Aristotle's 'Poetics' Explains Virtue of Gallows Humor

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A lively discussion of Aristotle's "Poetics" broadcast on the BBC podcast "In Our Time" years ago so struck me that I've replayed it and saved the transcript and youtube link (which frequently expires). Aristotle was the son of a physician, and he himself was an excellent dissector and biology "classifier" while also being a protege of the mathematician, Plato. I'm writing about the treatise "Poetics" now because of the new comedy "Everything is Fine" which I saw on Netflix last night.

Unlike his mentor Plato, who published several "dialogues" with a re-created Socrates for the purpose of immediate public consumption, Aristotle wrote from self-imposed exile several seminal works in his 62 years to be published poshumously including "Politics" and "Poetics".

Aristotle felt plays were important for the public to attend, with the full public understanding they were mere representation of life situations and not life iteself. "Mimetic" imitation and represenation is a theme he returns to.

Apparently we're supposed to patronize arts that will evoke in us pity and fear to sufficient thresholds such that we're more conditioned to handle these emotions in real life. It's like psyche flexibility and strength training for modern living.

The discussion on BBC also reviews why Aristotle felt it wrong to insert a dues ex machina in plays and fictional works because "shock for the sake of shock value" doesn't serve society, the podcast episode's panelists said. I still don't get why a dues ex machina is wrong and am not convinced it is, as the 2002 film Adaptation remains a favorite movie.

But do see Sarah Cooper's new comedy on Netflix. And as a courtesy to our body politic, make an effort to get yourself really fucking freaked this Halloween.



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Further Reading:

An East Dallas Home's Halloween Decorations Prompt Multiple Police Visits:   dallasobserver.com

"Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aristotle's Poetics, the first and arguably most influential work of literary theory in history."   bbc.co.uk  🎙️

"Not to brag, but @karaswisher called my new comedy special 'disturbing'."   twitter.com/sarahcpr  🐤





This work by AJ Fish is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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