Sunday 12 August 2007

Irish Humour, the Divine Will & a Foreign Tongue

The Irish humour is actually the utmost seriousness transmogrified by the unnatural imposition of a foreign tongue upon the native consciousness. Very noble and profound thoughts bubble up from deep within the Celtic sap, but once they pass through the filter of the English tongue(said to be located somewhere within the brain) a strange alchemical altering of meaning takes place which some have argued is a manifestation of the Divine Will over which the human protagonist has little control. This explains why the great Irish writers like Swift, Wilde, Joyce, Flann O Brien and even that miserable bastard Beckett tend to be the great humourists of the English language. Beckett incidentally sets out to be the incarnation of pessimism, but to his chagrin, he found this was often transformed into something more absurd & contrary to his intent. He tried writing in French to escape this sabotaging of his desire by the Divine Will, but, of course, not understanding the root cause, he was merely adding another layer to the problem.

3 comments:

trailbee said...

I was just thinking today that English is the best language ever, for every-thing. We have so many words for one thing or thought that humor has got to be the rational outgrowth. Were the outgrowth in Celtic, well, we wouldn't understand it now, would we? How would you know if it were funny? :)

Andrew said...
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Andrew said...

Not quite clear on your meaning. Are you on one level simply saying that if the Irish didn't speak English, then this would be a culture inaccessible to you? Beyond that point, that the multitude of language available to the mind means a kind of straightforward rational, or utilitarian usage is benevolently sabotaged by the amount of choice available to the mind? Sorry if that seems needlessly convoluted.