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By C.C. Burnikel
©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
11/15/18
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
11/15/18
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Release Date: Thursday, November 15, 2018
ACROSS
1 Passé saver of
fave programs
4 Energized
11 Sales add-on
14 Parseghian of
Notre Dame
15 “Alas, it’s true”
16 Juan Perón’s
wife
17 Level the playing
field?
18 Was felt very
strongly
19 Say no to
20 Medicare section
22 Big name in shoe
stores
23 “Same here”
25 Camper’s heater
27 Links targets
28 *Fresh face in a
newsroom
32 ORD airport
postings
34 Get hitched on
the run
35 Giant in nonstick
sauté pans
38 Big oafs
40 Saw
41 Galaxy, e.g.
42 Practice frugality
43 Tense NFL
periods
44 “Bleeding Love”
singer Lewis
45 Beat in a pie
contest, say
47 Booted out
48 Turncoat
50 Cable network
since 1972
51 Error the
answers to
starred clues
might make
58 *Fresh face at
online gaming
59 *With 60-Across,
fresh face at a
dojo
60 *See 59-Across
62 “Try again”
63 Zeus’ shield
64 Bike signal
65 Website for
handmade
jewelry
66 Egg holders
67 “Match Game”
host Baldwin
DOWN
1 Improvises, in
jazz
2 Dubrovnik
resident
3 *Fresh face at
boot camp
4 Site with many
home pages?
5 CalArts degree
6 Await a decision
7 George of
“MacGyver”
8 Picked from the
deck
9 Find a place for
10 Keith Haring
genre
11 *Fresh face in the
Boy Scouts
12 French postcard
word
13 Graph line
21 “I wouldn’t lie”
24 Is really boiling
26 Mining find
27 Hurdle for a
future Ph.D.
29 Red Muppet
30 Frost, e.g.
31 Goes (for)
32 Too
33 Amazon Fire TV
Stick alternative
36 Hathaway of
“Ocean’s 8”
37 Take charge of
39 __ plug
41 Plum-apricot
hybrid
46 Where bubble
tea originated
47 Persistently
haunt
49 Little laugh
50 “Start the
music!”
51 Carrot or turnip
52 “My bad”
53 Follow orders
54 “Top Gun” enemy
planes
55 “Mamma Mia!
Here We Go
Again” group
56 Ship’s backbone
57 Glamour rival
58 Mobile-to-
Knoxville dir.
61 Dr. Mom’s skill
HELP WANTED
SERVICES
Classifieds
Call: #734-418-4115
Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com
This past weekend, my friend
and I went to see “Candide.”
After the show, we couldn’t stop
talking about the controversial
and
potentially
offensive
nature of some of the jokes. For
those unfamiliar with the show,
much of the humor revolves
around seemingly impossible
sequences of negative events
befalling various characters.
My friend was particularly
struck by a long sequence in
which the audience laughs
as Cunegonde recalls being
stabbed, repeatedly raped, left
to die and then almost buried
alive — the humor comes in
that she somehow escapes from
this sequence of events entirely
unchanged.
This conversation got me
thinking about other examples
of
over-the-top,
offensive
humor. I’m a huge fan of “The
Book of Mormon,” for example,
and it has many examples of
this. One example that comes to
mind is a character interrupting
happy
moments
throughout
the play by repeatedly singing
“I still have maggots in my
scrotum.”
Another
example
is the song “Sal Tlay Ka
Siti,” in which the audience
invariably laughs at an African
character’s misconception of
American society. Statements
such as “I’ll bet the goat-meat
there is plentiful / And they
have vitamin injections by the
case,” or “The war-lords there
are friendly… And there’s a
Red Cross on every corner
/ With all the flour you can
eat,” are always greeted with
laughter despite their potential
offensive nature.
What makes this humor
acceptable
in
a
society
becoming
increasingly
cognizant
of
unconscious
biases
and
offensive
stereotypes? As my friend said,
why were these statements
acceptably humorous in context
though they would obviously
have been offensive out of
context? Could my laughing
at these statements be seen as
condoning these stereotypes?
Does my laughter minimize
our collective awareness of the
harm of these stereotypes?
Initially, I will admit, the
distinction between agreeing
with
these
stereotypes
and finding humor in them
seemed insignificant. In both
instances,
I
thought,
not
challenging these stereotypes
ingrains them. This distinction
seemed superficial — beneath
this
façade
of
laughter
or
tacit
acceptance
lies
a
negative stereotype that gives
the
statement
context
and
meaning. Unless we call out
these statements, are we not
allowing them to spread under
the surface?
With more analysis, however,
the
distinction
between
laughter and agreement could
not be clearer. While laughing
at these jokes out of context is
indeed offensive, laughing at
them in context is the opposite
of
offensive.
Laughing
in
context indicates that we are
aware of the offensive tropes
or discriminatory assumptions
that allow for this humor.
Humor, after all, is the
juxtaposition of two illogical
or
contradictory
concepts.
We laugh because we witness
something
unexpected,
illogical or otherwise atypical.
We laugh because we are
aware of the contradiction that
makes a statement humorous
and not simply meaningful.
Laughing at jokes such as those
described above indicate that
we understand the stereotype
that makes them humorous.
In “Candide,” for example,
the audience laughs at the
long list of negative events
because it clashes both with
the unrealistic positivity that
we expect of an operetta and
the amount of unluckiness that
we think could ever befall one
person. Rather than condoning
or tacitly accepting this long
chain of negative events, we
laugh specifically because we
know them to be improbable, if
not impossible. Humor proves
that we have analyzed the play
on multiple levels and focused
in on a glaring contradiction
between what we think is
possible and what the play has
told us is possible.
In “The Book of Mormon,”
the
complexity
of
African
society
contradicts
the
stereotypes
of
“developing
country” simplicity pervasive
throughout American culture.
The
seemingly
absurd
statements in “Sal Tlay Ka
Siti” are thus humorous in
that they demonstrate to us
the inherent impossibility of
these
stereotypes.
Through
the
singer’s
confused
understanding
of
American
society,
we
begin
to
see
how flawed our conception
of African society is. The
play holds a mirror to our
unconscious biases, reflecting
them back on us in the form
of a glaringly stereotypical
representation
of
Africans
dreaming of American society.
This
concept
of
humor
relates to my understanding
of art and my views on what
constitutes “good” art. I view
good art as art that makes
us question our beliefs and
reassess
our
unconscious
biases. It touches us on an
emotional
level,
bypassing
the intellect and provoking
new lines of thought. It is
emotionally complex, allowing
for endless interpretation, and
it
communicates
something
about the human condition
that transcends the limitations
of any specific time period or
culture.
Good humor, I realized, does
much the same thing. Humor
trains the mind to be skeptical,
to question information against
our
expectations
and
find
statements so illogical as to
be humorous. And while this
humor can be based on offensive
statements, the effect of this
offensive humor is actually
the opposite of offensive, as it
forces us to become conscious
of the stereotypes and biases
that
make
the
statement
humorous. Unless we are aware
of an underlying stereotype, we
cannot find a statement to be
funny.
Humor can even be effective
in fighting white nationalism.
In an article in The New York
Times last year, for example,
Tina
Rosenberg
describes
an
unconventional
and
surprisingly effective means
of fighting neo-Nazism. After
years
of
staging
counter-
protests at neo-Nazi events to
little success, some American
towns have begun humorously
mocking event participants.
Groups such as the “Coup Clutz
Clowns” greet white nationalist
protesters with confetti and
shouts of “white flour” (an
intentional misunderstanding
of cries of “white power”).
White nationalists feed off
the victimization and the need
for hyper-masculine aggression
that serious counter-protests
provoke.
Counter-protesting
with humor deprives these
white
nationalists
of
the
attention, fear and power they
seek.
Though
some
would
argue that reacting to these
events with humor willfully
ignores the severity of the
threat that they pose, this
humor proves to be incredibly
effective in depriving those in
the movement of the hyper-
masculine validation they seek.
Humor is thus an incredibly
effective tool not for building
up
ideas
but
for
tearing
down opposing ideas. Humor
forces
us
to
be
skeptical,
to
accept
nothing
at
face
value; humor brings even the
most ingrained unconscious
biases to the realm of the
conscious
and
intentional.
When used well, it exposes
contradiction without allowing
for a counterargument. And
though it can be offensive
on
the
surface,
humor
predicated on an inoffensive
and unprejudiced worldview
is
ultimately
anything
but
offensive. It functions much
as my understanding of good
art functions, provoking an
immediate emotional reaction
that lays the groundwork for
lengthy, complex thought on
the ambiguities of the human
condition.
And if this whole column
can be generated from one
potentially offensive joke in
an operetta, imagine what can
be generated from a series of
jokes! The possibilities abound
for
those
willing
to
take
this Matrix-esque red pill of
skepticism.
Offensive humor and
forced introspection
COMMUNITY CULTURE COLUMN
SAMMY
SUSSMAN
Susan Orlean at the Ann
Arbor District Library
At some point in our lives,
we will allow ourselves to
be consumed by something,
kindled by the flames of art,
sex, passion or whatever else
transcends you beyond the
mortal realm of existence.
If we weren’t curious about
something
or
hungry
for
knowledge, we would be left
on empty, our own flames
extinguished.
Susan Orlean, a journalist for
The New Yorker and acclaimed
author of “The Orchid Thief”
(the basis for Oscar-winning,
Meryl Streep-starring 2002
film “Adaptation”), had her
own fascination sparked by
the Los Angeles library fire of
1986. The flames that devoured
over 400,000 library books
was a travesty to page after
page of history, memories and
untainted knowledge. Beyond
the content inside, the library
building itself was a mecca for
connection among people and
words that left patrons with a
reviving sense of community
and ineffable nostalgia.
Last Thursday night in the
Ann Arbor District Library,
aisles were filled with admirers
of
Orlean’s
endearment
towards library books and
the worlds they hold inside.
Orlean’s curiosity surrounding
this tragic event prompted her
latest release, “The Library
Book,” a biography that peers
into why libraries and library
books are cherished as sacred
spaces across the globe.
TESSA ROSE
Daily Arts Writer
BOOKS EVENT
Orlean’s
work
consisted
of investigating the arrest
of the young man possessed
by his dream of stardom and
the
subsequent
legal
case
surrounding his arson. The
results were in: 45,000 works
of literature, 9,000 business
books,
6,000
magazines,
18,000 social science books,
12,000 cookbooks (including
six
books
of
popcorn
recipes) and numerous other
devastated
book
categories
making the recovery attempt
the largest on record. All of
the books were wet from the
firefighters’s attempt to put
out the flames. The only way
to salvage some more time for
the books to have a chance at
restoration was for them to be
frozen. The library reached
out to various food companies
in L.A. that had freezers large
enough to store hundreds of
thousands of damaged library
books. “They shoved aside the
broccoli and the shrimp. And
the books were frozen for 6
years,” Orlean said.
While writing “The Library
Book,” Orlean’s mother was
diagnosed with dementia.
“I came across an expression
that is used in Senegal when
someone dies, and rather than
saying that he or she died,
you say his or her library has
burned,” Orlean said. As Orlean
watched her own mother’s
library burn down, she finally
recognized the power libraries
have to retain things eternally
while humans fade closer to
oblivion with each passing
inhale and exhale.
“Each of us in a sense as
our own private library, our
own set of volumes of stories
and vignettes. Libraries in a
way replicate what we have
inside ourselves, a collection
of information that defines
who we are, who we’ve been
and who we dream of being,”
Orlean said.
There’s
a
reason
that
burning
books
seems
like
a
heinous
crime
against
humanity, and to Orlean, it is
because books preserve who
we are. For this same reason,
oppressive regimes burn books
as a method of terror against
other nations, sending the
message that “you don’t exist.”
“The number of books burned
in World War II and libraries
burned is the single greatest
loss of books in the history of
civilization,” Orlean stated.
Books
become
extensions
of
ourselves
that
preserve
culture, history, science and
all other bits and pieces of
human thought rendered into
ink-inscribed words on paper.
Orlean concluded the event
with a reading from the end of
“The Library Book” that best
captures the sentimentality
of libraries: “The library is
so big that I can feel private.
Almost like a secret place,” she
said. The idea, it seemed, was
that libraries connect people
with ideas, cultivating spaces
for the embers of passion and
inspiration to be set ablaze.
“The
silence
was
more
soothing than solemn. The
library is a good place to sulk
in solitude. A place where you
feel part of a conversation that
has gone on for hundreds and
hundreds of years even when
you’re all alone... You don’t
need to take a book off of a
shelf to know there is a voice
inside that is waiting to speak
to you.”
SKILLSHARE
If we weren’t
curious about
something or
hungry for
knowledge, we
would be left
on empty, our
own flames
extinguished
6— Thursday, November 15, 2018
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com