Ishiguro 1: Comedy - to pun or not to pun...

I asked Ish a question about the increasing use of comedy in his novels and short stories. After all, I pointed out, The Remains of the Day is funny in places, often at the expense of the narrator, Stevens the butler, because he is unable to exchange light-hearted banter with his American employer. The Unconsoled is tragic in many ways but also the story slowly builds to absurd and farcical proportions. In Nocturnes (recent short story collection) at least two of the five stories are absurd and surreal as situational comedies. I wanted to explore with Ish his ability to combine tragedy and comedy in his fiction (something he's not usually asked), more particularly, how does he balance pathos with pleasure? How difficult is it to maintain the two aspects of tragedy and comedy? And who are his comic inspirations?


Ish's answers were very interesting. He said that although comedy is a feature of his work, it's not central to it, and that The Remains of the Day was meant to be funny as well as meaningful, though few readers got the joke. He said that humour is very difficult to get right; it is after all one of the most subjective forms of writing and not necessarily universal in its effect. A joke in England may not translate well in different countries, for instance. Puns, he said, are often region or country-specific. He added that he didn't see the point of puns in general- they are like a person standing on the pavement pointing at the wonder of two very similar cars passing on a road.


I disagreed with Ish, pointing out that readers found the title of my my first novel, A Portrait of the Arsonist as a Young Man (clearly a pun on James Joyce's first novel) funny. Of course, James Joyce liked the wordplay involved in punning, using one in Finnegan's Wake: "As different as York from Leeds" (as different as chalk from cheese). Shakespeare could hardly get by in a play without using at least one pun, and over 300 in his work over all. Oscar Wilde loved puns. Ish would not be swayed. Perhaps, like Samuel Johnson, he thinks that puns are "the lowest form of humour"?


Ish listed the comedians he found funny and tragic as writers, actors characters and performers. Chaplin, Tati, Woody Allen, even Tom Waits who he suggested played the tragic clown very well, someone who comes over as slightly absurd but who has important things to say about the dark side of life. I suggested it was the idea of the "Holy Fool" that appeals to an audience, which Ish agreed with. He added that the novel he was currently working on was very dark, with little humour in it.


That was our public conversation, but in private we had discussed humour in his work and I had suggested to him that his style of comedy, for me, was founded more in a classic European tradition. The Unconsoled, for instance, is less about funny characters (though there are some in the book) and more about funny situations that build and build. I mentioned Gogol's play, The Government Inspector which his novel reminded me of, and Kafka's Metamorphosis, and Dostoevsky, Tolstoy all of whom are darkly humorous at times. He didn't disagree.


My overall view of the comedy in Ish's fiction, is that he never uses it just for the sake of the joke alone; the joke in itself would not appeal necessarily to a wide audience which is what he is always aiming for. It has a deeper narrative and thematic purpose. The joke, as it were, is often at the expense of a central character to highlight an idea or a theme. Always with Ish, the humour has metaphorical effect. It hopefully entertains but there is a suspicion at a deeper level that the laugh may be short-lived. Used economically and wisely, humour in a novel or a short story can have a subtle yet powerful effect.



Personally, I don't have a problem with puns, in writing or in real life. They are, after all, playing with words and images in the mind. Not necessarily childish. I might not be the pedestrian pointing in wonder at two similar cars passing on the road, but I will smile at the following pun I just found: "Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should he hung, drawn and quoted." (Fred Allen).

Andrew