action a man, preferably an older mannand even more preferably a sedate lather,nwill find himself in a woman’s clothes, ornbetter, undergarments or, better yet, annun’s garb.” Approvingly, Mr. Bermelntells US: “At this the audience will shriek,nrather than laugh, especially the marriednwomen.” The author also ^predates thenoutrageousness of Buck Henry’s film ThenFirst Family in which the President “allowsnhis daughter … to couple with anstone stame of an island god, [and] tradesnher virginity, which she is eager to lose,nfor an island formula, human excrement,nwhich produces great vegetables.” Thenobviously pleased author concludes withnthe reassuring observation that “Itndoesn’t look as if farce will run dry.”nActually, however, the whole weightnof the book and of experience in modemnsociet}’ seems to indicate the opposite.nMr. Bermel seems a great deal morenau courant when he w onders whether itnis “possible to exaggerate the parade ofncalamities that reaches us in the newspapernevery morning and afternoon andnon the TV set every evening and on thenradio every twenty-two minutes” andnwhen he admits that although “To somenwriters &rce appears needlessly irrational,nyet force’s irrationalities cannot begin tonmatch those of life.” Indeed, one wondersnhow the abnormal staples of force cannseem fimny when they have now becomennormal. How can we laugh at “men inndrag” when transvestism has become annational epidemic? Can we chortle overnmen in nun’s clothes when there are nonlonger many habits—^much less manynnuns? Where will the joke be in a hippienpriest marrying a couple without mentioningnGod in a country with the WorldnCouncil of Churches? What will we findnamusing in farcical settings which keepnthe characters feeling unsteady when atnleast half of the audience is divorced,ntaking Valium, visiting psychiatrists, doingnphysical therapy, practicing T.M., usingnbiofeedback techniques to reduce stress,nand living on yogurt and bran to combatnthe ill effects of fat around the heart?nHow could we hope to find forcesnwhich shrink “the difference in con­nsciousness between objects and people”nin a society mad for robotics, artificial intelligence,nand user-firiendly computers?nWill people at the mercy of their ownnblenders, Cusinarts, cameras, cars, electricngar^e doors, lawn mowers—^andndependent upon their artificial organs,npacemakers, and cornea transplants—findnthe revolt of machines so humorous?nWill the millions of workers replaced bynrobots be alive to the charm of an actressnactii^ as a livii^ newsstand while a roboticnreceptionist inexpensively impersonatesna Kelly girl? Will a whole world living innthe shadow of nuclear holocaust—ncourtesy of one mistakenly pushed buttonnor one quirk in a computer—findnthe farcical revenge the machine wreaksnon man so funny? Perhaps not.nAs long as we live in the kind of worldnwe do, farce is a somewhat superfluousngenre. Whereas it once had the purposenof poking fun at the verities, of puncturingnthe establishment’s balloons, of showingnwild contradictions to the normalnstate of aflEiirs, today life itself plays thatnrole. Fictional force simply cannot outdonfoctual force. No author could conceivenof vMlder incongruities than the onesnwith which we live. How can force artistsnhope to prosper when they are forced toncompete widi the ACLU which actuallynsues President Reagan for calling 1983n”the year of the Bible” and defends malenstrippers in Oregon against being banned?nPerhaps, with all ^xjlogies to Mr. Bermel,nwe must conclude that force has nonfictional fljture at the moment; force hasnmoved to foct or perhaps foct has movednto force, showing that George BernardnShaw was right when he asserted thatn”humanity is so grotesque that it carmotnbe caricatured.” What could be morenforcically foctual than that? DnThe Ingersoll PrizesninnLiterature and the HumaniUesn1983nThe T. S. Eliot Award for Creative WritingnJorge Luis BorgesnBuenos Aires, ArgentinanThe Richard M. Weaver Award for Scholarly LettersnJames BumhamnKent. ConnecticutnClayton R. Gaylord. Cfuurmannlohn A. Howard, PresidentnThe Ingersoll Foundationnoln?ockford, lUJHoisnLeopold Tyrmand,nExecutive Secretary,nThe Ingersoll PrizesnThe awards, in the amount of S15.000 each, will be presented at a ceremony at The Ritz-Carlton Hotelnin Chicago on December 8,1983. invitation onlynnni33nMyweiiiberl983n