Willie Handler's Blog, page 21

Weekly Update

This week just seemed to fly by. Probably because I’m back to my regular routine now that I’m done shuttling back and forth from the Sunshine State. This week I completed about 4,000 words and put another chapter to bed. I also did some work on further developing my antagonist and adding some conflict to the novel. I wish I had more productive weeks like this.

I submitted a proposal to the Writers’ Community of York Region to lead a workshop on Humour Writing. I began working on my next newsletter. If you’re not on my mailing list, here is where you can sign up. I also firmed up appearances at two Toronto book clubs.

Finally, my favourite tweet of the week!

Nicola Noble‏ @_NicolaNoble_

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Note to self: Careful drinking coffee while reading @WillieHandler tweets! (You think I’d know by now! lol)

The Road Ahead To Be Discussed At Two Book Clubs

I will be [image error]leading a discussion on The Road Ahead at two book clubs this spring.

On April 25th, I will join some of the members of the Booksze Book Club at the Amsterdam BrewHouse on Queens Quay. Then on May 10th, I will meet up with the Toronto Canadian Authors Readers Group at Czehoski on Queen St. W.

I’m looking forward to some fun discussions about misbehaving politicians!

Spring Newsletter Out In A Few Weeks

The Spring[image error] Scopes Says I’m A Fake Newsletter will be coming out in a few weeks. It will contain a excerpt from my next novel Loved Mars, Hated The Food.

Not on my mailing list? That’s not a problem. You can sign up right here.

The Last Laugh

Humour is very subjective. What I might find funny, another person might consider dumb or even offensive. For example, the 1998 Academy Award winning film, Life is Beautiful, I hated. Considering it won three Oscars (best actor, best foreign film, best dramatic score), suggests many people didn’t.

And there are so many forms of humour from slapstick to wordplay or satire to dark. Every humorist either consciously or subconsciously draws a line that they will not cross.

So I recently saw an interesting documentary called The Last Laugh.  The film asks the question “can Nazis and the Final Solution ever be funny?” and “should they be joked about?” An A-list of comedians and Holocaust survivors ponder these questions. One of the most tragic and grave events in the past. The film’s director, Ferne Pearlstein, puts the question about comedy’s ultimate taboo to legends including Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Sarah Silverman, Gilbert Gottfried, Alan Zweibel, Harry Shearer, Jeff Ross, Judy Gold, Susie Essman, Larry Charles and Jake Ehrenreich.

Some comics had no problem with finding humour with the Holocaust while others said they could not go there. Even survivors were split on the issue. For example, Mel Brooks’ views on Life is Beautiful mirrors mine. He said it was the worst film ever made. Yet the Anti-Defamation League’s Abraham Foxman calls it brilliant.

Some felt it was okay to mock Nazis, but not the Holocaust, because ridiculing oppressors is one thing, their victims another. The division extended to envelope-pushers like Sasha Baron Cohen, whose characters often parody anti-Semitism and other prejudices, in such a way that actual bigots might well interpret as confirming their views.

The director nimbly manages to raise all the arguments for consideration while pointing out that there are underlining that there is no definitive answer. After all, hummour is the most subjective of values, even when it comes to an apparent moral absolute like the Holocaust. Comedy can be a survival tactic and a means of revenge against tyranny, even as it can also be a tool of crass insensitivity.

Brooks has the last word when he says “Comics are the conscience of the people, and they’re allowed a large berth in any direction…even if it’s in bad taste.”

Book Review – Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

John Kennedy Toole wrote two novels before he tragically passed away in 1969 at the age of 31. His first novel, The Neon Bible, was written in 1954 when Toole was just 16. It was published posthumously in 1989. The Confederacy of Dunces was written in 1963 but as in the case of Toole’s first novel, he was unable to find a publisher. After he passed away, his mother, Thelma Toole, took possession of his manuscripts and doggedly pursued publishers. The Confederacy of Dunces was finally published in 1980 and it earned Toole a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981.

I finally got around to reading The Confederacy of Dunces and it is a unique piece of literature. I would put it up there with To Kill a Mockingbird, as important works of fiction depicting life in the Southern United States. In this case, it takes place in New Orleans and I understand Toole captures the city’s unique dialects to perfection. The genre is humour and on a number of occasions I found myself laughing out loud. But it is also a tragicomedy.

The story centers around Ignatius Reilly, an overweight and unkempt man in his 30s still living with his mother. Although, well educated, he is virtually unemployable because of his perverse personality and the fact that he is an absolute fat slob. He is eccentric, quite opinionated and, at times, delusional. The only time he ever left New Orleans was to travel to Baton Rouge on a Greyhound Scenicruiser bus. The trip was so traumatic, he never made it all the way. There has been considerable conjecture regarding Ignatius Reilly and who is the inspiration for the character. From what I understand, he is a combination of Toole himself and his eccentric friend Bob Byrne.

The other main characters are his tormented mother, Irene Reilly and Myrna Minkoff, a Jewish beatnik (the book was written in the early 60s) from New York City, whom Ignatius met in college. She and Ignatius are complete opposites, yet they have this perverse attraction to each other. They regularly correspond to rip each other apart over their political views and attitudes toward sex (he is an abstainer and she is sexually liberated).

I have to admit I couldn’t put this book down. The characters were so delightful and outrageous, although as the book comes to a conclusion, you actually begin to feel bad for Ignatius. This is an outstanding example of American humour. I wonder had he lived, if Toole might have one day earned comparisons to Mark Twain.

Book Review: Scooter Nation by A.B. Funkhauser

A.B. F[image error]unkhauser is a pseudonym for an incredibly funny author that I’ve gotten to know and Scooter Nation is a her second novel. She is real-life funeral director and has produced a dark, yet funny story about the funeral home business.

Scooter Nation is about the nasty goings on of the owners and operators of a family-run funeral home where a messy web of personal and financial relationships provide both  intrigue and humour. There is rich group of characters in this story, all with secret pasts and personal ambitions. There are no good guys here. The story has so many twists, characters dropping dead and murdered, funeral home employees breaking the rules, a nice dose of backstabbing, and a fleet of motorized scooters driven by the disabled protesting everything from accessibility to community politics.

Who would have ever thought you could write a hilarious story about the funeral home business, which is what makes Scooter Nation and A.B. Funkhauser so brilliant. I need to read her first novel, Heuer Lost and Found.

Weekly Update

I’m down south this week so I’m also taking a break from my writing. However, I’m using the time to read some of the work of a few writing friends. There are some very talented new writers out there just waiting to be discovered. The genres include fantasy, historical, horror, science fiction and romance  Just finished a book by C. L. Ogilvie (a pseudonym) called Some Assistance Required. She is a young author in Atlantic Canada. She can be found here. I’m just finishing a book by A.B. Funkhauser (also a pseudonym) called Scooter Nation. She a funeral director living in the GTA and a very funny woman. She can be found here. Please support these talented new Canadian authors.

Weekly Update

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Just returned from a lovely week down south. Judging by the amount of snow in my driveway, I picked a good week to escape winter. It was also a productive week poolside as I did a read through of the first 17 chapters of Loved Mars, Hated The Food and did some substantive editing. Moving on to chapter 18 next week.  Happy Family Day weekend!

What Time Is It On Mars?

An interesting lecture on how one has to make accommodations when working on a Mars mission. An issue that comes up in the novel I’m working on, LOVES MARS, HATED THE FOOD.

And Now A Word From Our Sponsor

I picked up recently that MLSE and a major insurance company  recently announced a partnership that will see the insurance company offer Toronto Raptors- and Toronto Maple Leafs-branded home and auto insurance. If you have been to a game involving professional sport teams, you would have noticed how inundated you are with advertisements from corporate sponsors. Replays are brought to you my a sponsor. Contests, during breaks, in play are provided by corporate sponsors. Everything that has to do with the game has a corporate sponsor!

So I thought about this new partnership between the Toronto teams and the insurer and wondered how far these sponsorship deals could do. Maybe right into the play-by-play booth? Here’s what I came up with.

Jim: Dave, this is the third meeting between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Boston Bruins this season. What can we expect to see tonight?

Dave: I think we are going to see two contrasting styles of play. The Leafs will rely on speed and finesse. The Bruins will try to take advantage of their size to physically intimidate the Leafs. Should be a good one.

Jim: I just want to take this time to welcome Northwind Insurance to the corporate family.

Dave: Some good people working in Northwind.

Jim: The two teams are lined up for the opening faceoff. Coach Babcock has his rookie unit out there to start the game.

Dave: Jim, I heard that kid, Zach Hyman bought his mom a brand new car last week. I know the folks at Northwind have some pretty competitive auto insurance rates. Hope Mrs. Hyman checks them out.

Jim: And play is underway. Auston Matthews wins the draw and fires the puck into the Bruins end. Brown gives chases and collides with Chara. The whistle blows as Brown is down on the ice and slow to get up. He looks to be hurt.

Dave: Brown has quite a height and weight disadvantage in that encounter. Dave, did you know that Northwind offers some very attractive disability policies? 

Jim: I’ve heard that. I’ll have to check them out. Play has resumed. The faceoff is to the right of the Bruins net. The Leafs win the draw and the puck goes back to the point. Reilly has it and passes it to his defense partner, Gardner. He wires a shot at the net but it deflects off a Bruin into the netting for another stoppage.

Dave: That Jake Gardner has really been firing the puck.

Jim: Speaking of fires. I hear Jake’s uncle had a major blaze at his home this past summer.

Dave: Hope they had a Northwind policy on their home. You get very personalized claims service at Northwind.

Jim: The teams are lined up for another faceoff. Matt Martin and David Backes seems to be jawing at each other. Now they dropped the gloves and we are sparring. The linesmen are quick to jump in and break this one up. Martin looks to be cut under an eye and will have the trainer take a look at that.

Dave: That cut doesn’t look to be so bad. By the way, I just checked out Northwind health and drug plans and they look pretty competitive. 

Jim: Yes Dave and the Leafs and Raptor players are all covered under Northwind heath plans. Play has resumed. Martin is given an extra two minutes for the being the instigator, which puts the Bruins on a powerplay. Bozak wins the draw and the puck goes into the Leafs corner. Polak picks up the puck and skates out of the corner. Marchand swoops in and steals the puck. He drives to the Leaf net and picks the corner on Anderson. It’s 1-0 for Boston.

Dave: That was an awful play by Polak. But mistakes happen in life.That’s why it’s smart for professionals to carry Errors & Omissions insurance. Check out Northwind if you need to protect your business.

Jim: While there’s a break in the action, let’s hear from one of our newest sponsors…