High Times interview (2002)
Context: Usually, my witticisms are composed on the spot. They're simply intrinsic; an inseparable, integral, organic part of my writing process — doubtlessly because humor is an inseparable, integral part of my philosophical worldview. The comic sensibility is vastly, almost tragically, underrated by Western intellectuals. Humor can be a doorway into the deepest reality, and wit and playfulness are a desperately serious transcendence of evil. My comic sense, although deliberately Americanized, is, in its intent, much closer related to the crazy wisdom of Zen monks and the goofy genius of Taoist masters than it is to, say, the satirical gibes on Saturday Night Live. It has both a literary and a metaphysical function.
“To be comic is merely to be playful, but wit is a serious matter. To laugh at it is to confess that you do not understand.”
Source: Epigrams, p. 346
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Ambrose Bierce 204
American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabu… 1842–1914Related quotes
“Do you understand this is serious?"
"I understand you think it's serious.”
Source: Dark Places
“If you confess your sins, you must confess them to God; we are but his witnesses.”
The Communistic Societies of the United States (1875)
“The great modern novel of the comic-pathetic illusion of freedom is Confessions of Zeno.”
James Wood in London Review of Books, January 3, 2002. http://www.lrb.co.uk/v24/n01/wood02_.html.
Criticism
1840s, Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840), The Hero as Poet
Source: Allan Brown (August 1, 2004) "Benefits of being game for a laugh - Edinburgh Festival", The Sunday Times.
The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), Conclusion : Don Quixote in the Contemporary European Tragi-Comedy