Life, 1910-06-23 · page 11 of 40
Life — June 23, 1910 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon satirizes the challenge editors face in evaluating humor submissions. The illustration shows two men at a desk with an ornate clock labeled "FUNNY" above it—a mock measuring device for determining whether writing is funny. The accompanying text discusses Mr. Chester's advice on short-story writing, emphasizing that good humor requires specific talents: "creativeness imagination, observation democracy, sympathy, humor and industry." The joke targets the subjective nature of editorial work: there's no objective "meter" for measuring humor, yet editors must constantly judge submissions. The cartoon humorously visualizes this impossible task—suggesting editors desperately need such a device because determining what's actually funny is inherently difficult and inconsistent.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Short Stories HE art of writing short stories has of recent years been receiving a lot of attention from American ex: perts, so that all that has been said about it would make a very respectable library. M ge Randolph Ches- ter, himself a writer of good short stories, is the latest ad- viser in the field. Mr Chester declares that a short story writer must have seven gifts: Creativeness, imagination, observa- tion, democracy, sympathy, humor and industry. THE FUNNIMETER AN AID TO WEARY EDITORS No doubt these are all necessary con- comitants, but Mr. Chester has omitted the most important gift of all, and that is the ability to write a short story. This ability is not made up of a combination of these seven gifts, cither in whole or in part. They may be necessary to it, but without it they can be increased seventy times seven and no short story will result. The ability to write a good short story is a thing by itself. It is a kind of men- tal germ which blossoms in spite of everything one may do. And that is why books of instruction in the art, like Mr. Chester's and all the others, are so harmless. If it were possible to learn from them how to write short stories there would be no living in this country; we s 1 be done to death by good short stor But it isnt possible and never will A good short story is a thing of nature and not produced by any method that is possible to evolve beforehand. RS. HOWARD me soon. Do come to see I live right around the corner from your house. Mrs, Cowaro: Thanks awfully, but since we have our new motor I never call on any one who lives less than twenty miles away. comicbooks.com