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Who's laughing in SA?
27/11/2007 13:28 - (SA)
David Moseley
Joseph Heller, author of Catch-22, also penned a novel called Something Happened. In it, absolutely nothing happens. It's so mind-numbingly monotonous that it's taken me over a year to read just half the book. But then I think that's the point.
The protagonist has become so downbeat about life that simple things like communicating with his family require huge amounts of effort and resolve.
I'm yet to decipher what I'm sure is some telling satire about the state of domestic life in the narrative, though at 180 pages in it does leave one obvious impression. If you take life too seriously you'll do yourself no end of harm.
Reading some of the unreasonably flustered comments that people leave under online columns, not just on News24, but also on (British) sites like the Guardian and the Times, in fact even just reading the front page of the Cape Times today ("Jake White Controlled By Third Force"), it's apparent that there a good number of people who take themselves and the world we live in a little too seriously. Let's not even get into the SMS pages in the papers.
Heller was right. Something did happen. I'm not sure what it was and when it happened. But at some recent stage in man's evolution he became a decidedly more humourless fellow. And with that increased gravity, it seems a higher levels of intolerance has come too. Impatience and, on some levels, aggression as well. I'm not so sure that this is what we're meant to be like.
A lot to be concerned about
Granted humans have a lot to be concerned about, but it appears that the world's burdens are starting to place a depressingly grim chip on many a shoulder. Back when Grock the cavedude was discovering fire and hunting Rhinocerumpasaurus for dinner he didn't have much to worry about.
If he wanted to eat he bashed something on the head before dragging it off to a secluded corner. Ditto for his sexual desires. Mrs Grock didn't stand a chance. Still, I bet they were happy and the unnecessary sniping about fetching the kids or doing the dishes never got in the way of a good fondle.
It is undeniably true that terrible things happen in the world - rape, murder, Nicole Fox's inane guffaw - and this no doubt contributes to many a fellow's sombre state, but I also think, in the grand words of Thom Yorke, that we do it to ourselves.
The world's perils are bad, but we pile more pressure on ourselves, sometimes through need, though probably most through greed. The desire to have the best of everything, the most expensive clothes, the oldest whiskey, the most extravagant home can make what should be a fun-filled 80 years into a pursuit of grim determination.
The seriousness of it all is all encompassing. The Jake White headline is ridiculous in that claims of a third force in rugby should never be deemed as something serious. Yet it is. It's sport for goodness sakes. How has it come to pass that a game can snatch such devious-sounding headlines?
As for desire, which I reckon can be traced to the root of all evils in the world, well I'm not saying let's all sit around in a state of inert apathy. But maybe we should check our progress every now and again. Just to get the odd ounce of enjoyment.
I struggle to accept that the path mankind has taken is a fait accompli - sit in a building, crunch numbers, hassle clients, get harassed by phone calls, open the window on the fifth floor and threaten to jump out because the canteen is out of filter coffee.
Like the Narrator says, this is your life and it's ending one minute at a time. It shouldn't be like that.
Send your comments to David.
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