Hegel's laughing

[Michel Ryckx]

Dear Sir,

You wrote: (...) The sex-and-violence pulp novel to have the biggest impact,
however, was 'I Spit on Your Graves' by a certain Vernon Sullivan, (...).

I say: When I referred to the strange humour in Boris Vian's works, I was, I
think not clear enough.  'J'irai cracher sur vos Tombes' is a bit strange
compared to mr. Vian's other works, and, though it is certainly hard boiled (and
over the top), it is not that absurd. In other novels and short stories, his
humour is very funny, but always grimm.  In 'L'Arrache-Coeur' for instance
there's a mother who wants to protect her children and ends up in putting them
in a cage.  In 'L'Ecume des Jours', there's a priest who decides to throw a
coffin out of the window (3d floor or something) , with a corpse in it, when the
undertaker discovers he cannot get the coffin through the door.  There's a short
story of someone jumping off the window of a skyscraper, describing every 10th
floor what he sees.  He forgets to look at the 10th floor, and dies while
wondering what he missed to see.  That is the kind of dark and black humour I
was  referring to.

But then, if those works had not been translated in the Fifties, they could not
have influenced mr. Pynchon (if he does not know French, that is). Tant pis, as
the French say.  Once again, I was completely wrong.

This is a post without any reference to excrements.

Kind Regards,
Michel.