“Inconceivable “by Ben Elton Free Essay Example

I have chosen to read the book “Inconceivable” by Ben Elton. As I do not read books a lot I did not have any real idea what or who I wanted to do this project on when it was first set. I decided that I would prefer to read a humorous book instead of a normal fiction story book which I may easily get bored of after a while. I did not have any authors in mind when I decided I wanted to read a comedic book, so I decided to go to a bookshop and look at a few books to see what I might like to read.

I found books by Ben Elton and decided to look at a few of them because I had known that Ben Elton is a good stand-up comedian, so his books would probably be quite an interesting read. I read a bit of several of the books and thought that “Inconceivable” would be a good one to read purely because of the name of the book, the illustration on the front cover and the quotes from people and newspapers saying how good and funny they found the book.

“Inconceivable” is the book that the film “Maybe Baby” was based around.

Knowing that the book had actually been made into a film also inspired me to read it since it was good enough to be a film. I read the book first and it has made me want to see the film just to see if it is as good as the book and if you get the same kind of feel for the story and the characters as you do when reading the book.

About The Author Ben Elton was born on 3 May 1959, in Catford, South London to a distinguished academic family. Ben’s father and uncle were professors at Surrey and Cambridge.

Ben was the youngest of four; he went to Godalming Grammar School, joined amateur dramatic societies and wrote his first play at 15. He wanted to be a stagehand at the local theatre, but instead did A-Level Theatre Studies and studied drama at Manchester University in 1977. After graduating in 1980, he started on his career as a stand-up comedian, and by early 1981 had joined Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson at the Comedy Store in London. He was paid i?? 15 every time he performed his comedy routine, and soon became one of the regular performers.

At first his stand-up performances were just to showcase his own work, but from there he wrote and acted in television, wrote novels and plays and now screenplays; while still performing his stand-up comedy. He currently lives in Notting Hill, West London with his wife Sophie Gare, who he met in Australia while on tour. She plays the saxophone in an all-girl group, “The Boom Babies. ” Author’s Works Ben Elton does all types of work. For example, he is scriptwriter for the TV series “Blackadder” and “The Young Ones” as well as a stand-up comedian; he also writes novels and plays which combine serious messages with many jokes.

“Stark” deals with issues about the environment, “Gridlock” with traffic policy, “This Other Eden” with Hollywood versus the environment, “Popcorn” deals with violence in the movies, “Blast From the Past” combines themes of anti-nuclear protest, unpleasantness, sexual harassment and gays in the military, and “Inconceivable” about infertility in a relationship. Recent work includes the script for the sitcom “Thin Blue Line. ” All of his novels have been best sellers.

Elton’s work is an example of the new, alternative type of comedy, which became known in the 1980s from the Comedy Store comic club in London’s Leicester Square. However, he believes his stand-up routines and writing are a carrying on of ordinary comedy: “There is no alternative and non-alternative comedy. There is only good and bad comedy. I have a particular favourite comedy double act, in which the partners used to slap each other about the face and then get into bed and spend the night together, which sounds like a very alternative act indeed.

The people involved were, of course, Morecambe and Wise. ” In Ben Elton’s scripts and novels there are many examples of slapstick, physical humour, irony and the ridiculous, as well as jokes about sex, gender and class, all usual of comedy through time. Typically, his comedy is about the value of human life whilst he still tries to highlighting our weakness and vulnerability: “the last series of ‘Blackadder’ set in the First World War showed the resilience of the people in those appalling conditions. What it mocks is the recalcitrance of the generals”, (Stephen Fry).

“Inconceivable” The book that I am focussing mainly on is “Inconceivable. ” This book is written in quite a strange way and not in the normal way novels are written. At the beginning of the book, Lucy (the main female character in the story) suggests that her and her husband write letters to themselves to record their feelings and thoughts as they go through the experiences of trying to conceive their baby. This means that you read the book not as a narrated story but as letters to themselves, almost like you are reading their diary.

This is very clever because it means the story is told to you from two, usually very contrasting, points of view – Sam write his, Lucy writes hers, and you see the same situation from two different viewpoints. This helps you get a lot closer to the characters and how they feel, which is not the case in most stories. Because the book is written in this way you get a lot closer to the characters. The author can describe and create the characters better in the letters because they are writing about themselves, and other characters in the story.

This story only has two main characters and then another relatively important character later on in the story; this gives the author a lot of chance to create the characters so the reader gets to know them well. Because you get the viewpoints of the two different characters in the story the author does not actually have to narrate anything, but from the opinions Lucy and Sam give of each other and the other characters you build up your own picture of the characters. This means you get more involved in the book and get a better feel for the story and the characters.

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