When a nation suppresses the subversive power of laughter, we’re descending into black comedy
In Umberto Eco’s thrilling book The Name of the Rose set in a14th century Benedictine Abbey, monks are mysteriously murdered because they begin to read Aristotle’s lost book on theories of comedy and laughter. So dependent is the power of the medieval church on suppressing the subversive power of laughter, that the mysterious mass murderer in the book was prepared to kill to stop a book teaching people how to laugh, from circulating widely.
Laughter is the best medicine, laughter is the best protest, laughter is an escape from political control. Without laughter a nation’s life is black comedy. Bertolt Brecht used comedy to create powerful plays questioning Read More
