Family Matters

family history--a chronicle of causal familial events that helped shape a character; the cultural environmental forces in which a character evolves; generational behavior and the attitudes in which such behavior is viewed from within the family and from external sources.

Family is such a splendid launching pad for the definition of a character, giving traditions to be applauded as well as traditions to be shunned. A character may become a victim of such tradition or a beneficiary, not to forget a martyr. If a character is informed, "All our family did their undergraduate work at Yale," and the character had hoped instead to attend The Rhode Island School of Design, might not there be a howl of conflict raised? And what about the implication that the family did undergraduate work at Yale, suggesting that graduate school venue may be an option, but graduate school itself was more a directive?

Families are social bands, dispensing tradition, learning, social and financial resources, all provided with varying degrees of love or complete lack of love. Characters may be assumed to have responded in some way--as actors in stage and film renditions respond continuously to one another--to their family origins, but also beyond their family influence in terms of wanting to break from family behavior and set out on a fresh set of responses.

Two widely differing examples of family effects on present-day characters are found in Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, and Jim Harrison's Returning to Earth. Each has as a pivotal issue the impending death of a patriarch and its effects on the survivors. Told from the point of view of the outsider, Charles Ryder, Brideshead is essentially the story of the Flyte family, who own the Brideshead estate, their Catholicism, its effects on them and Charles Ryder, who has a close friendship with his Oxford classmate, Sebastian, and a romantic relationship with Sebastian's sister, Julia. Returning to Earth focuses on the approaching death of Donald, a middle-aged man of mixed Finnish and Chippewa heritage, terminally ill with Lou Gherig's disease. The narrative begins with Donald, who is dictating his story to his wife, Cynthia. Reminiscing on his connection with his Indian heritage, Donald recalls the influence of his father's cousin, Flower, on him. "Flower shook my brain like one of her many rattles hanging from the rafters of her tar paper shack." Each of these authors is remarkable in a specific way, deft in the ability to describe the reverberations of family into the dance the individual members has with life.

May the Farce Be with You

farce--a dramatic subset of comedy in which the pace and physical action intensify to the point of combustion; plot-driven circumstances which accelerate to the point where characters cannot adequately cope with them.

An appropriate analogy for farce is the now legendary state room scene from the Marx Brothers film, A Night at the Opera (available on YouTube), another analogy being the results when a professional juggler drops the dishes he has in motion and is now surrounded by broken china. The dramatic beats begin to come faster, adding a surreal note to the already comedic, physical atmosphere of the action, causing language and gestures that turn up the heat, leading to one final, uproarious explosion.

Farce may appear in any story, coming as a surprise, appearing when the reader least expects it but where, appropriately, the building tension of the story is growing more intense. Depending on the length of the story and the writer's ultimate goal for the conclusion, the whole narrative may have the atmosphere of farce. As an example, thanks to adroit use of farcical elements such as one or two over-the top scenes, Evelyn Waugh's satire, The Loved One, moves into farce.

The important point to emphasize here is that farce may rise above mere jokes, pie throwing, and slipping on banana peels even while using burlesque settings and techniques. For all its antic, zany humor, Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys has a strong texture of plausibility.

As with its cousin, humor, the intent of farce is to reduce some target by ridicule. Just as humor may well appear suddenly within a tragic or lofty narrative, so too may farce slip in the back door to work its effects. The goal of humor is the exposure of some painful truth or awareness. Farce aims further below the belt, wanting not only to destroy or render dignity inoperative but to inflict some damage on the furniture as well.

For the history-minded, Georges Feydeau (1862-1921), the French playwright, is generally considered to be the quintessential modern farceur, A Flea in Her Ear being one of the more legible and instructive.

Overly complex plots, mistaken identities, and misunderstandings are salient ingredients of farce, making such diverse examples as Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Ernest, Noel Coward's Blythe Spirit, and yes, even Michael Chabon's The Wonder Boys arguable candidates for the farce hall of fame.