who is being raped do? Answer : Relax
and try to enjoy it.
I offer this attitude as a recommendation to the readers of my
essay.
