June 4, 2007

We are indebted to Roger Hall for sending us this quote from Irish writer Julian Gough in Prospect Magazine:

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.  

(The article is more about novels –  but does it apply to theatre too or is the opposite more true there? Click Forum to discuss.)