informant38
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...But of these sophisms and elenchs of merchandise I skill not...
Milton, Areopagitica

Except he had found the
standing sea-rock that even this last
Temptation breaks on; quieter than death but lovelier; peace
that quiets the desire even of praising it.

Jeffers, Meditation On Saviors


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8.11.02

The anti-rite of the joke shows the sheer contingency or arbitrariness of the social rites in which we engage. By producing a consciousness of contingency, humour can change the situation in which we find ourselves, and can even have a critical function with respect to society. Hence the great importance that humour has played in social movements that have set out to criticize the established order, such as radical feminist humour, 'How many men does it take to tile a bathroom?', 'I don't know', 'It depends how thinly you slice them'. As the Italian street slogan has it, Una risata vi seppellir�, it will be a laugh that buries you, where the 'you' refers to those in power. By laughing at power, we expose its contingency, we realise that what appeared to be fixed and oppressive is in fact the emperor's new clothes, and just the sort of thing that should be mocked and ridiculed.
But before we get carried away.......

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