A Very Short Reading Group discussion
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Stockton
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Nov 28, 2018 06:35AM
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Hope everyone in the group had a Merry Christmas, and wishing you all a Happy New Year.The holiday has given a good opportunity to catch up on the reading. I found the Comedy VSI a bit disappointing. Whilst this was a book about comedy and not a comedy book, I felt the treatment of the subject could have been a bit more light-hearted, more sparkling and less grey and turgid. It made me feel sympathy with Keats, when he criticised Newton “because he destroyed the poetry of the rainbow by reducing it to a prism”. I recommend Bevis avoids a career in stand-up because whenever he gave an example of a joke, he managed to kill it dead.
Works of critical theory often seem to attract this sort of dry, obscure, allusory, self-congratulatory writing. It doesn't have to be like that. I recommend the VSI on Poststructuralism, by Catherine Belsey, who writes with wonderful clarity.
Having been given an academic survey of comedy, I don't feel we ever got to the “prism” of why some things are funny. I would have liked to have viewed the topic through the lens of psychology, or cognitive science. There is another VSI on Humour, which looks like it might deal with these aspects (I've not read it yet) but the reviews on Goodreads seem to echo my points above for that one too.
Happy new year to you, Nigel. A bit of a slow start to the year. I'm about halfway through Comedy and have to agree. Some interesting points in there - boozy festivals as the beginnings of comedy, comedy a reflection on how we see the self/body. But a few more jokes would definitely liven things up. The group meets on the 29th so we'll see if it tickles anyone's funny bone by then.
A clear majority that this one was a bit of a stinker. A lifeless collection of references without any overall structure to the argument and, worst of all, managing to make a book about comedy laugh free. The group discussion was tremendous fun though. The origins of comedy in human evolution is a fascinating topic – how and why have we evolved this strange capacity and turned it into a fiendishly complex aspect of social interaction, one that can both unite strangers and ostracize individuals. Following on from this is the equally intriguing concept of whether or not animals have a sense of humour. There is brief mention in the book about chimp behaviour but the lack of any further detail was disappointing. Changing comedic tastes, what was acceptable and now isn’t, the contrast of male and female comedians, slapstick, swearing and Stan and Ollie – a great discussion but sadly no one felt enlightened or amused by the book. Hopefully we’ll have better luck next month!
Stockton wrote: "A clear majority that this one was a bit of a stinker. A lifeless collection of references without any overall structure to the argument and, worst of all, managing to make a book about comedy laug..."oh no! I must be in the minority. I enjoyed it- I found that the analysis of comedy in theatre and in literature to be interesting enough that I took some notes. I do think that the topic is pretty broad and there are many angles to approach it. So I did find the author's approach fairly narrow. Anyway, looking forward to the next read!
Glad you enjoyed it! Always good to get a range of responses / opinions about a book. As with some of the previous short introductions I might have been looking for a discussion that the book wasn't really about - the animal behaviour and human development stuff mentioned above - so may have got more out of it starting off with a different mindset.
Along those lines, I thought this was a fascinating article:https://www.theguardian.com/science/b...
Stockton wrote: "Along those lines, I thought this was a fascinating article:https://www.theguardian.com/science/b..."
HA! Thanks for sharing!
https://philosophybites.com/2016/10/s...Love the dolphin laughing. Here's a podcast I found in the philosophy bites series. Thoroughly recommend them. This one is 20 mind long, by the wonderful Prof Sophie Scott. (neuroscientist)
