Sachin Radhakrishnan 1 November 2010 Moving Beyond the Conventions of Comedy Mario Vargas Llosas novel Aunt Julia

and the Scriptwriter is filled with diverse situations that arouse laughter and continuously raise the bar of the unexpected and weird as the story progressively increases in humor and eccentricity in both radio serials and the protagonists narratives. Although Mario Vargas Llosa starts off his book relatively simple, with a conservative use of parody and conforming to conventions in the storyline, he is able to increase its complexity and stretch the bounds of this comedic mode to make it more humorous because of his masterful use of figurative language, extreme exaggerations, and contradictions, which are able to shatter any shred of seriousness built into the novel, taking the story into crazily comical realms that endlessly incite humor from the reader as a result. An example of Llosas earlier parodies in the novel is a simple police drama that pokes fun at any old crime show by taking commonly attributed elements and exaggerating them to amplify his parody. This sets the base of humor from which the author seeks to supersede in hilarity with the following chapters through his manipulations of the text. The second serial installment begins by the scriptwriter, Pedro Camacho, setting the scene for the drama: The distant bells of the church of Nuestra Senora del Carmen de la Legua struck midnightbehind him the old wooden headquarters building of the Fourth Commissariat, a blaze of light amid the darkness[In Puerto Nuevo] only an infinitesimal proportion of the inhabitants earned their living as dockers or fishermen. The majority were bums, thieves, drunks,

pickpockets, pimps, and queers (not to mention the countless whores), who went at each other with knives on the slightest provocation and sometimes shot each other. This district, without water or sewers, without electricity or paved streets, had more than once run red with the blood of officers of the law. But things were exceptionally quiet that night The cold has sent the night birds to bed early. For it was mid-August, the dead of winter, and a heavy fog that blurred and distorted everything, along with a steady drizzle that saturated the air, had turned this night into a dreary and inhospitable one (60 61). From this description-rich paragraph, the reader is quickly able to garner a sense of foreboding danger because of how historically immoral the city has been in the past and how the night had an eerie ambiance, gives an immediate sense of evil resonating from every aspect of the setting. Although the humor is neither blatantly apparent nor considerably great, the exaggerated textbook introduction of the setting sets up the parody of crime shows quite well because of how most crime shows contain the same exact elements of this setting, lessening the seriousness of the following seemingly lifethreatening events. Also, because the scriptwriter was able to knock off all these elements in one paragraph as if it were a checklist, especially with the clich tidbit of things being too quiet for the night, the introduction gives the reader a chuckle as he/she gets the feeling of easily being able to predict the next scenes due to such a familiar setting. This classic background marks Llosas conservative use of parody as he steps away from this and begins to introduce to the installment highly unusual elements that take away the false sense of security from the familiarity of the setting.

After setting up the classic crime show model, Llosa then sets aside all other previously used elements of a typical police drama and adds in his own divergent aspects that get the reader laughing as the heavy contradiction between the conventional and unconventional provides the grave serial with comic relief. During the narrators description of the setting, he slips in some unconventional aspects to jumpstart the comedy as he describes Sergeant Lituma thinking: Lieutenant Jamie Concha would be reading Donald Duck, officers Snotnose Camacho and Apple Dumpling Arevalo would be sugaring their freshly made coffee (60). Contrary to the long, serious, and foreboding precedent set by the scene set by the narrator, these highly unusual character names take away the importance of the darkly depicted town in a quick sentence that jumps out at the reader, which invariably arouses laughter as the conventions of the crime drama were shattered by such nonsensical names. In a city where the majority of the inhabitants are criminals who have a bloodthirsty feeling towards law officers, its hilarious to think that vigilant policemen constantly at war with these criminals read Donald Duck and have silly, childish nicknames. Although this short sentence gives the reader a quick laugh, a more exaggerated situation presents itself shortly after that completely twists around the seriousness of the conventional police drama and amplifies the hilarity of the serial. As soon as Sergeant Lituma hears the sudden sound that almost gives him a fright, he immediately investigates the hole in the wall near the alleged noise, but before he goes in the reader sees him resort to highly unconventional tactics: He took a deep breath and roared, in as loud a voice as he could muster: Have your men surround this warehouse, corporal. If anybody tries to escape, fire at will. Get a move on, all of you!

And to make the whole thing more believable, he began running back and forth, stamping his feet loudly. Then he glued his face to the wall of the warehouse and shouted at the top of his lungs: Hey, you in there! The jig is up: youve had it. Youre surrounded (65). This scenario is overbearingly funny, as readers are given an exaggerated image of an old security guard frantically running up and down outside a warehouse, pretending to have an army of policemen at his side to scare the suspected thief. Because of the background given about the supposed highly respected Lituma, its comical that such tactics as stamping his feet and yelling loudly would gain him success, when normally cunning stealth and outstanding wits exalt officers into the realm of the legendary. The lack of seriousness in his pursuit strategy does not fail in procuring a laugh from readers and completely undermines the conventions of a classic crime flick. This part of the serial definitely gets the point across to the reader that the story, although containing many elements of a police drama, is the complete opposite of a proper crime investigation, and surely pushes the bounds of parody as the exaggerations and contradictions alleviate the hilarity ensued from the unconventional scenarios. It is not only the serials that employ the usage of parody in the storyline, as Llosa has carefully woven the same comedic mode in Marios narrative as well, similarly pushing the same bounds of conventionalism to amplify the hilarity of the parody. Towards the end of the novel as Mario and Aunt Julia have decided to come out of secrecy and finally marry each other, they hear news of Marios father overreacting upon hearing of their plans: My father had been waiting for him at the door. Livid with rage, had approached Javier, brandishing a revolver and threatening to shoot him if he didnt

reveal instantly where Aunt Julia and I wereMy father had finally calmed down a little and left Javier a letter that he was to deliver to me personally (335). The author, parodying a parental reaction to a rushed marriage, successfully uses exaggeration, figurative language, and contradictory words to illustrate Marios dads unconventional response to his sons rash decision. Usually parents would not go to the lengths of killing their childs friends or spouse, but clearly Marios dad has disproportionate motives compared to the circumstances of going to such lengths that make the whole situation hilarious and rich. The first two sentences are able to paint a picture of Marios dads anger as the quick succession of powerful adjectives and verbs illustrates a mental picture of a madman off his rocker, ready to solve his problems with a pull of a trigger, but is able to find the off button in time to relieve himself of his fury and calm down to approach the matter logically. Shortly after this passage, the actual content of the letter is revealed as Aunt Julia exclaims: I presume that the person he really wants to put a bullet through is [me]. Listen Varguitas, I do hope my father-in-law wont shoot me right in the middle of my honeymoon (336). Its hilarious to think that Marios father calming down to write a letter would end up producing an approach to the problem with even more drastic measures than previously stated. One would conclude that someone who had calmed down would be able to write a letter of increased rationality and decreased violence, but instead, Marios father manages to do the exact opposite, which is comical because the mental picture raised in the first passage is much less extreme than the mental picture raised in the second passage. This is tough to think about considering how radical the former is. Throughout the narrative, Marios relationship had been laidback and careless, nobody in the family feeling much

anger towards the couple even after discovering their secret, but the immediate revelation of the relationship to Marios parents completely turned the attitude towards the two upside-down, and completely takes the story on a tangent that is too excessive to take seriously. Llosa successfully manages to stretch the comedic mode of parody to arouse humor from seemingly regular situations, making over-the-top scenarios capturing the laughs of his readers. In conclusion, Mario Vargas Llosa includes more exaggerations, contradictions, and figurative language as his text works through the pages, making initially conservative parodies blossom into hilariously explosive works of comedy, pushing the boundaries of a conventional parody by unconventionally dealing with the created situations. This gradual, yet speedy transition from serious to funny is smooth, but never hesitates to throw the reader into bouts of laughter from the suddenness of the radical outcomes. Much of the story parallels the authors real life, something that gets people wondering if the book was just his way of laughing off many of the problems in his life. Whether that is the case or not, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, is not a text that should be taken seriously but more with the mindset that situations will get progressively crazier and intense, and will surely ache your stomach from all the uncontrollable bellows of laughter.