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Topic: Stupidity?

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Last Reply: Sep 29, 2010 2:51 PM

gloriana

Joined: Feb, 2009

Occupation: Humanities specialist

Mar 10, 2009, 12:23 PM

4552

I don't recall if I said this earlier (one of my posts seems to have disappeared), but I think Betty especially was laughing at herself (a technique I've often used for survival... thank God, though I'm much younger than Betty I pre-date the 'self help' generation where every joke was a cry for help) because her situation was nothing like what she could have expected. Betty was an artist (later a writer, though that seems to have been budding by the time of Sandra Surrenders), and her books show every indication that she'd been far from poor in youth. (How many women had a chance to study art in college in 1923? Or had lessons in all the things Betty mentions in Anybody Can Do Anything?) Jumping into secretarial positions for which she had no qualifications at all (as one example) were good fodder for laughter.

I particularly enjoy her comments about not only herself but other government employees - who knew nothing of what they were doing save that they did it all in ten copies. Everything apparently was connections (even those of falling down the stairs and ripping one's stocking at a party).

Of course, I always will wonder why someone with artistic interests, and who seemed most at home in Seattle, ever went for living on a chicken ranch in the first place - it sounds dismal in itself, and would have been even had Bob been the love of Betty's life. Perhaps Betty had a romantic side, as many of us do at 18. (I don't even want to think of what outcome there might have been had I married the man I loved at 18...) :)

People today are too sensitive - self deprecating humour can be delightful, but is taken for some kind of psychological problem! (Or, if it makes reference to "I did this - and a two year old wouldn't have been so stupid" it is misinterpreted as "I am being superior as an action of reversed inferiority." I learnt this when I made a joke about having stupidly polished a floor with lemon oil...)

About the only 'stupid' thing I see Betty as having done was to adopt that dreadful hairstyle... but I suppose it was thought chic...

gloriana

Joined: Feb, 2009

Occupation: Humanities specialist

Mar 10, 2009, 12:25 PM	4553
One more question - in reference to posts above (particularly that by Elkhound). I cannot recall Betty's referring to Don as a philanderer (or cad) - may I ask from where this information was obtained? (I'm always interested in Betty, and would enjoy new information.)

johnftwa48in

Joined: Feb, 2005

Location: Fort Wayne, Indiana

Mar 11, 2009, 10:17 PM

4554

gloriana,

most of the rumor about Don being a cad came from the overt attention that he paid to Leslie, a neighbor of Don and Betty. I got the impression that Leslie made jayne mansfield look like a boy in drag with just touch of Theda Bara tossed in for good measure.

I think Betty adpted her particualr due because the lack of money kept her out of a Beauty Salon and a "home" perm at that time was not the safest or best way to get a lovely look. You either ended up loooking like a well used Brillo pad or bald,and at that time the Marcell perm was all the rage and was far from cheap. After awhile I think she just because acustomed to her look.

Guest

Sep 29, 2010, 2:51 PM

5052

Hi, I am a new member to this wonderful forum about a wonderful author. On the topic of self-deprecating humor, a writer I feel falls into this group is James Herriot, of the "Creatures Great and Small" books. His observations of himself trying to minister to the animals and their people in Yorkshire are classic examples of this type of chronicle Like Betty, Herriot takes the reader into the muck, the shortcomings, the daily reality of a world the rest of us don't otherwise experience. If forum members have not read any of Herriot's books, I recommend them.

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