The Hidden Silly Side Of Higher Education

Title: Academia Obscura: The Hidden Silly Side Of Higher Education

Author: Glen Wright

I bought and read this book in 2018 as soon as it was published, but I never put up a post on it, thanks to my inactive stint during that time. 2018 was a year that saw just one post from me- on a library very dear to me that closed. So, I decided that not having read it now is no reason to introduce this crazy book to those who don't know about it. 

@AcademiaObscura is a popular twitter handle, but this book- Academia Obscura- is probably everything you want to drop your project hours to read instead. And, that's kind of how it was written too. When you pick to see who really the author is, you get the answer immediately.

"Glen Wright is an academic. Sort of. Actually, he started his PhD in 2012 and is yet to finish. In the meantime, he started Academia Obscura, a blog about the lighter side of academic life."

This man wrote a crazily relatable and funny book on academics, and you won't be able to thank him enough for it! Academia Obscura is an encyclopedic compilation on everything that you can ever find silly in academics- and there are tons and tons of it! Footnotes, peer-reviews, language of the writing, cliched phrases that we use to bridge the lack of content- it's all in there! Filled with extremely cute and heartwarming drawings, from Wright, who in his own words says:

"Occasionally there are figures that appear to have been drawn by people like me, whose artistic inclinations never surpassed shaky stickmen and who struggle to write their own name on the whiteboard."

If you think academics is all "stuffiness"and "elbow patches", then this is the right book to pick up to change your mind. It explores the love of an academic on his subject, and at the same time takes a dig on how the strict structural formalities can bend the patience and the capabilities of the best of academicians.

Everything in the book is simply put, but would tickle your bones with humour. Most of what you would read is something that you would be going through or would have gone through, or at least would know someone who has gone through a similar patch. That way, this book is incredibly relatable and real.

I love it. And, I can guarantee a hundred percent that you will, too!

Delete This At Your Peril

Title: Delete This At Your Peril: The Bob Servant Emails

Author: Neil Forsyth

What do you do when your inbox is spammed with tens and hundreds of email every single day promising you gold, a million dollars, a grand house, a high paying job, or even your true love if you just bother to type in your phone number, address, bank details, and their passwords? I guess: block, mark as spam, try a better filter, and wrack your brains in frustration to separate these weeds. Well, Bob Servant, a 2-year-old window cleaner, and Dundee's former cheeseburger kingpin, decides that enough is enough, and that it is time for the sweetest revenge!

Delete At Your Peril is a funny, absolutely original, brilliant book by Neil Forsyth that captures an exchange of emails between the character of Bob Servant and his spammers, where the elderly man gives the spammers a taste of their own medicine- taking them on a promising ride and demanding hilarious deals in return ranging from legal asylum to emotional support, golden lions that speak and leopards that sing and wear clothes. It's hilarious to see our Bob come up with a new trick every time only to gleefully witness his spammers trying to fulfill all his wishes to get that one email from him with the bank details, or a cheque on their names!

Forsyth nails the tone and the flow of the emails. There is bound to be a grin plastered on your face when you read this book- right from the very first email! The spams are so relatable, and it wouldn't be surprising if we have seen many close to them. I love it when the hopeful exchange of the spammers meet Bob's final one:

From: Bob Servant
To: Jack Thompson
Jack,
I have some bad news, my friend. I have just been to the bank and the guy there said that I cannot send you any money as I do not have any in my account. In actual fact, it turns out that I owe them over eight grand. I'm really sorry, Jack, I hope I haven't wasted your time, but I'm afraid that the deal is off. Good luck my friend, and good luck with the animals.
Love,
Bob

The exchanges and Bob's way of taking the spammers on a hopeful trip of emails that promise payment are truly funny, and the revenge is so absolutely sweet. It is a very innovative book, and the approach to the narrative through emails, and the theme are so refreshingly fresh and original! Bob Servant takes the spammers head-on for all of us, and he will remain an unforgettable treasure when you finish reading!

I loved it, and so will you!

What Is Good Comedy?

Comedy and humour has always been and will always be something that we all connect to as humans. In today's world, we have many different platforms to express humour- even as a profession! There can be different kinds of comedy on places, things, practices, customs, norms, people, anything and everything. So, what is good comedy? Is there anything called good comedy?

Well, you might say that a good comedy is one that can make it's audience laugh- that's basic. Is there any other parameter? For a statement or an act to become comedy there are two parts that we can clearly see: 

1. Someone must do the act or make the statement/story/etc.
2. Some others, hopefully a majority, must find it to be funny.

You cannot claim something to be a comedy. It must be one, and that is solely decided by whether there are people who find it funny. If no one finds it funny other than yourself, you can't really call it comedy. So, the second part basically decides whether it is a comedy or not. We all know this, and this is not what I am here to talk about. I want to talk about the third factor. As long as there are people who crack the joke, and people who enjoy/feel-bored, it is absolutely fine. The problem arises as to the question of whether it is good comedy only when there is a third factor of people (the ones closely associated with your joke, and a majority in that sample space) who are hurt.

What is good comedy? People laughing at jokes may not make it a good joke. A good joke, ideally, should be one that is enjoyable the most to the person or the group of persons connected to the place/person/act/practice that you joke about. In a not-so-ideal situation, you can water down the "most enjoyable part" to at least "not hurt". It ceases to be a joke when there is someone hurt by it. 

The person not being "sportive" enough, or not taking it "like a joke", is never a reason to justify their hurt. Being sportive or not is their choice. Since you are drawing fun at their expense, you don't have the right to overstep beyond what they give happily. I think this is the primary difference between classic, enjoyable, observant, and truly witty humour to that of insensitivity in the guise of humour. 

In today's world of memes and stand-up comedies, and several other expressions of humour through books, movies, theatre, art, and what not, it is better for all of us to carry this thought, and make humour stay true to its sense. 

I love humour, it is one my favourite genres to read. I love the subtle yet strong English humour of Wodehouse, and the sarcastic humour of Shaw. I also have loved and read essays and writings of Robert Fulghum, Erma Bombeck, and recently read hilarious ones such as The Mezzanine, and Me Talk Pretty One Day. 

After all, as Erma Bombeck said:

"When humor goes, there goes civilization."

Me Talk Pretty One Day

Title: Me Talk Pretty One Day

Author: David Sedaris

Sedaris tries to live his life in France without knowing French, and tries to get away without learning, after some frustrating attempts. Drowned generously in humour, Sedaris's comic essays are a riot of laughter to read! Me Talk Pretty One Day is split into two parts- part one, and part deux. The first, about his life before shifting to France, and the second, about life in France. The second part has some of the finest humour and very relatable essays that I have read, that primarily included grounded and hilarious speculations by Seadris and his partner Hugh. 

My favourite chapters were ones where Sedaris hilariously takes on IQ tests. I loved the general thoughts on languages and learning it. It was very, very relatable. The keen observations, and the blunt honesty in those words make you giggle. This is a book that everyone can relate to, or draw parallels from! It's witty, and bitter, and delightful- all at the same time. And, that is what makes this book a really fun read.

If you are one of those people who start looking for some meaning to extract from a book, maybe this one isn't for you. A book need not always give you a coherent message, and in fact, like I said in my review of The Mezzanine, books and essays that are written with good humour and keen observation can be a pleasure to read sans any concrete story or message. In fact, it is the absurdity of it all that makes the read that much more fun. Sedaris is a very quirky writer, and to me this book was absolutely enjoyable. 

"When you publish a book, you expect that somebody somewhere will buy it. What you don’t expect, and what I’ve never quite gotten over, is that they may actually read it as well. Everything else is gravy."

And well, what Sedaris may not have expected is that his readers not only buy the book and read it, but also are absolutely entertained by the lovable banter and fine humour! The narration is sparkling and takes us through a ride of sweet, bitter and funny struggle of the writer and his life in France!

I loved it!

The Mezzanine

Title: The Mezzanine

Author: Nicholson Baker

What can happen over a lunch hour? Well, a lot can happen over the lunch hour. 

Howie works in the office, his job is unspecified. It is lunchtime, and our hero has popcorn, hot-dog, cookie and milk. We ride with Howie up the escalator to the mezzanine of his office, and also travel through his beautifully keen mind as he explores the most mundane things in the most interesting way. 

How did paper milk cartons replace glass milk bottles? Have you ever wondered on the miracle of perforation? Have you ever bothered to notice the buoyant nature of plastic straws? Have you ever given two thoughts about vending machines, paper towel dispensers, and popcorn poppers? Too boring? Try Howie's mind, as Baker glides you through the magnetic maze of meandering thoughts of everyday triviality in the most bizarrely eloquent string of illustrative and vivid word play.  

The Mezzanine is an extremely humorous, plot-less, and conflict-less brilliance drowned in a versatile brandishing of descriptive, detailed, and intricate narration of the regular monotony captured in the most ingenious and amusing flow of language, nailing every act to it's very atom, and also through generously sprinkled extensive footnotes. 

Here's an excerpt to show you the well-arrayed wordplay!

“The neurons that do expire are the ones that made imitation possible. When you are capable of skillful imitation, the sweep of choices before you is too large; but when your brain loses its spare capacity, and along with it some agility, some joy in winging it, and the ambition to do things that don't suit it, then you finally have to settle down to do well the few things that your brain really can do well--the rest no longer seems pressing and distracting, because it is now permanently out of reach. The feeling that you are stupider than you were is what finally interests you in the really complex subjects of life: in change, in experience, in the ways other people have adjusted to disappointment and narrowed ability. You realize that you are no prodigy, your shoulders relax, and you begin to look around you, seeing local color unrivaled by blue glows of algebra and abstraction.”

As a hilarious gimmick, The Mezzanine entertains you thoroughly leaving you smiling unawares at the vast description of broken shoelaces, comments on Aurelius's Meditations- all made in the same zest and comic droll. 

I loved it, it was a very amusing read!

Academic Jokes On Twitter

Having done a bunch of projects, research papers and a publication in law school, academic jokes became highly relatable at one point through my semesters. Academia Obscura is one of my absolute favourites when it comes to "the hidden silly side of higher education" on twitter. Here are some of my favourite tweets from them.

"How to find manuscript typos

1. Click Submit"

"Academia in a nutshell: being knowledgeable in a narrow domain that nobody understands or cares about."

"Footnotes are the bane of academic writing."

So, when they came out with a book on the same lines, I got it to read. And, if you think academics is all "stuffiness"and "elbow patches", then this is the right book to pick up to change your mind. It explores the love of an academic on his subject, and at the same time takes a dig on how the strict structural formalities can bend the patience and the capabilities of the best of academicians.

Everything in the book is simply put, but would tickle your bones with humour as it is highly relatable and real. Most of what you would read is something that you would be going through or would have gone through, or at least would know someone who has gone through a similar patch.

Another great account on twitter to get small comics/illustrations (that are sometimes so true that it pushes you to borderline guilt) on academic jokes is RedPen/BlackPen.

There are several other similar handles on twitter, but these two are my absolute favourites. If you have your favourite handle for academic jokes, do share in the comments! 

And (uh-hmm subtle promotions?) you can follow me @sandhya_varadh!