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ralowe's review against another edition
3.0
the real regulatory enforcement apparatus, or laughter, is this edition's cover. it made me not want to be seen outside with it. clip-art mime. bad. this edition's translation is brutal also. but i feel like i only get these budget translations, i remember reading *matter and memory* and feeling like i was in hell. henri bergson is constantly saying that he doesn't have time to elaborate certain concepts throughout these scant pages. considering the aforementioned factors i was much relieved. but that doesn't mean that these ideas aren't worthy of further study. what's bergson's excuse? maybe i need deleuze to explain to me what's so fantastic about this guy. around when he talks about the comedy of don quixote's delusory dreams of taking windmills for giants he makes the barest gesture towards the material in *matter and memory* with how our environmental processing units manufacture subjective reality. but it's only a smattering of that genius. what i'll be carrying away from here is bergson's theory of the xenophobic (ableist and racist) population control mechanism that is the laugh, it's collective weight as one of his suggested necessary attributes, through the elucidation of which he bares some of his own unseemly xenophobia rather procedurally. the next or further question to ponder is what conditioning is the ethical project of import to transform these regulatory dregs from out lowest common to those which would see the regulator's structures and systems overthrown?
thedrtaylor's review against another edition
4.0
Good essay that was an early attempt to understand the science behind comedy. I've enjoyed watching sitcoms a lot more after reading this for my French comedy and satire class.
sofiacostalima's review against another edition
Um ensaio interessante para quem se interessa por omédia — ou para quem se interessa apenas em perceber por que motivo rimos.
rjeilani's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
2.75
jonathonjones's review against another edition
4.0
This is the sort of book which presents a theory which cannot possibly accomplish its purpose, but nonetheless provides an interesting way of looking at things. In this case there are two main theories he gives us about laughter. First, its purpose, which is that laughter is always laughing at someone in order to act as a corrective, to promote conformance with society. (When we laugh at non-people it is by analogy with people; as if it were a person.) The second is a theory of what is laughable, which is anything that shows rigidity rather than appropriate flexibility. This is most clear in matters of character, where we often need to be adaptable to social situations. Lawyers who talk in legalese at parties are laughable.
It would be uninteresting to complain that these theories are insufficiently general, and to find counter examples and to express my skepticism of their general adequacy. Rather, I think they are best taken as a way, among others, to think of comedy and laughter. One need not choose between the absurdity theory and this one; both give us some explanatory power, and each is useful for different events to explain what is funny about it. Similarly, laughter can be both a way of confirming our social bonds and similarities, as others have theorized, while also being a corrective as argued here. So this is a welcome addition to my comedy explanation toolbox.
The biggest problem I had with the book were the examples: a reader unfamiliar with 19th century French comedies will be somewhat lost by them. I can tell by the Don Quixote examples that the other ones are surely illustrative, but without being able to follow them the book loses much of the vibrancy it has for more appropriate readers. An annotated version of this with more context for the quotations would be helpful; as it stands, it falls a little flat for me.
If you can get past that, though, it is certainly worth reading!
It would be uninteresting to complain that these theories are insufficiently general, and to find counter examples and to express my skepticism of their general adequacy. Rather, I think they are best taken as a way, among others, to think of comedy and laughter. One need not choose between the absurdity theory and this one; both give us some explanatory power, and each is useful for different events to explain what is funny about it. Similarly, laughter can be both a way of confirming our social bonds and similarities, as others have theorized, while also being a corrective as argued here. So this is a welcome addition to my comedy explanation toolbox.
The biggest problem I had with the book were the examples: a reader unfamiliar with 19th century French comedies will be somewhat lost by them. I can tell by the Don Quixote examples that the other ones are surely illustrative, but without being able to follow them the book loses much of the vibrancy it has for more appropriate readers. An annotated version of this with more context for the quotations would be helpful; as it stands, it falls a little flat for me.
If you can get past that, though, it is certainly worth reading!
blueyorkie's review against another edition
4.0
Let's be clear: this is a reference book.
A decryptor of the comic. The decryptor of the comic.
That's recently discovering in the last century; this text often comes back to haunt me when I attend a sketch or just a current situation that awakens my zygomaticus. Instead, I find the different types of laughter explored by Henri Bergson.
This work is not a novel but an essay. And for the subject, it is pretty severe but also fascinating to read.
So do we need the forgiving laugh to read it? Yes. Could you read it?
A decryptor of the comic. The decryptor of the comic.
That's recently discovering in the last century; this text often comes back to haunt me when I attend a sketch or just a current situation that awakens my zygomaticus. Instead, I find the different types of laughter explored by Henri Bergson.
This work is not a novel but an essay. And for the subject, it is pretty severe but also fascinating to read.
So do we need the forgiving laugh to read it? Yes. Could you read it?
biofaust's review against another edition
5.0
Ecco un altro piccolo libro di filosofia che vi cambierà la vita:
partendo dalla semplice domanda "Perché ridiamo?" e scrivendo in maniera chiara, pulita e semplice, il futuro Premio Nobel Bergson ci descrive i meccanismi per i quali ridiamo, le limitazioni della comicità e il loro significato, andando a trovare una risposta alla domanda di partenza molto più a fondo di quanto si possa pensare.
Finito questo libro non si può fare a meno di ricondurre ai suoi ragionamenti gli sketch comici a cui assistiamo, potendone apprezzare ad un livello più profondo il lavoro che vi è dietro ed alzando in tal modo i nostri standard, senza spocchia e senza arroganza, ma solo perché ora si può apprezzare meglio l'esercizio di umanità che sottende al riso.
partendo dalla semplice domanda "Perché ridiamo?" e scrivendo in maniera chiara, pulita e semplice, il futuro Premio Nobel Bergson ci descrive i meccanismi per i quali ridiamo, le limitazioni della comicità e il loro significato, andando a trovare una risposta alla domanda di partenza molto più a fondo di quanto si possa pensare.
Finito questo libro non si può fare a meno di ricondurre ai suoi ragionamenti gli sketch comici a cui assistiamo, potendone apprezzare ad un livello più profondo il lavoro che vi è dietro ed alzando in tal modo i nostri standard, senza spocchia e senza arroganza, ma solo perché ora si può apprezzare meglio l'esercizio di umanità che sottende al riso.
mimi_jaja's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism