George and Martha

"The Surprise"--the height of James Marshall's art--involves "Coventry." When you send someone to "Coventry," you cease speaking to that person. You decide you are "no longer on speaking terms."

George--a child, emphatically--gets excited by the hose in the garden. He shouts, "It's raining!" and squirts Martha. Deeply irritating and unnecessary. Flummoxed, George says, "I was just fooling around."

And Martha drops the hammer: "We're no longer on speaking terms."

But life is difficult without a friend. There's the funny story you can't share. And the joke you heard on the radio. And the sight of the first autumn leaf, falling to the ground.

Overwhelmed by these sensations, Martha reverses her judgment. She needs to share what she is experiencing. She goes to George, who is delighted. "We are now again on speaking terms." End of story.

One of the things this story pulls off is "the rule of threes." Things are funniest in threes. ("She's hateful, she's despicable, I'm in love.") Martha can handle the funny story and the radio joke, but it's the falling leaf that really pushes her over the edge.

It's also notable that George doesn't really change--and is maybe incapable of change--and Martha decides to move forward, anyway. Martha has been considering the nature of her own love.

And the pretentiousness of human drama--"We are no longer on speaking terms"--suddenly becomes clear when we're dealing with two talking hippos and a garden hose.

Happy weekend!

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