Wes Anderson

Maria Kalman’s, The Principles of Uncertainty is a very abstract approach to humor. I understood Kalman’s sense of humor as a combination of dark and observational humor. She often demonstrates her wit along with a few theories we have discussed in class, but I did not really burst out laughing at all. I personally feel that I was trapped in a Wes Anderson movie with the abstract images, bright colors and intense close up images. The illustrations create the book, because there would be no content without them. The pictures were enjoyable but her jumping around and constant reminder that death is inevitable did damper the mood of the story a bit. Then again, humor does come from the fact that life is suffering.

Kalman tends to play around with scale often jumping from broad philosophical observations to tiny details. I often found myself thinking, “well, yeah. She’s not wrong.” For example, she describes how her and her sister go to a wedding during “the world is doomed war “because weddings are important during dark times. She says life goes on and there will still be a man selling watermelons from his cart, ice cream on the beach, and you will find Nachum Mishkovitzky’s key chain in the flea market. (69-73) This demonstrates her sense of humor, because it allows her to use her illustrations, she can play with scale, and poke fun at random little things just by saying “life goes on.”