First Theorem of Parody

Berg's First Theorem of Parody:

Any attempt to parody pretentious academic or critical writing will be undercut by a serious example that is even worse.

I'm looking for any evidence disproving this theory, before we promote it to law.

Anyway.

A few months back, on the occasion of Christo's "The Gates'" installation in Central Park, Sheila O'Malley, with the help of a few other bloggers, wrote a wonderful parody of arts and literary criticism.

Via Spitbull, I note that has Armavirumque (the New Criterion blog) started a similar exercise; a parodic academic treatise on the social aspects of the public restroom:

“This collection will work from the premise that public toilets, far from being banal or simply functional, are highly charged spaces, shaped by notions of propriety, hygiene and the binary gender division”

They promptly run into my First Theorem, in the form of an email from Professor Clara Greed, author of "Inclusive Urban Design: Public Toilets”, which they reproduce with its original capitalization:

why do you see public toilets as a joke? In the West toilets are a national disgrace, in the Far East there has been a restroom revolution and public toilets are seen as an essential and integral component of good urban design and a cultured, civilised society, A nation can be judged by its toilets.

are you afraid of admitting your corporeal humanity, and not just a cultured brain? is this why it is distasteful? everyone's got to go, so why the shame.

Professor Clara Greed
University of the West of England, Bristol
Author of 'Inclusive Urban Design: Public Toilets' published 2003 by Architectural Press, Elsevier, Oxford, member of the World Toilet Organisation (check their website)

The theorem is teetering on the brink of being a law.

Posted by Mitch at June 12, 2005 09:20 AM | TrackBack