1970
Not one of these three writers (Saul Bellow, Ken Kesey, Joseph Conrad -- LEM) used comedy as entertainment. In the case of Bellow and Kesey it was used to heighten the overall effect of the story, and Conrad used it as a device to emphasize the distinctions between “them” and “us”.
In Lord Jim the humorous scenes revolve around the scurvy characters, not around Jim or Marlow or Stein. For instance, the Patna scene, after the danger is discovered. Jim’s description of the Captain and the other officers is comic. It is almost farce with everybody shouting, falling over each other and working against each other to escape the ship. The same type of thing happens with other scenes involving them. Robinson and Chester sound ridiculous in their projected plans for the uncharted island. The description of Cornelius is funny.
It isn’t so much the humor of the characters as the ludicrous surrounding them. Jim is never shown in this manner. he keeps his dignity through it all, except at the moment of his jump, but immediately afterward he gains his dignity back.
(Sketch of Joseph Conrad by Sir Muirhead Bone, 1923. To read and learn more about the novel Lord Jim, click on the title of this post.)
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