Topic started by Saketh on Mon Aug 30 17:11:04 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.
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What do you think of British Humour?
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Responses:
- Old responses
- From: Ramji (@ 205.177.170.146)
on: Wed Jan 12 17:18:05 EST 2000
Aarthy:
Are you the budding poet that I know? PGW can be a life long companion. Besides humor, you can read him for the sheer beauty of the language.
He said: " I believe there are two ways of writng novels. One is mine, making a sort of musical comedy without music and ignoring life altogether; the other is going right deep down into life and not caring a damn."
Do you know he became a US citizen?
- From: Aarthi (@ usr56k-77.rowan.edu)
on: Sat Jan 15 00:12:19 EST 2000
No I did`nt know he became a US citizen..Interesting trivia!
No I am not the budding poet you know-Ramji.
Does anyone know if one can get him at Barnes and Noble or Borders?
- From: Bashuman Deb (@ 202.54.26.196)
on: Sat Jan 29 10:15:57 EST 2000
I belong to that school of thought that believes that good old plum was one of the greatest exponents of the english language. If there was a person who could breathe life into the language it was Wodehouse. His language has character and that too a distinct one. Whenever I read a Wodehouse I get the feeling that those are not merely simple words put in there. Every phrase, every word seems to leap out of the pages like impish schoolboys and make fantastic faces at you, so much so that you cannot but break out into uncontrollable laughter.
Wodehouse stories ( if one can call them that that is) for me have another very important facet. They seem to be, to me a shameless celebration of life. I at times also sit down and wonder at the genius of the human being, as to how being a part of the times that we live in could have had the strength to view and the capacity to share so much beauty and goodness.
Wodehouses world was as has been already said _idyllic_ but let us not forget that it does take a lot of beauty of spirit and strength of mind to even envisage an idyllic world.
- From: Saketh (@ ppp36.net21.binghamton.edu)
on: Sun Feb 6 14:58:30 EST 2000
Read somewhere that Plum used to write 16 hours a day!
- From: Connie (@ slip2.dia.net)
on: Sat Feb 19 09:49:45 EST 2000
I have been a huge fan of PG Wodehouse since the seventies! My all time favorite author. I agree that he is not nearly as big in America as you would expect...I usually get a blank stare when I speak of him which is incomprehensible to me....
I am divided between Blandings Castle and Bertie and Jeeves...my heart is torn.
Oh, he is at Barnes and Nobel, and also ebay....
- From: Connie (@ slip2.dia.net)
on: Sat Feb 19 09:52:40 EST 2000
I have been a huge fan of PG Wodehouse since the seventies! My all time favorite author. I agree that he is not nearly as big in America as you would expect...I usually get a blank stare when I speak of him which is incomprehensible to me....
I am divided between Blandings Castle and Bertie and Jeeves...my heart is torn.
Oh, he is at Barnes and Nobel, and also ebay....
- From: aruvi (@ sofia12.slip.yorku.ca)
on: Sat Feb 19 22:58:45 EST 2000
He did right a lot of books. But can someone make a list of his all time great comedy books.
- From: Jyothi Krishnan Unni (@ useras90.netscapeonline.co.uk)
on: Mon Feb 21 17:04:06 EST 2000
Hi,
Yes I like Wodehouse a lot. I think Jeeves is the greatest. Aunt Agatha is sweet too, for all her terrorising tactics.
Jyothi
- From: Jyothi Krishnan Unni (@ useras90.netscapeonline.co.uk)
on: Mon Feb 21 17:04:11 EST 2000
Hi,
Yes I like Wodehouse a lot. I think Jeeves is the greatest. Aunt Agatha is sweet too, for all her terrorising tactics.
Jyothi
- From: Ram (@ krishnad.mis.amat.com)
on: Mon Mar 6 13:07:36 EST 2000
Aarti
and this may probably apply to others too. Barnes and Noble is a good place, but the places that really work for me are used book shops. In the south bay (CA) there are such haunts in Palo Alto (University ave)and Mountain View (Castro Street). On good days Ive bought a couple of PGW's for as little as five quid.
I believe one can enjoy his works better with some background in English litt (not that I have any), what with there being multiple references to the old poet and other greek persona's.
- From: shaista (@ 202.54.71.125)
on: Tue Apr 18 07:30:59 EDT 2000
Hey the wodehouse guy .. the one who made my heart go haywire on jeeves .Oh I really love him do I? Everytime i plunge into jeeves or bertie or Aunt Agatha or the whole bunch of firecrackers ,I'm totally lost .. in a world of fun and frolic away from the rat race. If you aren't a wodehouse reader you've lost something (substantial) in life. So never too late. Pick up one and lie on a hammock coz that's the best place to enjoy a wodehouse. Bye luv Ya.
- From: Srinivas Sridharan (@ sob-d10.bus.indiana.edu)
on: Tue May 9 20:14:03 EDT 2000
Glad to have spotted this thread. Am a hopeless Wodehouse fan. Like Connie, my heart too is split between Blandings Castle with its Emsworths and the Jeeves series. However, I very often lean towards Blandings.
Only a genius of his kind who so exuberantly mocks at the English aristocracy could come up with names like Gussy Finknottle, Stiffy Bing, Stinker Pinker etc.
To the issue of the no.of books he has written, I think the entire collection numbers between 90 and 100. This may or may not include the screenplays I beleive he has written for some Hollywood productions.
- From: Tim (@ )
on: Wed Dec 6 12:10:33
What Ho ! buddies, with knobs on. If you can think of a better thing to have happened to mankind than PGW, you can have it.
Cheers, all of you.
- From: erumbu (@ host130.the-cloak.com)
on: Wed Dec 6 16:17:16 EST 2000
I LOVE PGW's Novels!!!
his style, humour and english are without par!!!
The best character I like is PSMITH! I am surprised that no one has said anything about my favourite character so far!!!!!
- From: arthur avalon (@ 203.106.176.88)
on: Thu Dec 7 04:55:41 EST 2000
It would be more fruitful if some discussion takes place about the characters, plot, Wodehouses penchant and flair for bombastic words, etc.
- From: ravi sundaram (@ 192.149.1.187)
on: Thu Dec 7 10:05:34 EST 2000
(Once in a while I'll post a fondly remembered scene from PGW. May be it will spark discussions
Arthus Avalon is asking for. May be others can do so too. Let us give a name and number to these references so that follow ups can refer to them clearly)
--Psmith: Meets Man with a bush on lapel #0001--
Psmith as the detective arranges to meet someone he has not seen before. Psmith asks the other guy to wear a chrysanthemum on his lapel for identification. Other guy goes to a flower shop and finds to his dismay the flower was six inches in diameter and strains the coat lapel. There was a coded exchange too for identification. Psmith is late for the meeting. This guy ends up asking everyone in the waiting room of Drones Club if it was raining in Shrophshire. Then Psmith wanders around and locates him and says, "What are you doing with that bush on your coat?". Turns out Psmith meant a carnation not the mum. Hilarious descriptions all the way during this episode.
-----end of 0001-----------------------
[For tamils: Remember the movie "sattam en kaiyil"? There the coded exhange between two smugglers is "It is raining in Mount Road (mount rodula mazahi peyyuthu)", "Yes,So it must be Friday (aamaa, innikku veLLik kizhamai)". Almost
identical to the coded exchange in #0001]
- From: erumbu (@ host130.the-cloak.com)
on: Thu Dec 7 10:44:54 EST 2000
hi ravi sundaram,
i remember this one very well. actually i think that its the otherway round. Freddie (of blandings castle) asks Psmith to wear this. :) its a very funny thing.
in the same novel, there is a part where psmith tries to woo a girl. you should read the part where he proposes to her!! Its totally hilarious!!!
- From: ravi sundaram (@ 192.149.1.187)
on: Thu Dec 7 14:38:01 EST 2000
Psmith gives away the umbrella of some Drones Club member the flower shop girl right?
--------Barbazon Plank Major, Minor, Miner--#0002
Uncle Dynamite's name slips my mind, please help.
He claims to be Major Barbazon Plank, returning
from an Expdition to the Amazaon. Constable Potter knows the real Major Barbazon Plank and confronts
him and asks for an explantion.
This is how he wiggles out: (paraphrased by me
not an exact quote)
"My dear Potter, I dont blame you, many like you
have been confused. When I said Barbazon Plank,
the major, many people confuse me, like you apparently have, with my younger
brother Major Barbazon Plank, the minor."
Seeing Potter's eyes glaze over and not the one who to quit while he is ahead, he continued,
"By a curious coincidence I ended up in Africa and
America prospecting and eventually owning a goodly few mines in many parts of the world, Thus you see, I am the miner Barbazon Plank, the major. And my brother, having been promoted to the rank of Major for his services to Her Majesty, is the Major Barbazon Plank, the minor. So that should clear up any confusion you had my dear". He walked away leaving Constable Potter by the pond staring vacantly at the horizon making strange noises.
End of -----------#0002
- From: Ramji (@ 205.177.170.145)
on: Thu Dec 7 21:03:28 EST 2000
ravi:
The major\minor piece used to be one of my fves but I dont have the book now. Thanks for the nostalgic trip.
Uncle Dynamite? hmmmm.... Lord Ickenham?
- From: Ramji (@ 205.177.170.145)
on: Thu Dec 7 21:14:44 EST 2000
Dont remember in which one, a guy tells this joke during an after-dinner conversation. It is about two guys on a train who are short of hearing.
The train is just entering a station and A looks out the window apparently to see what station it was.
B: Is it Wensley?
A: No, it is Thursday.
B: So am I, let us get down for a drink.
- From: ravi sundaram (@ 192.149.1.187)
on: Fri Dec 8 08:48:53 EST 2000
#0002 is definitely in Uncle Dynamite. PGW at his best there.
It starts with a shy guy returning from an expedition to Amazon cringing at the sight of a whole school choir waiting to recieve him at the
station and the fellow passenger, Uncle Dynamite,
understands the whole situation in one glance and
makes him hide under the seat. Later he invites
himself to this guy's place, masquerades under
three different names simultaneously to unite this
guy with his love. Most of the names I have forgotten.
-----------------------------
Ramji, I think it was Wembley, a suburban station
in London.
-----------------------------
---Lady Schoonmacker, and Captain Bigger---#0003
Lady Schoonmacker, an american is a potential
buyer of a castle. The lord of the castle is
trying to impress her, by going to the extent
of hiring "the boy who cleans knives and boots".
His brother keeps coming back with Captain
Bigger jokes.
Who is Bigger, Captain Bigger or Mrs Bigger?
Mrs Bigger because she became Bigger.
Who is Bigger, Captain Bigger or Master Bigger?
Master Bigger because, he is a little Bigger.
Who is Bigger, Captain Bigger or spinster(?) Bigger?
spinster Bigger, because she's always Bigger.
There were three more of these questions I have
forgotten. This guy also makes this comment that
almost torpedos the sale.
"In the summer the river is at the bottom of the
garden, in the winter the garden is at the bottom
of the river."
---End of #0003
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