Posted on 10/30/2010 10:01:38 PM PDT by Recovering_Democrat
MY DEAR WORMWOOD...I divide the causes of human laughter into Joy, Fun, the Joke Proper, and Flippancy.
You will see the [Joy] among friends and lovers reunited on the eve of a holiday...
Fun is closely related to Joy—a sort of emotional froth arising from the play instinct. It is very little use to us....it has wholly undesirable tendencies; it promotes charity, courage, contentment, and many other evils.
The Joke Proper, which turns on sudden perception of incongruity, is a much more promising field...The real use of Jokes or Humour is in quite a different direction...it is invaluable as a means of destroying shame...
But flippancy is the best of all. In the first place it is very economical. Only a clever human can make a real Joke about virtue, or indeed about anything else; any of them can be trained to talk as if virtue were funny.
Among flippant people the Joke is always assumed to have been made. No one actually makes it; but every serious subject is discussed in a manner which implies that they have already found a ridiculous side to it.
If prolonged, the habit of Flippancy builds up around a man the finest armour-plating against the Enemy that I know, and it is quite free from the dangers inherent in the other sources of laughter.
It is a thousand miles away from joy it deadens, instead of sharpening, the intellect; and it excites no affection between those who practice it.
Your affectionate uncle, SCREWTAPE
yes
Perfect. I have often expressed my wish that Lewis and Chesterton were around to comment on today’s follies. Your thread is a good hint that, in a sense, they are.
It would be fun to occasionally post a quick observation from the Screwtape Letters and see what FReeper’s thoughts are.
The Screwtape Letters and Pilgrim’s Progress have been two of the most valuable books in my spiritual life besides the Bible.
Interesting thoughts about humor. I will have to think about them.
pass it along...I’d love to get other FREEPers thoughts on the subject.
RD
Chesterton is another good one, although I have not read his books, just his quotes and occasional essays. He could really cut through the absolute garbage of sin and atheism with a rapier. . .wit.
Where does Chesterton’s style of wit fit into Screwtape’s descriptions? Discuss.
What a heady time for literature that was!
C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, and the rest of the Inklings: it boggles the mind to think how those discussions went. Christianity in the barrel.
IMHO, The Book of Lost Tales was heavily influenced by Lewis, as was the source material for The Silmarillion.
And, yes, flippancy is all the liberals have to offer. True humor is unavailable to them.
For myself, the left is populated with wannabe David Spades, simple flippant mockers who pass of snide comments as deep incite then congratulate themselves for the effort.
As you may already be aware, Chesterton's Everlasting Man is one of the key books that Lewis credited with drawing him back to Christianity. Many of Lewis's arguments in Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, etc. have their foundations in Chesterton's works. Both men were prolific writers and so while I hate to make singular characterizations about their works or their wit, I can say that for me personally, Lewis's writing is like somebody standing in the shallow end of a pool, inviting you in and reassuring you that the water is fine. Chesteron is like somebody who throws you into the deep end and tells you to sink or swim.
Thanks for the reminder about this piece of wisdom from that book. So true.
Even when you know about less noble types of humor it is hard to resist the tendency toward flippancy in this fallen world where there is so much of it.
If you hang out around enough college kids, you are going to laugh at “The Soup” before you bite your lip and focus on being an old killjoy trying to get them to watch something else...
thank you for posting this.
I very much like both writers, but I have never seen any foundation of Lewis' writing in Chesterton. They were both men who loved literature and were at the same time Christian. I have always found Lewis to be more profound than Chesterton. But that's my taste in literature.
I have never been a fan of Chester's politics of Distributism. It's that sort of Christian socialism that got us into the home mortgage mess we are in now.
I do have a message printed on my forehead though, it says ‘yes, I do need you to draw me a picture.’(sarc)
I delight in the pictures John Bunyan draws for me.
Perfect.
Never read Pilgrim’s Progress. What is it about?
While both men certainly explored eternal truths, they were products of their time. Although they were born about 24 years apart from one another. Chesterton saw the excesses of Empire in Great Britain which led to WWI, and abuses of corporatism that led to huge trusts that used the weight of government to crush any competition. Some of his quotes have been taken out of context by leftists to bolster their causes, but then again, the same thing can be said about Christ. If you look carefully at his debates with George Bernard Shaw over early 20th century progressivism, I don't think there's any doubt about where he'd stand today.
Lewis, fought in WWI as a young man, and only embraced Christianity in the ensuing years. By the time his thought reaced maturity the excesses of socialism and secularism had already manifested themselves both in the Soviet bloc and in post-War England. FWIW, Chesterton was probably more anti-union than Lewis.
Thanks for this post. Flippancy describes the “humor” of our whole society these days because it is the “humor” of the entertainment regime. It indeed deadens the intellect and hardens the heart.
You don’t understand Distributism. It is anything BUT socialism!
I read Chesterton's book on Distributism, and in my opinion it is a type of Christian socialism. But since you have a different opinion, could you please explain why it isn't socialism.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.