Got invited to submit an article for Kindle Writers Guild. Heres what Im submitting, Ill let ya know how it goes... THE PATHOS OF HUMOR By Ty Hager In 2009, I had the great honor of interviewing Dean Koontz for a morning radio show I hosted. To me, the highlight of the interview was when we discussed humor, and its place in even the most serious prose. Here’s what Dean said: “Years and years ago, when I started to introduce comic elements into suspense, my publishers said, ‘Can’t do that, can’t do that. People don’t want to have a laugh in the middle of a suspenseful story.’ I just never bought that. I thought, if you can laugh with a character, if a character strikes you as amusing and fun to be with, then you’re going to be more concerned about what happens to them. And it actually heightens the suspense. And, happily, over the years, readers have supported my contention, because sales have only grown once I started doing that.” I wanted to hug him – it was like he was validating my own long-held beliefs. Fortunately for both of us, it was a telephone interview, and a hug was out of the question. The best stories absorb us, make us suspend our disbelief enough to actually feel what the characters feel, fear what the characters fear. To cry with the characters. To laugh with the characters. The best stories are, inherently, about life, and life is multi-faceted. It’s a given that comedy requires tragedy. If you truly analyze anything that makes us laugh – whether slapstick or high-brow - we’re usually snickering at another’s misfortune, identifying with and/or relating to a set of random circumstances to which any one of us could conceivably fall victim. It can be a two-way street. Any genre of fiction - tragedy, suspense, horror, science fiction – can benefit from a few laughs. At the root of all artistic appreciation lies “empathy,” the ability to recognize emotions in someone other than ourselves, which is derived from “pathos” (the ability to appeal to said emotions), which I mentioned in the title of the piece. And you didn’t think I’d get to it. Evoking empathy is the be-all, end-all of human expression, the reason we write. It’s not the cream in the coffee, it’s the coffee. It’s not the ram in the rama-lama-ding-dong, it’s the lama-ding-dong. It’s important. That’s what I’m saying. Empathy requires only one thing: likeability. Which brings us back to humor. Thank God. Thought I was digressing. Unless we’re cretins or are watching politics, we generally like those who make us laugh. Laughter is not only the best medicine, it’s a portal into the best parts of our souls. It’s the reason ugly guys get dates. You don’t have to be a comic to effectively make humor a part of your writing. We’re not all comedians, but we all have our antennae up. There are a dozen instances a day (hopefully more) where you laugh within the context of a normal conversation. Remember those laughs. Insert those conversations into your writing. Sometimes the best moments of dialogue are not those which drive the plot, but those which are so comical simply because they have nothing to do with the plot. I hope this little article has been helpful, and that it maybe made you laugh. And that you like me. Otherwise I have no purpose. Ty Hager is a veteran radio broadcaster, recording artist, and – most recently – novelist. His debut novel, “Diary of a Dead Guy,” is a dark comedy about a murdered country singer channeling his memoirs through a twelve-year-old redneck kid. The novel, as well as his music and non-fiction book (interviews with #1 country songwriters), are available here: tyhager.weebly/
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 02:07:20 +0000