Life, 1920-07-29 · page 23 of 36
Life — July 29, 1920 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine contains two satirical pieces: **"While the World Waits"** mocks pretentious literary fiction. A bestselling novel's climactic scene is ruined when an ordinary, unglamorous character—a common man—appears uninvited. The characters (heroine, vampire, hero) find him useless because he lacks the required dramatic qualities: he's neither handsome nor fascinatingly ugly, neither romantically innocent nor wickedly sophisticated. The butler ejects him. The joke satirizes how highbrow fiction demands artificially heightened characters and ignores ordinary reality. **"An Amateur"** is a brief joke about a reckless young driver named Speeder. When asked if he has a license, the answer is no—despite killing ten hens, maiming seven pedestrians, and wrecking four cars, he hasn't met the "required average" yet and has only been cited for speeding nineteen times. This absurdist humor mocks both dangerous driving and bureaucratic standards. The bottom cartoon satirizes rude retail clerks who make customers feel inadequate.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
WHILE THE WORLD WAITS De Trop : How long have you loved me, darling? Site: Ever since Mabel tried to take you away from HE best-seller-to-be was pulsating its way toward a throb- bing but entirely well-bred climax when, in chapter twenty- three, a hopelessly unliterary thing happened. A common—an impossible—character came uninvited into the drawing-room. He was not picturesque enough to be dramatic, not spirited enough to be melodramatic. Cheaply dressed, unathletic, he was utterly lacking in wit or cynical repartee, danced badly, talked flatly, had no sort of presence—in short, he wouldn't do. “If he were either handsome or fascinatingly ugly,” said the heroine, “1 might fall in love with him—but “He's neither romantically innocent nor interestingly wicked,” commented the vampire. “1 don’t see what I can do with him.” “Who can either thrash or snub a nonentity?” asked the hero, So the disgusted butler threw him out. “T had it coming to me,” remarked the ejected one, dusting off his clothes and rubbing a splintered elbow. “It's what an author gets for trying to project himself into his own fict An Amateur * AS young Speeder a driver's license?” —— yg - a “No. He applied for one, but they said he hadn't come 4 . Quen up to the required average yet, as he has only killed ten hens, meg EXON RRRATS maimed seven pedestrians, wrecked four cars, and has been " : i ; HOW SOMF CLERKS MAKE VOU FEEL WHEN THEY HAVEN'T YOUR picked up for speeding only nineteen times ee comicbooks.com