… just might be William McGonagall. After all, he demerits two entries in the book, The World’s Most Heroic Failures; he makes it for worst poet and worst actor, and would surely be shortlisted for the title of world’s most boring autobiographer, should anyone ever decide to launch a contest. Here, especially, for those days when you think that there couldn’t be a more spectacular underachiever than yourself, and those of us who have never felt like this must surely be worthy of shortlisting for the title of world’s most self-deluded nincompoop, is the evidence on which McGonagall’s fame is staked:
Just to whet your appetite, here is his first poem:
LINES IN PRAISE OF THE REV. GEORGE GILFILLAN
All hail to the Rev. George Gilfillan, of Dundee,
He is the greatest preacher I did ever hear or see.
He preaches in a plain, straightforward way,
The people flock to hear him night and day,
And hundreds from his church doors are often turned away,
Because he is the greatest preacher of the present day.
The first time I heard him speak 'twas in the Kinnaird Hall,
Lecturing on the Garabaldi movement as loud as he could bawl.
He is a charitable gentlemen to the poor while in distress,
And for his kindness unto them the Lord will surely bless.
My blessing on his noble form and on his lofty head.
May all good angels guard him while living and hereafter when dead.
Can anybody think of a more spectacular underachiever?
I am sure there are millions of failures in the arts. Just go to any of your local amateur nights to see what I mean. Why is someone picking on this particular person (McGonagall) to vent their spleen? I don’t see any references to his having gained any sort of notoriety or fame that would attract this sort of nastiness.
Stephen Pile wrote the book which, I think, is not meant to be taken too seriously. Neither is my post. Neither, I suspect, is the website.
I find McGonagall’s writing funny, in large part because it strikes a chord in most of us, even if we don’t write that badly. My intentions in posting this link were, I hope, no more sadistic than those of Laurence Sterne in his depiction of Toby Shandy in Tristram Shandy. I feel a certain affection for the man. I don’t regard the humour as slapstick but, if you do, you’re welcome to your opinion. I feel about this man much the same as I do about Florence Foster-Jenkins which is highly ambivalent.
Somebody made a ‘reality’ movie out of Wild Man Fischer having a psychotic breakdown. I don’t think I would want to see that movie.
I don’t object to the humour. I simply wasn’t familiar with your references. I dare say there are more people familiar with Charlie Chaplin than any of the literary references you mentioned.
I believe that he was a depression era Cello player and composer that made a few comedies in silent film.
Often depressed in real life, his films often depicted the underdog in a fun way with slapstic comidy during a time when people needed laughter.
McGonagall apparently knew well the quality of his efforts. He was well known for his mistalents in poetry and acting, and made a popular figure in his own locale for it. Not everyone can say that. Check the link and read the account of his playing Macbeth. His diary entries are actually interesting in context.
Who’s that bad singer from that TV talent show everyone loves so? Hung is his name, I believe. I’m sure he’s quite aware of his special status.
Ultimately I think it is more cruel to treat people as incapable of having or feeling worth despite failure in one area or another. Human worth does not turn on success in this area and that, and the insult implicit in suggesting that those who set themselves up for failure (that is, all of us) cannot see through to the human core, but are vested in temporal successes and failures, runs much deeper. It hurts to fail and to be told so, but to be considered too weak for the truth is much more painful. YMMV.
“Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” – Henry Ford.
It’s a damn good thing, too. I’m in the midst of a disaster at work, and my latest wooden whistle exploded as I was drilling the second tonehole last night. This is after ruffturning, waiting four weeks, finish turning, boring, cutting the windway, filing the ramp, fitting the mouthpiece, rings, and tuning slide. Probably 20 hours of work gone in a few milliseconds.
I was totally pissed for half an hour. But you know what? I haven’t lost a bit of enthusiasm. And now that I think about it, maybe I should post a pic of it for people to poke fun at it. Laughter is good therapy.
Oh, and this is after my second whistle effort, which I tried to make a little too good, so the first octave doesn’t sound at all. There’s another saying, “There’s a fine line between perfection and crap.”
The area were’re discussing here just isn’t simple and there is something very strange going on when we laugh at human frailty, whilst also sympathising, even identifying, with the victim. The mentality that divides the world into winners and losers misses this rich dimension of human experience altogether. Perhaps most of our encounters with life end in a draw or a more or less honourable loss. I agree very much with Chas here.
Charlie Chaplin was a comedian who took a vaudeville act (which owed much to turn-of-the-century clown, Little Titch) from England to the Hollywood silent screen and beyond and was a huge success. He played a sad tramp but the audience sympathised with him like crazy. He bumbled but wasn’t into slapstick. His work had great subtlety and depth as well as being extremely funny. Late in his career he directed and acted in a film called the Great Dictator which was a vicious parody of Hitler. (Would I be right in thinking that it was his only speaking part?) The film is absolutely amazing. The pathetic vanity of fascist dictators had never been made so plain. For all his nastiness, I can’t see film of Mussolini strutting pompously without laughing. Now this is the amazing thing. Although the Great Dictator was banned in Germany, and there were riots when some subversives showed it to German troops, Hitler viewed it privately several times. Chaplin was one of his greatest favourites. Now what on earth is going on there?
Absolutely. There was a thread on this not so long ago, wasn’t there?
The guy in the link I started with. There’s something I really like about him. In a weird kind of way, he might really be an artist. I was bit taken aback when people didn’t cotton onto that.
