Stephen Addis. Haiku Humor


I also finished Stephen Addis’s book on Japanese humor. 

   My favorite:  Taking a nap/looks more refined/ when holding a book.
                                                      
Addis reminds us that humor is a means to cope in society.  Discords between a stratified controlled society and actual human behavior releases tension and acceptance and tolerance through humor which uplifts and affirms life.

The varietals include:  parody, satire, absurdist, sexual, puns, gender, wit, caricature, and visual.   There are two forms: haiku and Senryu .  

Haiku is literary playfulness, and extends itself into waka (57577) and Renga or linked verse.  Haiku has the element of surprise, and harmonizes.  The poet finds something in in the ordinary, by unanticipated contrast, observing what people do not notice.  The world is transitory and impermanence rules in Haiku. Humans and creatures in nature are companions.   There is a gentle humor.  Nature and the Seasons always play a role.  More is left to the imagination, like a watercolor.

SENRYU  is mocking, farcical, of human folly.  It is an equalizer as anyone can be the target of laughter. Based on keen observation, good natured to biting sarcasm, and the genteel to the vulgar are treated in good natured biting sarcasm, in parody, and oftentimes in a maxim or aphorism. 







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