Since I received that huge batch of Russian books yesterday, it was easy to talk myself into opening the floating book shop today, despite the cold. There was only occasional sunshine. The snow flurries didn't amount to anything. The wind again was a killer. Still, I managed to put in an hour-and-a-half. It looked like the joke was on me until Kinesha, aka Mrs. Eclectic, and a Russian gentleman approached from opposite directions and made my madness worthwhile. My thanks.
Here's an excerpt from a short story published a long time ago. It is basically a political argument between a married couple. The full story is available here: http://fictionaut.com/stories/vic-fortezza/just-a-joke The excerpt is a two-minute read, the full story a 15-minute read:
He grasped Jean's hand as they exited the theater.
"Want to stop off for a drink?" she said, yawning. "We have the sitter until midnight."
He shrugged.
"What's wrong? You've hardly said a word all night. Are you coming down with something?"
He related the incident, without repeating the joke.
"You're supposed to be on a diet." She looked away, muttering angrily,
letting go of his hand. "And I let you talk me into buying that
popcorn."
He'd hoped her sense of priorities would have had her ignore his dietary lapse.
"Why'd you laugh?"
"To be polite, to be sociable. His jokes are usually crude but harmless. I wasn't expecting an ethnic slur."
She smirked. "Only a sexist one, which's okay, of course. These foul-mouthed comedians should all die."
"Don't bring them into it. The only thing they're ever guilty of is not
being funny, I tell you. Nobody forces you to listen. As long as it's
behind closed doors it's okay."
"Okay to perpetuate stereotypes and despicable behavior?"
"People often conform to a stereotype. That's why the word exists.
Without them there'd be even more chaos. Besides, how do you know the
laughs comedians generate don't diminish the hostility of guys in the
crowd, and that that in turn doesn't prevent rather than encourage
abuse?"
"Yeah, right."
"You don't know that it doesn't."
"You don't know that it does."
"Exactly. Feminists say pornos lead to abuse and rape. How do we know
that they don't prevent a hundred times as many by letting guys get off
and shed some of their frustrations? Guns are used to kill thousands of
people, but nobody can estimate how many shootings the possession of
them prevent. It might be twice as many. Way more people are killed with
bats and knives. The nuts even want to ban toy guns."
Vic's 4th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/bszwlxh
Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
Vic's Short Story Collection (Print or Kindle): http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h
Vic's Horror Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3
Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp
Vic’s Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
No comments:
Post a Comment