Marcus

As our class transitioned from the modern novel to postmodernity, I became lost in a mire of opposing views on creation vs. criticism. What was the role of the author and the reader? This was no longer clear.

Professor Adgrove's lecture on literary devices of humor was itself a session devoid of laughter. I had a golden opportunity to demonstrate the comedy of this fact, but the very thought of mentioning it would be redundant, tired.

This would be a bad year for irony.

I've become post-ironic, Adgrove said. I laugh at the conditions which cause irony, but have no room for irony itself. Irony is predicated on the self. A good joke built on self awareness, self-criticality and hindsight might well be called ironic, but in reality they merely feed off memory and comfort; the Ego. What we've seen, first with the Structuralists and through Modernism to Postmodernism, is a deeper engagement of the reader with the art itself. The postmodern reader is expected to be the artist. I made up for my confusion by taking verbatim notes. Irony in this context is your own construction - why laugh?

I couldn't stand the silence. What if they are writing about themselves, I asked.

Adgrove's eraser disappeared beneath curly hair. Every author writes about their Self, whether they intended to or not. An omniscient narrator is the omniscient author let loose. The hero is the primal self, the essense of the author's Id; the villian his Shadow. I wondered what parts of the Id were non-essential, but left this to myself. This is the story as told by man since he could first speak: the Hero of a Thousand Faces. But in postmodernity, the hero is now us. The reader.

But... I was wavering in my disposition.
Yes?
The author writes with their Ego, and then I read it and transpose my Ego for his.
Then?
His pencil bouncing on my desk.
Where does his Ego go? What fills that void when I'm gone?

Adgrove stands abruptly. Come come. The word "Ego" is a conceptualization , a device. you identify with the characters - you extend yourself into that space. You connect.

I shrug, then write down connect.
You are the character. You are irony. To see this is to transcend humor and irony altogether.
I was suddenly angry. And you?
I? I am the narrator.
That's pure narcissism!
Adgrove smiled. Ah, but that's your story.

This was too much. I stood up, shaking, and headed the door.

Marcus, he called weakly.