A Search for Wit
As I said before, I watched Pride and Prejudice this spring break.
The Keira Knightley version does not hold as much sharp wit and conversation as the BBC’s version featuring Colin Firth as an authentic Mr. Darcy. Their focus holds on Keira and cinematic sort of effects– while the BBC’s unabridged feature forces audiences to focus on the mental dexterity and social interactions of such characters.
Anyway– wit.
I have also often found that many of the people I interact with outside of college tend to have more clever wit then your garden variety University of Washington student. This is of course a generalization, and I do not wish to pursue this observation. All I can suggest, is the limits of such wide education curriculum in the freedom of thought– the ability to “think outside the box”.
Blogs like hipsterrunoff.com and fakekarl.blogspot.com are soooo witty. Their reenactment and remediation of stereotypes and caricatures are spot-on observant. They point out the ridiculous insistence of these people in reflecting who they are. In a fell swoop of a sentence, wit masters can render the seriousness of any topic or cultural aspect brokenly ironic.
And I feel like all I can do is gasp and try to catch up with the next punchline.
I also feel like ehow.com or about.com should do an article on “How to be witty”. They do, after all, have one on “how to small talk”.
Gracie.