Imagine I’m a freelance writer or columnist working on my next article. Subject: the various evils of technology, how new gadgets make us mentally weak and lazy, how they thjink for us, have made us too reliant on them, like zombies on crack (i.e., really, really bad stuff here) etc., etc.
And as I’m typing this on my new laptop, I notice the red squiggly line under thjink. My hand automatically reaches for my wireless mouse, with which I hover the cursor over the typo, right-click, highlight think, and, word fixed; squiggly red line gone.
Am I a hypocrite?
We can ask essentially the same question about Plato’s relation to comedy. What he has Socrates and others say about imitative art (to include comedy) is ironic, as it’s expressed to us in the form of dramatic, imitative dialogue. And though he writes little about comedy, mostly negative in tone and never the focus as a direct subject of inquiry, he fills his dialogues with Socrates’ sarcasm and wit. On the whole, Plato’s words – his prohibitions against the insidious effects of comedy – don’t match his work – his authorial keenness for the comedic effect.
Perhaps there lies the deeper lesson about our relation to comedy.
