Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site dg_rtp.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!bellcore!decvax!mcnc!rti-sel!dg_rtp!throopw From: throopw@dg_rtp.UUCP Newsgroups: net.women,net.jokes.d Subject: Re: Some Quotable Quotes Message-ID: <145@dg_rtp.UUCP> Date: Sun, 9-Feb-86 15:44:43 EST Article-I.D.: dg_rtp.145 Posted: Sun Feb 9 15:44:43 1986 Date-Received: Tue, 11-Feb-86 07:32:13 EST References: <156@ubc-cs.UUCP> <131@midas.UUCP> Lines: 44 Xref: watmath net.women:8851 net.jokes.d:1458 > In article <156@ubc-cs.UUCP> andrews@ubc-cs.UUCP (Jamie Andrews) writes: > > > >From _The Name of the Rose_, by Umberto Eco; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983. > > > > "`...He who laughs does not believe in what he laughs at, but > > neither does he hate it. Therefore, laughing at evil means not > > preparing oneself to combat it, and laughing at good means denying > > the power through which good is self-propagating.'" > If I'm not mistaken, the above quote was the opinion of a man who, by his > actions, brought about the destruction of his own world. Which, to my > mind, puts a very different interpretation on the words than when they > occur out of context. It seems to me that someone who finds much truth in the above quote from _The Name of the Rose_ is also a fairly humorless person. After all, there is very little to laugh at when you rule out both evil and good. (Even worse, in my humble opinion, a feminist advancing the above quote reinforces the unfortunate and false stereotype that all feminists are humorless.) The quote also seems patently false. To take a stereotype, KKKers laugh at blacks. It anyone under the impression that KKKers therefore don't hate blacks? And doesn't the above quote argue against (what I took to be) the intent of the original poster? The original context was to show that humor directed agains women's issues can be hateful and harmfull (an oversimplification, but I think gets at the point). The above quote says that humor is ineffective as a weapon, and blunts rather than creates hateful impulses. It can be taken to mean that it blunts the will to destroy evil and promote good, of course (where "good" and "feminism" are equated), but in some minds feminism *is* evil and the double standard *is* good, and these people's wills are also blunted by humor. I rather think that humor neither creates nor blunts hateful impulses. And while humor and hate can reinforce each other, so can humor and good will. > Jeff Winslow -- Wayne Throop at Data General, RTP, NC !mcnc!rti-sel!dg_rtp!throopw