“Discussion in America means dissent”

--J.T.

In the beginning, pre-blog days of “Blei-Lines” (May/June 2003…mostly political, much ‘passing on’ of internet info), among a number of subjects I had hoped to develop into full-blown personal essays was the nature of war. And as a sub-text to the discussion of war, was a particular writer I wanted to re-visit with readers--an American humorist in facr. Maybe now is the time.

You don’t hear much about James Thurber these days, (let alone Saki, Stephen Leacock, Dorothy Parker, or Don Marquis and his “Archy and Mehitabel”), but I used to teach Thurber, and wonder at times if there’s a student in America today who has read “The Catbird Seat,” “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” University Days,” or “The Night the Bed Fell.”

I wonder too how many have seen, know, or remember Thurber’s famous cartoons: “Home,” “All Right, Have It Your Way-You Heard a Seal Bark,” “That’s My First Wife Up There, and This Is the PRESENT Mrs. Harris,” “She Has That True Emily Dickinson Spirit Except That She Gets Fed Up Occasionally,” and “Well, I’m Disenchanted Too. We’re ALL Disenchanted.”

I also wonder if he is still funny? Does humor have an historical shelf-life? It was Thurber who surmised: “One martini is all right. Two are too many, and three are not enough.” Is that still humorous? Are martinis back in vogue?

Thurber’s dogs (drawings and stories) were beyond humor. They were mythic. “If I have any beliefs about immortality, “ he said, “it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very, few persons.” There’s still a smile in that line, I’d say.

But what about this? “The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself, but in so doing he identifies himself with people-that is, people everywhere, not for the purpose of taking them apart, but simply revealing they’re true nature.”

I was headed somewhere else at the beginning of this essay, but I think I’ll save that for another time [blog] and stay here with Thurber. Because there’s one more thing about this American humorist that is still so very true to our time, even sadly `humorous’, and certainly in line with his contention that “Discussion in America means dissent.” One more piece of solid writing which suggests that people seem to have an affinity for war, and that this is an old, old story. Which Thurber the humorist certainly understood in his way of identifying himself with people everywhere, “…not for the purpose of taking them apart, but simply revealing their true nature.”

Here’s how James Thurber tells it in an illustrated classic he wrote in l939, “The Last Flower (a Parable in Pictures)” which I’ll try to explain in both his words and mine:

“World War XII, as everybody knows”
(A Thurber drawing of soldiers rushing into battle)

“Brought about the collapse of civilization”
(The same cadre of soldiers, angrily bearing down upon a huddled, fearful man, woman, and dog.)

“Towns, and villages disappeared from the earth”
(Three buildings, one a church, in very sorry shape.)

“All the groves and forests were destroyed”
(Damaged trees and one forlorn bird perched on a broken trunk)

“And all the gardens”

“And all the works of art”

(I’ll let the reader imagine the rest for himself at this point. And also suggest you look for his work in libraries and bookstores, or Goggle James Thurber * The Last Flower to fully appreciate this great American humorist..)

“Men, women, and children became lower than the lower animals”

“Discouraged and disillusioned, dogs deserted their fallen masters”

“Emboldened by the pitiful condition of the former lords of the earth, rabbits descended upon them”

“Books, paintings, and music disappeared from the earth, and human beings just sat around doing nothing”

“Years went by”

“Even the few generals who were left forgot what the last war had decided”

“Boys and girls grew up to stare at each other blankly, for love had passed from the earth’

“One day a young girl who had never seen a flower chanced to come upon the last one in the world”

“She told the other human beings that the flower was dying”

“The only one who paid any attention to her was a young man she found wandering about”

“Together the young man and the girl nurtured the flower and it began to live again”

“One day a bee visited the flower, and a Hummingbird”

“Before long there were two flowers, and then four, and then a great many”

“Groves and forests flourished again”

“The young girl began to take an interest in how she looked”

“The young man discovered that touching the girl was pleasurable”

“Love was reborn into the world”

“Their children grew up strong and healthy and learned to run and laugh”

“Dogs came out of their exile”

“The young man discovered, by putting one stone upon another, how to build a shelter”

“Pretty soon everyone was building shelters”

“Towns, cities and villages sprang up”

“Song came back into the world”

“And troubadours and jugglers”

“And tailors and cobblers”

“And painters and poets”

“And sculptors and wheelwrights”

“And soldiers”
(no caption…just a page full of more soldiers)

“And lieutenants and captains”

“And generals and major-generals”

“And liberators”

“Some people went one place to live, and some another”

“Before long, those who went to live in the valley wished they had gone to live in the hills”

“And those who had gone to live in the hills wished they had gone to live in the valleys”

“The liberators, under the guidance of God, set fire to the discontent”

“So presently the world was at war again”
(no caption, just soldiers, top and bottom of the page, at war)

“This time the destruction was so complete…”

“That nothing at all as left in the world”
(just the text on the left page, and on the opposite page, a single, short line, with a small rise in the center)

“Except one man”

“And one woman”

“And one flower”