While this post about the Pun
Also Rises is certainly not punctual (I opunned this book months ago), I am writing about this now because
of the impuntus of (believe it or not) Linsanity, but I will get to that
later. The book goes through many issues
dealing with puns, including their biology, history, nature, and how involved
they are in culture. The author, John Pollack, while having been Bill Clinton’s
speechwriter for many years, is also a champion from the O’ Henry World Pun
Competition that happens every year. One can clearly see this throughout the
book, as he throws in many subtle puns throughout the prose. He first discusses
how the mind comes up with a pun, showing it not to be a puny matter.
Ironically, the word pun has never really had one definition. He shows twelve
different types of puns, which he defines in the broadest way of a play on
different meanings.
Pollack then goes into the history of puns, which was the part I found
most interesting. Punning is extremely old, and has been consistently used ever
since. Archeologist have found many carved paintings of pictures that could be
perceived two ways. Jesters, writers, and other entertainers have used the
device for centuries. Pollack laments, however, that the pun has lost esteem in
the eyes of the punblic. People view puns as a pungent odor like a punch in the
face, looked upon as a punitive punishment that necessitates a groan or a “Shut
up, Sam!” (For those that understand). This is the part that I, to an extent,
disagree with Pollack. While its certainly true that people do wish to punish people who pun with a punt, when they have a chance to, these same people feel no reason
to be punctilious about not punning. And, this is where I bring in Linsanity.
Ever since Jeremy Lin came on the scene, he has gotten the Knicks on their limprobable linning
streak, pundits Lin the sports arena, and many others on social media sites
have been saying a seemingly linfinite amount of puns with the name Lin. Linsanity has lindividually
linaugurated a linformal pun extravaganza (see here) that go from linadequate
or linappropriate to lincredible. But why were these funny? Don't they deserve
a groan? While at this point, this reaction has started to come out of the fact
that it has been overdone, many people that had hated puns before felt fine
doing it lin this context. And, that would be precisely my argument. People
love to pun, and when it is culturally acceptable they will certainly oblige.
It is only when there is a seemingly common punderstanding that puns deserve a
groan that they get that reaction. Why this has happened, I do not know, but I feel
certain that pun hating has been created by general society, but it is not a
true reaction of the individual. Perhaps
it is a jelousy of those that have a punchant for it, but I really don’t know.
What do you think? (Leave comments below).
The Pun also Rises was
a great read for those that love puns and word play (everyone?). It gave me a
better understanding of what punning is and its place in society. I would
definitely recommend.
P.S. Did you catch any of the ten Lin puns? Because if not,
no pun lin ten did.
