The other day I was at a little concert at a cafe in uptown Seattle. At the back of the room, the two cutest lesbians evah waltzed back and forth, and then one took out a smart phone and started photographing themselves together with the band in the background. I couldn't hear them at all from where I sat, but one spoke to the other and they both started laughing.
As I sat there, I realized that what they were sharing was something you cannot capture in writing. The little jests that make us laugh, that only make sense within the context of friendship and shared experience. It's not even a "you had to be there" joke, but more of "you had to be us" joke.
It was the same day that I read How David Weber Orders a Pizza, an attempt to parody David Weber that misses out on why Weber works. While lots of readers bemoan Weber's incredible verbosity-- and it certainly is parody-worthy-- you have to admit that all of it is in the service of the story. He isn't wasting your time. And he's just as reliably setting you up for one heck of a joke, a giggle, a thrill, or a tear, as he is simply info-dumping on you. By the time he drops a "you have to be us" joke on you, you're already part of the team.
That's why "David Weber Orders a Pizza" doesn't work for me. It doesn't set anything up, it just rolls on with a relentlessness that is very un-Weber-ian. Bill Snyder's "Lieut Soquepuppit" is a much shorter and better example, because it does the Weber thing of suddenly taking a side-jog, giving you the laugh it was meant to.
As I sat there, I realized that what they were sharing was something you cannot capture in writing. The little jests that make us laugh, that only make sense within the context of friendship and shared experience. It's not even a "you had to be there" joke, but more of "you had to be us" joke.
It was the same day that I read How David Weber Orders a Pizza, an attempt to parody David Weber that misses out on why Weber works. While lots of readers bemoan Weber's incredible verbosity-- and it certainly is parody-worthy-- you have to admit that all of it is in the service of the story. He isn't wasting your time. And he's just as reliably setting you up for one heck of a joke, a giggle, a thrill, or a tear, as he is simply info-dumping on you. By the time he drops a "you have to be us" joke on you, you're already part of the team.
That's why "David Weber Orders a Pizza" doesn't work for me. It doesn't set anything up, it just rolls on with a relentlessness that is very un-Weber-ian. Bill Snyder's "Lieut Soquepuppit" is a much shorter and better example, because it does the Weber thing of suddenly taking a side-jog, giving you the laugh it was meant to.
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