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

Re: Comedy

[teasel]

It requires a light touch and a deep sense of the absurdity inherent in even the most serious human events - such as Terry Pratchett manages book after book.

I totally agree about Terry Pratchett -- he's an interesting case of humor that exists side by side with a deep empathy for his characters. Pratchett manages this at least in part with some interesting shifts in point of view -- some sections of the books, often the ones with the most jokes, are from the POV of an omniscient narrator who is somewhat distant from the characters. Other sections though are from the POV of a deeply sympathetic if flawed character -- Sam Vines and Granny Weatherwax spring to mind (and so does Death, though he's a more complicated case). In the case of Sam Vines and Granny Weatherwax, at least, we laugh at the characters' foibles now and again, but they are in the long run definitely not figures of fun, and Pratchett's endings have the incredible kick they do because we end up completely and unproblematically sympathizing with the POV characters as they face some climactic struggle.

It should be said, though, that the struggle in question is usually against some villain with whom we are NOT invited to sympathize, and this villain and many of the minor characters are subjected to a great deal of comic poking. So I wouldn't say that Pratchett's novels are free of what I've been calling comic distance or comic aggression -- just that this aggression is very carefully (and delightfully) channeled to serve the purposes of novels that are, underneath the dazzling wit, quite sentimental at the core.

Re: Comedy

[eykar]

> the struggle in question is usually against some villain with whom we are NOT invited to sympathize, and this villain and many of the minor characters are subjected to a great deal of comic poking

Perhaps that's one reason that LoTR comedy is rather difficult. It's a rare gift to be able to make fun of absolute evil without trivializing it to the point that heroic effort is no longer required to vanquish it.