Sarcasm
For me, letters to the editor are one of the most entertaining parts of the Guardian. Here is a splendid contribution from today's edition. (David Irving is a British historian that has recently been sentenced to three years in prison by an Austrian court because of his violations of Austrian laws against holocaust denial.)
David Irving need not worry too much. I've researched the matter thoroughly and concluded that the prison in Vienna doesn't exist, never did exist and certainly no one was incarcerated there.
David Rosenberg
London
[source]
It's a pity that the letters to the editor in our newspapers are rarely so witty and funny. Most of them are simply boring. There is a handful of kooks that write regularly and on a wide variety of topics, but they usually take themselves too seriously to be amusing.
posted by ill-advised at 7:45 PM
4 Comments:
But there still are some witty letters in our newspapers, here and there. I too like satire and musing. I think Svetlana Makarovič is good. And here is one other example that I enjoyed. It is in Slovene of course, and it is an answer to the opinion on Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code by Drago Jančar.
The letter you linked to is good, I agree. I guess I haven't noticed it because I don't read Delo regularly. I remember reading that article of Jančar's, however. He may be a good writer (I can't really comment on that as I haven't read any of his works) but I thoroughly dislike his conservative political and social opinions.
As for Svetlana Makarovič, I am generally not too fond of her columns in various newspapers. Maybe I'm not reading the right ones, or maybe I'm just too thick to notice the satire in them. To me most of them seem to be mostly full of unrestrained anger and a malicious intolerance towards things she disagrees with. I see in them neither wit nor willingness to be constructive or help change things for the better. I often have the feeling that she expects too much from humankind, and is then angry when humankind fails her expectations. I prefer to think of people's imperfections as a regrettable fact of nature, and rather than coining insulting terms for people with this or that regrettable characteristic and then incessantly throwing those terms into their faces, I think it would be better to dedicate one's energy towards working around those imperfections or perhaps encouraging those people to improve themselves (which they aren't likely to do if you merely insult them).
I have a somewhat better opinion of her poetry, of which I've read one or two booklets last year. Much of it is also very angry, but it felt more like the sort of slow anger that burns beneath the surface rather than the mad lashing out that she usually deals in her columns. Much of that poetry was also very gloomy -- she seems to have been quite a goth several decades before this became fashionable :)
I guess you are right both times, on the conservative view of Jančar and unrestrained anger of Makarovič.
I also find her poems good and memorable. The pacing is good and it seems to me that she has always something very true and important to pace about. However always in rage, like King Kong in rampage. Here is one poem which I like much: Zeleni Juri. It rules. I am typing it by heart. I am proud of that. :)
Odprite okna, odprite duri,
mimo jaše Zeleni Juri!
Po zelenem polju, na zelenem konju.
Dajmo mu to, česar še ne pozna,
dajmo mu piti iz vrča solza,
pa mu iztaknimo svetle oči,
sključen naj hodi, kot hodimo mi.
Potem so se ljudje zbrali v krogu,
gledali so drug mimo drugega
in počasi kamenjali dečka.
Pod kamni je deček dorasel v moža.
Odjezdil je daleč stran in leta ga ni bilo nazaj.
Ljudje so že kmalu pozabili nanj.
Zazprite okna, zaprite duri,
mimo jaše Sivi Juri!
Po sivem tlaku, na konju konstjaku.
Svetlo bodalo prinaša v rokah,
ne udrži ga najtežji zapah.
Hodi po hišah, iztika oči,
kar je dobil, to stoterno deli.
And also regarding Jančar, I think reading his books is much worthwhile. For it seems he studies the subject much thoroughly, not so much in details as finding the basics mechanisms that drives the story and characters. He is talented and a joy to read.
Katarina, pav in jezuit for example, is very good.
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