Beyond Funny and Unfunny

Jacob Levy told me about this thing (which he got from Leiter). I got a good one, first time out. This is one of my favorite Nietzsche aphorisms, actually. It's quite perfectly framed now.

Comments

[The Modesto Kid]

I liked all of the three strips I have so far viewed, but especially Dolly (facing away from us) playing checkers with Jeffy (facing the camera) and remarking, "When you stare into the abyss, the abyss also stares into you." Look at Jeffy's wide eyes, trusting, shocked.

[The Modesto Kid]

("stare" s/b "look")

[Anderson]

Yes, but why does the creator think that the "become a monster" quote's next sentence is the line about "life is too short to bore ourselves"?

Same book, granted, but different sections.

[rented mule]

Over at Redstate Pejman Y. was using this Nietzsche quote as his tagline. Suggests to me that he might be...ripe for conversion!!!

[Anatoly]

John,

Do you have a citation for this aphorism? Google didn't turn up anything specific and the Wikiquote people are unsure.

[CG]

I think I've found the best one: Dolly wearing a Mickey Mouse ears hat, smiling, talking to her friend. "Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man."

[CG]

I think I've found the best one: Dolly wearing a Mickey Mouse ears hat, smiling, talking to her friend. "Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man."

[jholbo]

Anatoly, it's from Human, All-Too Human (vol 1, sec. 9, §536). The translation being used is Kaufman's and the Hollingdale is interestingly different (and frankly worse). He writes of 'tasteless' opponent. That introduces an irrelevant pun. The German reads:

Werth abgeschmackter Gegner.— Man bleibt mitunter einer Sache nur desshalb treu, weil ihre Gegner nicht aufhören, abgeschmackt zu sein.

That is '...because its opponents do not cease to be unseasoned (in a culinary sense).'

I am tempted by a pun on 'unseasonable meditations'.

[jholbo]

Actually, now I'm a bit confused. The German seems say '... because its opponents have not yet ceased to be seasoned.' That is, the seasoning process is not yet complete. It is underway - they are acquiring flavor - but they aren't ready to be eaten yet. That's a bit different than either Kaufmann or Hollingdale have.

[jholbo]

OK, I asked a German. (Very useful to keep one handy for these occasions.) He says that, even though 'abschmecken', in a cookbook, means 'season to taste', 'abgeschmeckt' means 'bland, insipid'. (I guess the background assumption is that if you let readers of German cookbooks - i.e. Germans - suit their tastes, they will tend to produce something inedible to anyone who knows good food. This assumption seems to be encoded right into the German language.) So Kaufmann's
translation is exactly right.

[ben wolfson]

"bland", like "tasteless"? My dictionary defines "abgeschmackt" as "geschmacklos, taktlos" (as in "Redensarten, Späße"). So "tasteless" seems correct, and the pun not irrelevant at all.

[Axel]

Achtung, in-house German speaking! I did a little more research (thanks to the online version of the 32-vol Grimmsches Wörterbuch, see http://germazope.uni-trier.de/Projects/WBB/woerterbuecher/dwb/wbgui?lemid=GA00001 ), and it turns out that the verb 'abschmecken' traditionally had two meanings. When used in the first sense, it is a transitive verb and refers to what a cook does, namely 'seasoning [s.th.] to taste'. When used in the second (now obsolete) sense, it is an intransitive verb and refers to a thing losing its original taste (as in food that has 'gone off'). And as if to prove that German as a language is so much more subtle than German cuisine, this difference is nicely encoded into grammar: when used in the first sense, the word 'abschmecken' takes the past participle 'abgeschmeckt', whereas in the second case the past participle is 'abgeschmackt'. (Just for the sake of completeness, here is the corresponding entry from the Grimmsche Wörterbuch: 'ABGESCHMACKT, insipidus, part. des seltnen verbums abschmecken, den geschmack verlieren, widrig schmecken, und noch mit altem rückumlaut, während von schmecken geschmeckt, nicht geschmackt gebildet wird'.)

[jholbo]

Fascinating. Thanks, Axel.

Ben, I was thinking that the problem with 'tasteless' is that you could say something loud and garish - a Las Vegas hotel - was tasteless. In German, I take it, something that has TOO MUCH flavor, like that, can't be 'abgeschmackt'.

[Anatoly]

Abgeschmeckt and Abgeschmackt! I guess they're the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of past participles in German. Thanks, John and Axel.

[The Modesto Kid]

Human, All-Too Human

Just wondering -- I often see this hyphenization -- but it seems to me that either Human, All Too Human and Human, All-Too-Human would be preferable.

[The Modesto Kid]

Ack!! Substitute:

Human, All-Too Human

Just wondering -- I often see this hyphenization -- but it seems to me that either Human, All Too Human or Human, All-Too-Human would be preferable.

[The Modesto Kid]

forget this shit.

[The Modesto Kid]

Is there any way to turn it off? Have I created a monster?

[jholbo]

The 'All-Too' is just an attempt to keep close to the German 'Allzu'. Though there's not really any reason for it. (I guess I'm sort of used to it.)

[Doctor Slack]

Fave thus far: The Dad has gathered his children in the living room and is earnestly telling them, "In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point."

More Family Circus fun, from a rather less philosophical angle.

[The Modesto Kid]

"The 'All-Too' is just an attempt to keep close to the German 'Allzu'."

Right -- but then wouldn't 'All-Too-Human' be more in line with the German 'Allzumenschlich'?

[Gregorus]

I think a good translation word, according to what you all have presented, would be "unsavory?"

[jholbo]

Good point. I was misremembering the 'Allzu' as stand-alone in the German.

[The Modesto Kid]

Hey check it out -- they have at my suggestion, added a permalink feature to preserve your favorites. Here's a good'un.

[The Modesto Kid]

Has it been noted that Billy and Dolly are the central figures of the strip? I never really noticed it before -- Mom, Dad, Jeffy, PJ, even "Not Me" are very much supporting cast.

[The Modesto Kid]

(I haven't yet found a "Not Me" strip with a Nietzsche aphorism; I am hoping against hope they have such a strip in their database.)

[ben wolfson]

I totally printed that out and put it on my office door, TMK. I think this means I have, in some sense, arrived.

[ben wolfson]

Also, look at the permalink structure:
http://www.losanjealous.com/nfc/perm.php?c=3&q=71

"c" is the cartoon, "q" the quotation. Thus one can generate one's own combinations without waiting for them to come up.

[Tom Scudder]

Wow. I thought the dysfunctional family circus had long since been copyright-violationed out of existence.

[Doctor Slack]

Actually I think the original host voluntarily took it down after talking to Keane; it wasn't the rather dubious legal challenge from King Features that decided him. But there've been archives floating around ever since.