In this really short, creative nonfiction piece, Dave Barry explores the idea of what is boring--from people, to painful conversations, to lame hobbies. This "essay" is hilarious! Of course, I already knew I loved Dave Barry (you have to read his novel, Big Trouble) before reading this particular piece. I think that the first real attention-getter in this essay is the overheard airport conversation at the start of the piece. It's really effective--it pulls us in and makes us pay attention. Barry uses humor constantly throughout the piece to connect with the reader--which is great. He even addresses the reader directly, using the second person: "no offense, even YOU could be boring" (18). He uses humor and irony with the line, "(This is also true of religion, although you will not find me saying so in print.)"--clearly, he did just "say so in print" (19). Barry also has a very effective ending, driving his whole point home with cleverness and wit: "I have a few more points to make, but I'm sick of this topic" (19). Here, we've got some more good ol' fashioned irony. He's grown "bored" with talking about boring things. Nice.
I think it's funny that I wrote such a mind-numbingly dull post about such a funny essay. It was not intentional. I was just being boring.
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