Incongruity

Bagman bounds into the room with renewed energy, carrying his cameras and showing off his biggest telephoto lens. Butler is accustomed to him and barely looks up from the spread of open dictionaries on desk, although Bagman almost surprises me. This spurt of energy seems unusual for him of late and I glance over at Butler and whisper, “Do you think that is a rather incongruous entrance for Bagman?”

Butler consults a dictionary and replies, “Probably not, considering that it is just the way Bagman used to come in every morning. Perhaps his recent bleak quietude has been the incongruity and this entrance is more nostalgic.”

Bagman is leaping up and down, his shirt unbuttoned, his zipper only half pulled up. He is roaring with delight. “Incongruity! Incongruity! I’ve got just the idea for next week’s Friday Hometown Shoot’em up!”

“That’s Friday Hometown Photo Shoot-out,” corrected Butler.

“Shooter pooter!” screams Bagman. “But I know what we’re going to do! We’ll shoot naked women in incongruous places – courtrooms, churches, public intersections!”

“It’s been done already,” I note, explaining that last year somebody broke the World Record for shooting a gazillion naked people in some huge business district street.

“So now it’s no longer incongruity,” says Butler. “Now it would just be art. But you might shoot women dressed in parkas and snowsuits on a naked beach in Cannes.”

Bagman tosses his shaggy head and glares at Butler. “You’re make fun of me! Watch out, Geek boy! Remember who you are messing with!”

“How could I forget?”

I try to defuse the growing tension and say, “It does present a dilemma. Incongruity seems to shift depending on circumstances. And as soon as you take a picture the composition of the photograph turns the incongruity of the subject into harmony…at least if it is a good picture.”

“Then let’s take bad pictures!” yelled Bagman but his roar was beginning to sound a little more like a whine.

”We need more research,” said Butler. “The Friday Shootouts are getting really complex.”