we always treat to women well by Raymond Queneau, this novel is very fun and interested on me. Is this supposed to be a comic spoof of popular novels? The novel contains Queneau's usual highly original and playful approach to language, so that helps with the humor part. In this book, any comic element was often lost on me. For example, chapter one, the post office is invaded, and the doorman shouts out "God save the King." To this reader, at least, the passage holds no humor whatsoever, and the depiction of violence entwined with comedy is an exercise in macabre bad taste that is ultimately very jarring and disturbing.
There are also many other examples of this union of humor and cruel horrific incidents. In another instance the British shoot a woman who worked in the post office when she arrives to retrieve her handbag. She lays sprawled out, legs apart with her skirts blowing in the breeze. Some of the IRA members want to cover up her body, and others feel strangely aroused by her position, which suggests sexual activity. I really like the language style in this reading and Queneau's humor. :)
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Well I wonder if it also, was a comic spoof. If anyone has read 'Reveries of a Bachelor', it seems similar; the idea of a satire of other novels. That's what i thought of when I read this; it was just too ridiculous. The problem is that it reminds me of 'Pulp Fiction', as in there are parts where you want to cring but you can't because the circumstance is just too funny, then you feel guilty for it. I think in a way it taps into the dark side of human nature.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe the black humor in this story is in bad taste. It isn't all meant to be taken seriously. The thing I liked, however, is that there was also a gentler humor in this story that had more to do with how Queneau played with words (or at least how the translator of this story chose to interpret this). This also makes me wonder how much of the humor was lost in the translation from French to English.
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