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cover of episode New books by Damon Young and Dennard Dayle take different routes to humor

New books by Damon Young and Dennard Dayle take different routes to humor

2025/6/27
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NPR's Book of the Day
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Damon Young: 作为《他们如何抓住你》的编辑，我试图通过汇集不同黑人声音，展现黑人幽默的广阔性和深度。我给作者的唯一要求是“要好笑”，我相信他们能做到，因为我知道他们的能力。我认为黑人幽默是美国最好的幽默，因为它源于我们对美国最诚实的观察和体验。我们一直处于弱势，因此我们更敏锐地关注现实，这种清晰和诚实孕育了最好的幽默。我最喜欢的文章是关于我与牙齿关系的，它探讨了羞耻感和阶级关系。戴上隐适美后，我开始思考是否可以微笑和自拍，这引发了我对自身形象和社会标准的深刻思考。希拉里·克罗斯关于流产的文章让我深受触动，它既关于婚姻又关于流产本身，展现了在痛苦中寻找幽默的必要性。即使面对流产等痛苦，人们仍然需要生活、工作、成为好伴侣和朋友，并找到幽默。幽默一直都在，只是看你是否选择承认它。作为父亲，我害怕我的孩子在25年后在治疗中谈论我所做的事情，所以我努力做一个好父亲。父母身份有很多幽默可以挖掘，比如我儿子对我说“我不是在跟你说话，爸爸”，这让我哭笑不得。最好的幽默来自于探索你的羞耻感，那些不感到羞耻的人可能最需要感到羞耻。我很感激这些天才愿意深入挖掘他们的脆弱性，为读者带来深刻而有趣的体验。

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Today on the show, two new books take different routes to humor. First, writer Damon Young is out with an anthology of comedic essays called That's How They Get You. Young says he reached out to people who represent the expansiveness of Black humor and gave them one directive: Be funny. In today's episode, Young talks with NPR's Juana Summers about his essay on his relationship with Invisalign. Then, Dennard Dayle's fixation with the Civil War was the impetus for his satirical novel How to Dodge a Cannonball. The book follows a teenage Union flag twirler as he switches sides, steals uniforms, and claims to be an octoroon. In today's episode, Dayle chats with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about taking a comedic approach to history.To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookofthedayLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices)NPR Privacy Policy)