An Uncomprehensive Analysis

Jules Feiffer is wise. Now, I know next to nothing about Mr. Feiffer. I don't know where he grew up, went to school, or whether or not he likes cheese pizza. I haven't read his biography, and the only thing I dimly remember hearing about him is that he did cartoons for the New York Times, or something like that... So how do I know he is wise? Because I have read "A Barrel of Laughs, A Vale of Tears," which is proof of this and also that my friends have excellent taste.

The book is unlike any other children's book (assuming it is a children's book) or really anything I've ever read before, which was very refreshing. It's very charming and witty and a whole lot of fun, but the thing that made it all really worth it was that beneath all this cleverness some pretty worthwhile statements were being made. Take this passage for example:

"Because Roger was a carrier of joy, he spread it before him. It glowed off his presence like the rays of the sun. He was a special delight to his mother, and the thought of this he found particularly gratifying because of her sudden demise. Out for a swim one day, she'd been swallowed by a blue whale.

He missed his mother, but whales were his favorite mammal and blue was his favorite color, so, if she had to go, that didn't seem like such a bad way. After a while, Roger came to smile at the thought of that blue whale on that bright green sea gulping down his mother in a red-striped swimming costume as if she was a candy cane."

Okay, so maybe that's just silly. Everybody knows blue whales eat plankton! But it sure was a lot of fun. Or maybe that's sick. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The book follows the story of Roger, who is a danger to the general public because he can't get within half a mile of anybody without making them laugh. Roger is a prince, but since he can't associate with people much, this ability of his would get in the way of him being a responsible king, so the royal wizard decides the only thing to do is to go on a quest. Of course. What else?

Feiffer has a lot of fun playing with cliches of the genre, and his two-dimensional characters (the book is illustrated) have more depth than some adult novels I've run across. But, as I was saying, there's more too it than that.

"'I've never HAD to make a decision before.'
'Think of it as a challenge,' said Tom, from between pursed lips.
'How do you go about it?' asked Roger...
...'You just- You put together all the- You think this way and that- You make a list- You weight the alternatives-" Tom fell silent. 'I'm a peasant,' he said at last. 'I've never had to make a decision. People like you are supposed to make them for me.'
'What if I make one--and it's wrong?"
'I'm not an expert, but if a decision doesn't work out, my guess would be that you have to make another decision.'
'A SECOND decision?' cried Roger in alarm.
'I'm not an expert, but my guess would be you keep making decisions until you get one that works.'
'That could take YEARS!' said Roger the Toad.
'That's another reason why I don't make them.'

Yep kids, that's unfortunately how it works. For everything! It's kind of ludicrous when you do really think about it. So while that passage is playful, I think it's pretty intelligent to with a good sense of how bizarre life can be and perhaps just a little political subtext? Maybe not. But if I want political subtext I can have political subtext darn it, because I'm the reader and the reader gets what the reader wants! Or so I was taught in Honors Reading Lit.

"Now, when you're considerate of other people, it introduces a whole new set of problems."

Once again, it was little tidbits like this that made the book worthwhile. If you had the context, you would see that it simultaneously acknowledges that one has a responsibility to be considerate of other people, but also that this can be bothersome, but even so, it's very much worth doing and very much the right thing to do. What a great lesson to pack into a book! I know many adults who haven't quite grasped this concept, myself included.

"Tom turned to stone because he had made up his mind that he was going to...In fact, Tom didn't really turn to stone. But it took him a week of standing in one place, stiff as a statue, before he knew it. And that knowledge came only after he got thirsty and hungry. 'Stone statues don't get thirsty' was his first thought. 'Stone statues don't get hungry' was his second thought. 'Stone statues don't think' was his third thought...Tom leaves the book now, never to return. I will write no more of him, other than to say that he lives happily ever after. All by himself. Waking every day to the cherished memory that once he was a statue and now he's not."

So first of all, we've all been this silly. We can be so sure that something terrible is going to happen that we make it happen (self-fulfilling prophecies), and we can become so wrapped up in ourselves that we make the most mundane and stupid things into great accomplishments. Feiffer knows how humanity ticks. And he puts it in a little book that can easily be read in a few hours time. There's a lot more in this book I could go on about. Lots of little tidbits about friendship and heroism and feelings and all that great stuff that's supposed to be in great books. But as much as I enjoyed it all, the only thing it really did for me was to make me want to read more Jules Feiffer. :-)