Random thought of the day: is comic fanfic less interesting than angst?

[teasel]

There's a terrific children's book by James Thurber called The Thirteen Clocks, unfortunately now long out of print, which includes among its many wonders a character whose tears turn into jewels. A useful and valuable trait, and one that would make the production of angst fics such a vital contribution to the gross national product that fanfic

Comments

[teasel]

I think defining comedy as something that pokes fun and therefore is somewhat "heartless" is too narrow.

I think you're right; I think that when I said that I was thinking a bit too much about my worries as a writer rather than my experience as a reader. The experience of writing humor happens more slowly than reading it -- erm, obviously, but that has an effect on the emotions involved. Most comedy, certainly not mine, isn't pure heartlessness -- it alternates between moments of distance and moments of empathy (and the contrast between those moments both makes the humor work -- it's unexpected, taking the reader by surprise -- and also saves the humor from pure heartlessness.) In the reading experience this alternation goes by very fast; in the writing experience, of course, you spend a lot of time on each moment, and thus spend a lot of time doing the point-and-mock thing at your own characters. It can feel -- hmmmm. As if bad things are happening to your karma.

On the other hand, a big yes to this --

Her comedy is heavy. It elicits a deeper empathy in people by opening the audience up to things they might normally be resistant to.

It can be a real eye-opener to see comedy from the perspective of a person or group that you don't ordinarily know much about. There's nothing so intimate, in a way, as hearing the shared laughter of a group to which you don't belong, and when someone invites you to listen that laughter, it's an invitation to see the world from their perspective, one in which the targets of humor might be quite different from the ones in your own social group.

I've never seen much of this in fanfic either -- perhaps because the fanfic I've read tends to be based on fictive universes that don't encourage us to question cultural divisions all that much. It would be interesting to see comedy from a Haradrim perspective, perhaps. The closest we get in Tolkien himself is I suppose the teasing that takes place between Legolas in Gimli. Their differences become fodder for humor, but it's a gentle humor. It functions as a kind of multicultural foreplay in what turns out to be a project of accepting and even celebrating their differences. Now that's a comedy on the side of the angels. :)