The Inside Joke

It is hard to keep up with this book because first of all we didn't live in that time second  you need to have a lot of background historical information to keep up with it. And third it is not our culture! It is like an inside joke, you get it once they explain it to you but otherwise it's hard to get. Imagine an American watching Jaime Garzón, it is the same comparison.

But some things are really easy to get and you don't need any background information, it is just simple irony. It is really Ironic when Dr.Hilarious drives crazy. He is a psychiatrist, he is suppose to cure crazy people with medicated prescriptions. Instead, he prescribes LSD and  "is gone crazy. He took a chair and smashed the switchboard with it"(108),needing the help rather than giving it. He thought that "Three men with submachine guns were after. Terrorists, fanatics"(109) were after him. He ends up admitting that he was a Nazi Doctor in Buchenwald and used his facial expression as a weapon to render jews permanently catatonic. Oedipa ends up doing Dr. Hilarious' own psychoanalysis. When it was her who need one.

Going back to my inside joke point I want you to see this video, if you are Colombian you probably understand taking into account that you have some background information of the situation if you are not you will probably feel a bit lost just as I do in some parts of the book.