Sarcasm in relationships

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“"It is more time-consuming to decode than direct comments and one can never be 100% sure of what the sarcastic person means by his/her statement. Sarcasm is not a joke. Yes, it depends on the context and the relationship between individuals, among other factors, but it is rare that people take the time to think about whether all these factors suggest that the sarcasm will be taken effectively. Everyone will not stop being sarcastic; however, everyone can and should think about the implications and consequences of what they are about to say before they say it."”

Sarcasm in relationships - P. Valerie Dauphin 

Skinner on Campus

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A psychologist at a girl’s college asked the members of his class to compliment any girl wearing red. Within a week the cafeteria was a blaze of red. None of the girls were aware of being influenced, although they did notice that the atmosphere was more friendly. A class at the University of Minnesota is reported to have conditioned their psychology professor a week after he told them about learning without awareness. Every time he moved toward the right side of the room, they paid more attention and laughed more uproariously at his jokes, until apparently they were able to condition him right out the door.

– W. Lambert Gardiner, Psychology: A Story of a Search, 1970

Daniil Kharms

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(Daniil Kharms and Alisa Poret. 1930)

Daniil Kharms, the Leningrad microliterary absurdist and corpse-faced poseur -- he always dressed like an English dandy with a calabash pipe.

Falling old ladies

Because of her excessive curiosity, an old lady fell out of the window and smashed into the ground. Another old lady looked out of the window, staring down at the one who was smashed, but out of her excessive curiosity she also fell out of the window and smashed into the ground. Then the third old lady fell out of the window, then the fourth did, then the fifth. When the sixth old lady fell out of the window, I got bored watching them and went to Maltsev market where, they say, someone gave a woven shawl to a blind person.

That was just a short story by Kharms. Other interesting things about him can be found at http://goo.gl/wAqUL

“I am interested only in 'nonsense'; only in that which makes no practical sense. I am interested in life only in its absurd manifestation.”