For Thursday: Bevis, Comedy, Chapter 1: "In The Beginning..."

Be sure to read Chapter 1 (you don't have to read the short introduction, "Curtain Raiser," unless you want to) for Thursday's class. We'll respond with an in-class writing based on one of the following questions/ideas below. But feel free to use this as a guide to the reading to help you pick out important ideas or passages. 

* Why does Antiphanes claim that "tragedy is a cushy art," whereas comedians "have to invent everything" (9)? What makes comedy so much more difficult to create and stage for an audience? 

* What does Bevis mean that audience members in a comedy might be "participators as well as spectators" (10)? 

* Comedy has its roots in village festivals of drunkenness and sexuality, all of which celebrated the idea of spring and new life. How might modern comedy also represent this idea of regeneration and being able to "start anew"? 

* I used this quote in your syllabus, and really think it's an important one: what does Bevis mean when he writes "Comedy involves the construction of a creation myth you can live with" (14)? 

* Why is comedy more "dangerous" than tragedy? What is the secret thrill of watching a comedy, and related to this, what can comedy do to an audience that a tragedy, perhaps, cannot? What makes it more socially subversive?