tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5861130.post115297608973490867..comments2023-08-20T04:40:04.843-05:00Comments on Stephen M (Ethesis): Bathos, exploitation, death of a childStephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00219023897626648057noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5861130.post-1153275054069149302006-07-18T21:10:00.000-05:002006-07-18T21:10:00.000-05:00Anonymous, are you crazy? There is nothing comedi...Anonymous, are you crazy? There is nothing comedic in a dying child.<BR/><BR/>I'm with Stephen. I don't even care if he explained himself, nobody sits there in the hospital with their child dying and discusses how people will treat them after. You sit there numb, in shock, and feel like throwing up and breaking things. It was simply awful.annegbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15037271914260019842noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5861130.post-1153269495970020392006-07-18T19:38:00.000-05:002006-07-18T19:38:00.000-05:00The author has explained himself.His intent was to...The author has explained himself.<BR/><BR/>His intent was to declare certain emotions and feelings (in the loss of sanity that is the death of a child) completely off-limits -- making the parent overwhelmed by grief fair target as a monster for having those thoughts.<BR/><BR/>And, to attack them for the feelings and for expressing them to each other.<BR/><BR/>Helps me understand why I reacted Stephenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00219023897626648057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5861130.post-1153085550132306552006-07-16T16:32:00.000-05:002006-07-16T16:32:00.000-05:00and that's arguably shallow and exploitative and e...<I>and that's arguably shallow and exploitative and even contemptible, but I don't really see it as bathetic</I><BR/><BR/>You may well be right. I was seeing bathos only in the invocation of the death of a child on the way to other things, not as the focus of the play, which I saw as exploiting that bathos, but it may be merely exploitative, not sustainted enough to be bathetic.<BR/><BR/>Good Stephenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00219023897626648057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5861130.post-1153084829687086322006-07-16T16:20:00.000-05:002006-07-16T16:20:00.000-05:00The play (pretty clumsily IMO) mocks self-centered...The play (pretty clumsily IMO) mocks self-centered parents. The dying child is just a MacGuffin (if plays can be said to have MacGuffins), and that's arguably shallow and exploitative and even contemptible, but I don't really see it as bathetic.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5861130.post-1152990832159062412006-07-15T14:13:00.000-05:002006-07-15T14:13:00.000-05:00It never aims for pathos. It aims for irony. and h...<I>It never aims for pathos. It aims for irony.</I> and humor at the expense of parents whose child is dying.<BR/><BR/>That it manages to miss what it aims for, and that what it really is engaged in is mockery of the parents of a child who is dying, doesn't make it any more admirable or any less wallowing in bathos on the way to the target it misses.Stephenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00219023897626648057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5861130.post-1152982830040679622006-07-15T12:00:00.000-05:002006-07-15T12:00:00.000-05:00The play may be shallow and exploitative, but it's...The play may be shallow and exploitative, but it's not bathetic. It never aims for pathos. It aims for irony. It's more comedy than tragedy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com