Punning (or Runes were made to be broken)

Puns are one of my favorite forms of communication. Puns are some of the most complex linguistic forms possible in English, allowing us to say multiple things with a single phrase, or even word. I think my appreciation of this began in highschool when an aquaintance of mine showed me a drawing of a large fish playing a four stringed musical instrument. The caption simply said BASS. The ambiguity inherent in that simple drawing with the four letter punchline makes me smile when I think of it even today, 20 years later. (Thank you David Tenney)

Another favorite of mine are the cow/chao puns running all through the Principia Discordia. For example:

= ZARATHUD'S ENLIGHTENMENT =

Before he became a hermit, Zarathud was a young Priest, and took great delight in making fools of his opponents in front of his followers.

One day Zarathud took his students to a pleasant pasture and there he confronted The Sacred Chao while She was contentedly grazing.

"Tell me, you dumb beast." demanded the Priest in his commanding voice, "why don't you do something worthwhile. What is your Purpose in Life, anyway?"

Munching the tasty grass, The Sacred Chao replied "MU".*

Upon hearing this, absolutely nobody was enlightened.

Primarily because nobody could understand Chinese.

*"MU" is the Chinese ideogram for NO-THING

Bilbo's banter with the dragon Smaug in Tolkien's "The Hobbit" is full of puns and riddles, such as "I come from the end of a bag, yet no bag went over me" (his house is called Bag End).

This love of punning led me inexoribly to Finnegans Wake. Even the title is a pun. The ballad which gives the book it's title is Finnegan's Wake, and by dropping the apostrophe, "Joyce was warning that the oppressed eventually rise in every historical cycle" (Coincidance; not sure what page).

Perhaps this love of puns is less than the ideal love of the literary purist...

Oh well.