Obviously there are many similarities betwix
The Loved One and
Half In Love With Easeful Death, hense the assignment. However it doesn't take a genius to catch onto the handful of shared parody and sarcasm which is utilized between the two, and for the most part carries on to the general theme as well, but it does make one wonder. Did Evelyn Waugh write the essay in spite of his less than fruitful trip to hollwood, where Evelyn would suffer through tragedy after tragedy, and bumb after bump, while trying to rewrite a seperate book of his for the big screen? Or did he write
The Loved One as a follow-up to his essay, simply because it was true, hillarious, spiteful, yet most of all, still fresh enough in his mind to fill in the tiny cracks, and support each crack with a character and a name? And perhaps most important of all, could Evelyn Waugh's own attempted suicide possibly have fueled any personal sense, or obligation to complete his essay, or as the essay clearly states "Give life to death." Well, the answer could easily be yes, to each. However there is yet another possibility.
Evelyn Waugh could have written the original essay, then shortly thereafter suffer a minor stroke, losing all immediate knowledge of his original essay, therefor starting anew from scratch and creating his novel The Loved One. A novel which shared such common vents for parody such as hindu-love music, parlor rooms, Hollywood, Embalming, racism in the cemetary, and the over glorified, over paid, over-turning mortuaries, each centering specifically on one, and each's promise of everalsting happiness, without having to mention either heaven nor Hell. And of course how both versions of the same joke, are consistent in poking fun at the supposed English narrator, for his partaking in all of this. Which makes the joke, just that much funnier.
1 comment:
Yeah, I guess the question is why write a book after you've written the essay. Apparently, he had more to say--and since he does write stories, why not fictionalize the experience?
You're right. He did try to off himself when he was younger. And he continued a rather self-destructive life until his end. I wonder if his fascination with death was another factor in writing The Loved One. Obviously, death scares him. The story of his attempted suicide is he swam out to sea to drown himself, but he got stung by a jelly fish and swam back to shore.
You need to know the difference between parody and satire. This post and your Simpsons post make me think you're not quite clear. Remember, satire is an attack on content. Satire in The Loved One: Hollywood is one; Death (and the treatment of death in Hollywood) is another. Parody is poking fun at style. Waugh parodies Southern Californians. He parodies the British, by basing them on stereotypes. Parody focuses on language or the way people speak or dress or act. In the Simpsons, there is parody of the Victorian language of Poe, meshed with the contemporary "Eat my Shorts". So yeah, that's parody because it's making fun of the style, the language. Satire is bigger. Dr. Strangelove satirizes the Cold War and the nuclear arms race. Parody would be the Slim Pickens character--his American character is the stereotypical cowboy Yee Haw! Parody is Dr. Strangelove. Peter Sellers gives him the stereotypical German accent and he is unable to control his Hitler salute, so he bites or holds down his hand.
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