156. Today in 1920s Turkey: 26 January 1922 (Infidelity is a Two-Way Street)
English:
— Oh don’t speak like that of my husband, he is probably also your child’s father?Türkçe:
— Yuu… Kocama laf söyleme, o aynı zamanda senin çocuğunun da babasıdır?
Comments:
The humor in today’s cartoon lies in its text, which presents a relational puzzle that is left for the reader to discern. A woman and man are seated at a table, perhaps in a restaurant or a private space like a home. The man pours a beverage while the woman, who has turned away from him, appears disinterested or her feelings seem hurt. The text reveals that the woman is recoiling from an unknown, but probably negative remark made by the man about her husband.
Whatever the man said, the woman responds by scolding him and pointing out that the “husband” he is speaking ill of may be the biological or adopted father of his child. You see, both scenarios are possible. The woman could be implying that her husband is raising a child that she actually conceived with this lover (pseudo-adopted). Likewise, she could be suggesting that her husband also sleeps around (like the present guy) and that he may have fathered this man’s son which he assumed was his own (biological). The cartoonist’s minimal use of words to convey these possible backstories is commendable. The image and the text work together to “illustrate” the relationship between the two people and infer that they are (unofficial) lovers while the text reveals just enough of their exchange/dialogue to imply their existing relations. Exactly what the man said about the “husband” to trigger this exchange is irrelevant in the greater scheme of cheating and cheating-related revelations. Withholding all of this information was a bold, but ultimately clever decision that the cartoonist made, as the gaps in narrative were just solvable enough.
Originally published at https://steemit.com on January 27, 2019.
