Re: Aristotle's "lost" second book?

From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Mon Sep 01 2003 - 04:10:30 MDT

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    Brett Paatsch:
    >Interesting. I did a google probably much the same as you would have
    >I expect, (or probably less adeptly), and I'm not ever sure its more than
    >an "old" urban myth.

    > http://www.bbk.ac.uk/eh/eng/skc/artlaugh.htm
    >Seems to be at least an academic paper on the subject written in 1998.

    >A find on "lost" pulls up the following paragraph.
    [...]

    >How far did you get towards concluding there might actually have
    >been such a book?

    I didn't know if Aristotle's second book was urban legend or a fact,
    commonly accepted. I read through Aristotle's _Poetics_ last
    weekend, looking where Aristotle was said to have discussed it. He
    discusses tragedies, but barely mentions comedies. If that is what
    people mean, when they say the book is 'lost', then it is tantalizing,
    but not convincing (to me), at all. However, I read it in English,
    so I would need a Greek person to tell me if Aristotle wrote something
    strongly implied in Greek, that was missed by the translator.

    >For some reason that I don't get, the formal study of laughter has never
    >really intrigued, as much as it should.

    I know.

    or the INformal study of laughter. You will find the archetype of Tricksters
    and Jokesters and Clowns in the folk tales and myths, where they play
    important roles, turning your psychological perspectives upside down.

    Also going back centuries are the Sufic tales of Mulla Nasrudin. He's
    a jokester and a sage, forcing you to arrive at profound concepts, to
    see a situation from a completely different perspective with the aid
    of laughter.

    Amara 

    -- 
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Amara Graps, PhD          email: amara@amara.com
Computational Physics     vita:  ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt
Multiplex Answers         URL:   http://www.amara.com/
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"We came whirling out of Nothingness scattering stars like dust."
       --Rumi

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