Aimee Bender: An Anatomy of Humor

Introduction

Take a look in the mirror. What exactly do you see? You might just see yourself on the surface. Just a face staring back at you, lost in life, struggling for acceptance. But this is not what Aimee Bender would see. Take for instance a young boy who might have flawed looks, who is looking for a purpose in life. He is staring in a mirror and might see a powerless kid who just wants to be like everyone else be it looks, or having a purpose. If Aimee Bender sees him in a mirror, he becomes a young boy with keys as fingers whose purpose might be to find out what all of the keys unlock only to find out it is to unlock what he had already known deep down inside. Aimee Bender takes a fantastical approach to everyday occurrences and hides life’s lessons under magical layers that we don’t realize we are learning until it’s too late.

End of the Line
A lonely big man buys himself a little man as a pet. The little man lives a moderately comfortable life in his small cage for awhile. That is until the lonely big man becomes annoyed of the little man always talking. That’s when the lonely big man, who you would not think was lonely now with the little man, becomes drunk with power, “…the big man took to torturing the little man.” (Bender 18). The lonely big man poisoned the little man with household cleaner, tossed him around, put him in a toaster oven, and even put him down his pants. The lonely big man was bored with work, bored with his life and eventually bored with the little man. The lonely big man wanted to know all about the little man's family, he wanted to meet them but the little man detested the lonely big man and refused. The lonely big man threatened with more torture but the little man did not budge on his decision. The lonely man then let the little man go free, only somewhat regretting it because he then spent all of his time searching for the little mans people and where they lived. Yearning to see how they lived to be accepted somewhere.


While the group discussed the story End of the Line we all related that while reading the story we had all imagined the movie The Borrowers. Above is a short clip from the movie, where we see a power hungry John Goodman torturing the borrowers. **There Is No Sound**

Most would not find a story of a man torturing another man humorous. But most probably felt some empathy for both the lonely big man and of course the little man. The lonely big man is lonely but is also trying so very hard to be accepted not only by the world but also by his coworkers. He feels about as little as the little man when put into situations and he tortures the little man just because of that. He feels his power when he controls the little man. Although it might seem as though the little man had no power, he really did the whole time. He was the one who was accepted in his community, he was the one who had a wife and kids, he was not lonely when he was with them. It was when the little man realized his power and freedom did he stand up for himself. “Pain was no longer a mystery to him, and a man familiar with pain has entered a new kind of freedom” (Bender 23). In the end the lonely big man was still lonely, still yearning for acceptance, a relationship with someone, anyone, and now no power over anyone except his pitiful self.


We have another clip, one from the movie V for Vendetta where we can relate the new freedom of the little man to the character Evie who both experience a new freedom. One without pain, without fear. They are now both empower of each owns self and no one can take the power away from them.

While reading this story one probably did not laugh out loud, nor find any jokes on the surface. But if you look deeper within the words you can find humor through the lonely big man's humiliation of the little man. The humiliation of the little man just proves once again that Bergsons theory that Humans Intentions are to Humiliate one another, is very true. You also get a little bit of Freudian action when the lonely big man shoves the little man down his pants. Although End of the Line is only Benders second story in the Willful Creatures collection we already get a sense of the undertone presence of falace jokes, thanks to Freud.

Motherfucker

This is about a man, who quite literally is a motherfucker. This man, so the story goes, travels cross-country to California, fucking mothers along the way, but only if they are unmarried and have baby sitters. Once in Bel Air, The Motherfucker sets his motherfucking eyes on a woman we only know as The Starlet. Shockingly enough, she too is a mother. Over a fairly short period of time The Motherfucker seduces the Starlet, and it would appear as though The Motherfucker begins to have more feelings for this particular conquest. However, The Motherfucker leaves The Starlet, as he has done with all of his other mothers. She goes on to be an award-winning actress and The Motherfucker simply goes on with his life just the way it has been.
Throughout all of Aimee Bender’s stories there is a certain element of humor. In this regard, Motherfucker is no different. There is humor throughout the story, but it comes in many forms. Probably the most prevalent form of humor found in this particular story would be an overwhelming sense of irony. For example, when The Motherfucker first meets The Starlet, he asks her why she always plays such sad characters. Later in the conversation he explains to her that he is an “emotional ventriloquist”, he projects his emotions onto other people. Then at the very end of the story we then find that The Motherfucker happens to be a fairly sad individual, “The Motherfucker held his own body close. His apartment was very plain. ‘This is the house of your desire,’ he whispered to himself … the torrent of longing waiting inside was so thick he thought he might drown in it.”(86)
One would have to say that this particular story of Bender’s however, is probably most related to Freud’s theories on humor. After all, according to our reading on Freud, it was claimed that, “Freud then adds a fourth, rarer class - namely skeptical jokes. Such jokes often use absurdity and representation by the opposite and they attack not a person or an institution, but the certainty of our knowledge itself, and our speculative possessions.”(5) The entire story, much like the rest of Bender’s stories, is an exercise in absurdity. Her stories tend to challenge preconceptions that we, the readers, might have about many kinds of topics.

Off

“Off” is the story of a woman who goes to a party with the goal of kissing three men; a red head, a blonde, and a man with black hair. She makes this her goal because she doesn’t seem to have fun at the party otherwise. As the narrator describes the scene we get a sense of her being a loner, she talks down about the other party goers and tells of how no one understands her or her art. When she finds her first victim, a red headed guy who is too drunk for the time of evening, she lures him into a room alone by asking him to help her find her purse that does not really exist. After a short search they kiss and he starts to laugh because he remembers her as a kid but she has no idea who he is. She is quickly done with him and moves on. Her next guy, the blonde, is her ex-boyfriend who she takes away from his friends into the bathroom. After a passionate kiss we see that he is not over her yet but she ends it suddenly and moves on to her last guy. She finds him talking to another girl and has a difficult time getting him to want her. She devises a plan where she will take all the coats and put them over her and claim she is cold. She wants him to see her and feel nurturing towards her, which is when she will be able to kiss him. Instead when he finds her he tells the party that he has found the missing coats. Each guest takes their coat and leaves. The narrator then finds herself alone and the blond guy sits down next to her and takes her hand in his, the only person who has ever understood her.

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The humor in this story once again as seen in End of the Line is obvious through the humiliation of others, example the narrator. We come back to Bergson idea that “human intentions [are] to humiliate one another”, so when the red head laughs at her or the black haired guy humiliates her we are able to laugh at the situation. The narrator is also humorous when she goes against our perceptions of a wealthy person by stealing all the coats from the party and contemplating taking the wallets as well.
This story is much more relatable than many of Bender’s others. You do not have to think as far outside the box to find the humor in this story as you do in some of the others. Bender once again shows to us through the narrator’s relationships the problems the narrator has with commitment. Power and control also becomes an issue when the narrator interacts with the three guys. She is simply trying to use them but not all of them are willing to do as she pleases, therefore she loses her control and power she thought she had and eventually ends up trying to steal all of the coats but falls asleep instead.

Dearth

Dearth is a story about a woman who is of a quiet, simple, lonely nature and has only one distant relationship with her lover. She stands in great contrast to her neighbor who is lively, talkative and falls in love with a man who brings her flowers. The story begins with the discovery of a pot filled with seven potatoes, which she attempts to rid herself of for nearly month, but due to the resilience of these particular potatoes which keep coming back to her, she gives up on trying to push them out of her life. They eventually take the form of tiny people and one day she is shocked to find that a further attempt to rid herself of their presence is actually successful and begins to feel horrible guilt. With only four of the original seven left she finds herself caring for them when they spring to life after exactly nine months, having accepted them as if they were her own children.
This story is particularly interesting due to the aspect of fantasy, which plays a role in creating companions for the lonely woman out of something as ordinary and bland as a pile of potatoes. Reading a little deeper into the woman’s state of mind from the ways she acts and rationalizes one might deem her to be insane, especially when she repeats over and over again her attempts to rid herself of her unwelcome guests. Part of the definition of insanity according to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary includes (“Such unsoundness of mind or lack of understanding as prevents one from having the mental capacity required by law to enter into a particular relationship, status, or transaction or as removes one from criminal or civic responsibility.”) Though not related to any criminal sense of the definition, the woman’s unsoundness of mind does seem to prevent her from participating in any meaningful way within society.



The potatoes becoming her only real companions indicate a deviation from social norms, and as Bergson believed when we break away from the group in such a manner and act in a way which is anti-social, laughter can be a tool to help us find out what is wrong with the actions of a particular individual. She comes around to being somewhat more social when her neighbor thinks of consulting a doctor about the pale potato babies and when the farmer treats her kindly, with understanding, when he sees the unusual sight. This theme of loneliness and instability is also reinforced in the anecdotes of the letter in which her lover “accidentally” wrote sincerely instead of love, and the story of the bartender rambling on about how his dead wife would never say the word love, to which she cannot respond. Ultimately she finds love for and from her potato babies as the smell of water on their bodies reminds her of her mother, and the spell of emotional distance is finally broken as she swoops them up and kisses their faces. The potatoes can represent emotions that are hidden beneath the surface, while above the surface a green plant springs, representing life, and grows.


Conclusion

Although Aimee Bender's writing may sometimes not come across as humors as we would like, we can all relate to the undertone that she covers up with the fantasy. In our life we will all struggle with power be it with a relationship, our loneliness, our acceptance as a person, and our differences. You can see how Bergson and Freud influenced Benders writing. In End of the Line she shows that it is Humans Intentions to Humiliate One Another, while in Dearth we see that comedy is necessary to keep the woman sane, and in Off it brings people together as a social function. Last but not least we can see Freud in Motherfucker with the play of words and double entendres galore. (Bergson, Freud)

Work Cited

Willful Creatures. Powell's Books. 26 Oct. 2008
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Bergson, Henri. "Laughter": An Essay on the Meaning of Comic.

"Henri Bergson's Theory of Laughter." Timo Laine. 2004-2008 Timo Laine. April 9, 2006.
http://www.timoroso.com/philosophy/writings/sketches/2006-04-09-henri-bergsons-theory-of-laughter

Freud, Sigmund. Volume 6: Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious
Pelican Books, 1976. London, England.

Goddard, Clive. “Boyfriend of the Month.” Cartoon. 1 Nov. 2008 .

Mechlem, Chris. “Bergson and Relation to Humor.” Weblog posting. Blogspot.com: Uses of Humor. 16
Oct. 2008. 1 Nov. 2008 .