Dartblog

G. K. Chesterton wrote that oddities usually fail to strike odd people. “This is why ordinary people have a much more exciting time; while odd people are always complaining of the dulness of life.”

Thought of that as I came across Julian Gough’s essay in Prospect, observing that novels are not very good these days and begging for a return to comedy. The essay is introduced in this way:

The Greeks understood that comedy (the gods’ view of life) is superior to tragedy (the merely human). But since the middle ages, western culture has overvalued the tragic and undervalued the comic. This is why fiction today is so full of anxiety and suffering. It’s time writers got back to the serious business of making us laugh.