JAVS Fall 1990

29

Laughing at what are clearly one's own foibles is indeed a healthy act; laughing at being the arbitrary target for the common delight human beings take from the sick-joke is a mindless and self-denigrating act. It brings to mind the novelist Wallace Stegner's description of a character who was the victim of his small community's endless jokes: "He used laughter as a way of placating persecution." I ask anyone who begins to tell be a viola joke to stop because I do not like them. So far, the only reactions that I have received to this request have been varying shades of chagrin. If the AYS feels compelled to institutionalize this form of "laughing at-ourselves," I will bow out and leave you to yourselves. This is one joke I don't get. Ann Frederking's Forum article, "Andrusco Report," which appeared in the Journal of the American Viola Society, Vol. 6, No.2, Summer 1990, requires a response in the interest of fairness to the JA VS and members of the A YS. The Forum provides an avenue for intellectual stimulation, discussion, and healthy interaction. The original article, Survey of the XJ/II International Viola Congress, JAVS, Yol. 6, No.1, Spring 1990, about which Ms. Frederking expresses concern, was a summary of information based on survey returns from the Congress held at Redlands, California. One cannot complain about indifference to the report, although a more careful reading of the article by Ms. Frederking and the accompanying Editor's Note, would have been beneficial. --John Graham Rochester, NY ANDRUSCO REPORT

FORUM

VIOLA JOKES COLUMN

Editor's Note: At the suggestion of some of our members, an inquiry lvas made in the last issue about the possible inclusion in JAVS of a "Viola Jokes Column," It lvas left up to our readers to decide if such a column would be desirable or inappropri ate. Viola jokes or statements to the contrary were solicited. No jokes lvere submitted but the following two responses on the subject lvere given: I wish to protest the possible inclusion of a "viola jokes" column in JA YS. Would you print a "nigger jokes," or a "kike jokes," or a "wop jokes" column? Of course not. You would recognize these "jokes" for what they are: crude attempts to dehumanize and humiliate the "other," Viola jokes are no different. They are not invitations to laugh at ourselves; they are invitations for others to laugh at us. I have never understood the mentality that says, "Oh, yes, my friend is a (fill in any minority), but it's all right, he's really not like them. He won't mind if I tell this joke." I'm telling you and the world, I do mind. I mind very much when someone tells me, directly or indirectly, that this thing that I've dedicated n1Y life to is a waste of time and, worse, laughable. Please, don't contribute to out already inferior (in the world's eyes) status. \Ve have enough denigration coming from without; we don't need it from within. --Susan B. Bill North Quincey, MA Pl6ase ask those members of AVS who believe that violists should lighten-up and "laugh at ourselves" just what "selves" they are claiming to find in the viola joke. I find nothing in there but the butt end of a mercilessly abusive joke that has, in recent history, been heaped on the Poles by almost everyone, the Los Angelinos by New Yorkers, and the East Germans by the West Germans.

Ms. Frederking directed her

comments to four topics: -Questionnaire completion rates of men and women