Finny
never left anything alone, not when it was well enough, not when it
was perfect. “Let’s go jump in the river,” he said under his
breath as we went out of the sun porch. He forced compliance by
leaning against me as we walked along, changing my direction; like a
police car squeezing me to the side of the road, he directed me
unwillingly toward the gym and the river. “We need to clear our
heads of that party,” he said, “all that talk!”
“Yes.
It sure was boring. Who did most of the talking anyway?”
Finny
concentrated. “Mr. Patch-Withers was pretty gassy, and his wife,
and …”
“Yeah.
And?”
Turning
a look of mock shock on me, “You don’t mean to infer that I
talked too much!”
Returning,
with interest, his gaping shock, “You? Talk too much? How can you
accuse me of accusing you of that!” As I said, this was my
sarcastic summer. It was only long after that I recognized sarcasm as
the protest of people who are weak.
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John Knowles' A Separate Peace, ch. 2 (pg) 29
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Weak? Weak? How dare he. I love sarcasm and sarcastic people. Sarcasm is a sign that a person is mentally healthy, since many people cannot understand it until they are at least five. It is a great way to exercise the brain, and it would seem that everyone likes people who are sarcastic. My brother, father, and I are all very sarcastic people, and none of us have enemies. Everyone loves us. We make people laugh. How is that weak?
There are different kinds of sarcasm, so perhaps he was not referring to every form of it. The sarcasm he uses, simply repeating what the other person says, can get annoying and seem immature. I suppose sarcasm does have its problems... can have problems... No. Actually the only time one may say it has problems is when it is overused; I would say that since the people who use sarcasm are particularly clever (because they are observant of their audiences and change what they say or how they deliver it depending on their audience) they never overuse it. It is the people who are not as clever who try to use it, sometimes over do it, and fail that give all the rest of us a bad name. That is not true sarcasm. Those people are impostors.
Just think, if all the great people in the world were sarcastic, the world would be a much better place. Since everyone had that sense of humor, no one would get offended. In fact, everyone would be great friends because they could appreciate the other person and their skills in word choice and delivery.
There are different kinds of sarcasm, so perhaps he was not referring to every form of it. The sarcasm he uses, simply repeating what the other person says, can get annoying and seem immature. I suppose sarcasm does have its problems... can have problems... No. Actually the only time one may say it has problems is when it is overused; I would say that since the people who use sarcasm are particularly clever (because they are observant of their audiences and change what they say or how they deliver it depending on their audience) they never overuse it. It is the people who are not as clever who try to use it, sometimes over do it, and fail that give all the rest of us a bad name. That is not true sarcasm. Those people are impostors.
Just think, if all the great people in the world were sarcastic, the world would be a much better place. Since everyone had that sense of humor, no one would get offended. In fact, everyone would be great friends because they could appreciate the other person and their skills in word choice and delivery.
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