Scan barcode
colin_cox's review against another edition
5.0
In the introduction to his endlessly readable Only a Joke Can Save Us, Todd McGowan juxtaposes two cinematic moments of dismemberment as an example of "the sufficient condition for comedy," the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lamb. McGowan writes:
The difference between the Black Knight's loss of limbs and the loss of the character's face in Silence of the Lambs resides in the attitude that they produce in the subject watching them. If one simply saw the Black Knight being mercilessly slain by a superior adversary, this event would not be comic and would prompt the same response as Lecter's violence does...Even in the midst of a horrific dismemberment, the Black Knight never deviates from his belief in his own superiority or his devotion to continuing to fight. The more of his body the Black Knight loses, the surer he is of his eventual victory and the more he taunts his opponent with his own superiority. He thus embodies lack and excess simultaneously. It is this disparate connection that provides the key to grasping the comic. (13-14)
Lack and excess, which he later defines as critical components to subjectivity, produce the comedic but only when the two intersect or overlap. Furthermore, these moments of intersection sharply deviate from the essence of subjectivity as we ordinarily experience it. McGowan writes, "The subject exists as a subject only insofar as it remains incomplete and divided from itself. The subject desires as a result of its incompletion...At the same time, the subject is a being of excess" (15). But McGowan reminds his reader that daily existence bifurcates lack and excess. He writes, "Everyday existence separates lack from excess by isolating excess in specific times and places" (15). It is this separation that comedy disrupts, which suggests that moments of genuine comedy are transgressive and radical.
McGowan's analysis of comedy pivots from several basic psychoanalytic principles. Once we enter the symbolic matrix of language, lack occurs thus inaugurating subjectivity. As a way of coping with the incompleteness of language's mediating function, we seek excesses. McGowan offers an instructive example of how lack and excess function for the subject when he writes, "The enjoyment of excess enables the subject to forget about its status as lacking: when rapt in the excesses of religious ecstasy, I forget about my desire for a new BMW, and when swept up in the ecstasy of owning a BMW, I avoid thinking about the absence of any transcendent God in the world" (15). Subjectivity is an exercise in contradiction, which comedy thrusts back onto the subject. This matters, in part, because it shows the subject not only what it wants but how it wants.
Only a Joke Can Save Us marks something of a divergence for McGowan. His two previous books grappled with subjectivity within consumer capitalism and the psychological impulses, drive and desire. With Only a Joke Can Save Us, McGowan offers a smart and entertaining reading of comedy, but there are certain limitations. If, for example, one scoffs at the prospect of studying comedy from a perspective that synthesizes the psychoanalytical and Hegelianism, then McGowan's overarching argument will be difficult. McGowan, however, offers a myriad of thoughtful examples to support his claims, the best of which is perhaps the chapter on Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.
Todd is a former professor of mine, so I am certainly a biased reader. Nevertheless, his ability to articulate, explain, and use dense psychoanalytical principles while also generating sound and argumentatively engaging ideas, makes his work worth the time and commitment.
***
2022 Reading
McGowan wrote Only a Joke Can Save Us five years ago. In those intervening years, McGowan has explored and developed the importance of lack to his overarching theoretical and political project. In retrospect, Only a Joke Can Save Us is more important than I understood initially. Only a Joke Can Save Us is an indispensable key to understanding McGowan's work during what I suspect is his most mature and impactful period.
When I read Only a Joke Can Save Us five years ago, I wrote the following: "Only a Joke Can Save Us marks something of a divergence for McGowan. His two previous books grappled with subjectivity within consumer capitalism and the psychological impulses, drive and desire." Clearly, this book is far from a "divergence." Instead, Only a Joke Can Save Us is a pivot point; this unassuming volume represents McGowan's move into a theoretical terrain that may define his academic career for generations to come.
The difference between the Black Knight's loss of limbs and the loss of the character's face in Silence of the Lambs resides in the attitude that they produce in the subject watching them. If one simply saw the Black Knight being mercilessly slain by a superior adversary, this event would not be comic and would prompt the same response as Lecter's violence does...Even in the midst of a horrific dismemberment, the Black Knight never deviates from his belief in his own superiority or his devotion to continuing to fight. The more of his body the Black Knight loses, the surer he is of his eventual victory and the more he taunts his opponent with his own superiority. He thus embodies lack and excess simultaneously. It is this disparate connection that provides the key to grasping the comic. (13-14)
Lack and excess, which he later defines as critical components to subjectivity, produce the comedic but only when the two intersect or overlap. Furthermore, these moments of intersection sharply deviate from the essence of subjectivity as we ordinarily experience it. McGowan writes, "The subject exists as a subject only insofar as it remains incomplete and divided from itself. The subject desires as a result of its incompletion...At the same time, the subject is a being of excess" (15). But McGowan reminds his reader that daily existence bifurcates lack and excess. He writes, "Everyday existence separates lack from excess by isolating excess in specific times and places" (15). It is this separation that comedy disrupts, which suggests that moments of genuine comedy are transgressive and radical.
McGowan's analysis of comedy pivots from several basic psychoanalytic principles. Once we enter the symbolic matrix of language, lack occurs thus inaugurating subjectivity. As a way of coping with the incompleteness of language's mediating function, we seek excesses. McGowan offers an instructive example of how lack and excess function for the subject when he writes, "The enjoyment of excess enables the subject to forget about its status as lacking: when rapt in the excesses of religious ecstasy, I forget about my desire for a new BMW, and when swept up in the ecstasy of owning a BMW, I avoid thinking about the absence of any transcendent God in the world" (15). Subjectivity is an exercise in contradiction, which comedy thrusts back onto the subject. This matters, in part, because it shows the subject not only what it wants but how it wants.
Only a Joke Can Save Us marks something of a divergence for McGowan. His two previous books grappled with subjectivity within consumer capitalism and the psychological impulses, drive and desire. With Only a Joke Can Save Us, McGowan offers a smart and entertaining reading of comedy, but there are certain limitations. If, for example, one scoffs at the prospect of studying comedy from a perspective that synthesizes the psychoanalytical and Hegelianism, then McGowan's overarching argument will be difficult. McGowan, however, offers a myriad of thoughtful examples to support his claims, the best of which is perhaps the chapter on Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.
Todd is a former professor of mine, so I am certainly a biased reader. Nevertheless, his ability to articulate, explain, and use dense psychoanalytical principles while also generating sound and argumentatively engaging ideas, makes his work worth the time and commitment.
***
2022 Reading
McGowan wrote Only a Joke Can Save Us five years ago. In those intervening years, McGowan has explored and developed the importance of lack to his overarching theoretical and political project. In retrospect, Only a Joke Can Save Us is more important than I understood initially. Only a Joke Can Save Us is an indispensable key to understanding McGowan's work during what I suspect is his most mature and impactful period.
When I read Only a Joke Can Save Us five years ago, I wrote the following: "Only a Joke Can Save Us marks something of a divergence for McGowan. His two previous books grappled with subjectivity within consumer capitalism and the psychological impulses, drive and desire." Clearly, this book is far from a "divergence." Instead, Only a Joke Can Save Us is a pivot point; this unassuming volume represents McGowan's move into a theoretical terrain that may define his academic career for generations to come.
More...