The Mind Creative SEPTEMBER 2014 | Page 21

The Mind Creative humour. Parody: Parody derives humour by making a mockery of another original work. Satire: Satire is a form of humour that derives its source from human deficiencies or stupidities. I take this opportunity to present an extract from a lecture given by Dr. William Coles at Kenyon College in June 25, 2009: “Successful humour in prose fiction most often is embedded in the creative style of the author through a thorough understanding of what humour can do for writing. Trying to recreate humour through descriptive narration of the humorous event is almost always doomed to be less humorous than the event itself. Most successful humour in prose is transferred by engagement of reader in story — and characters — and experiencing humour through action.” Dr. Coles then goes on to say that “A sense of humour is the ability of a human to experience humour. Humour, however, is specific for each individual and depends on a host of variables: location, culture, maturity, education, intelligence and context.” I would like to urge the reader to visit Dr. Coles’ website http://www.storyinliteraryfiction.com/ that has some excellent articles. References: Eric Decker’s Laughing Stalk: (http://laughing-stalk.blogspot.com.au/2010/02/understanding-7-different-typesof.html). Story in Literary Fiction: http://www.storyinliteraryfiction.com/essays-on-writing/howhumor-works-in-literary-fiction/ 21