About Laughing Out Loud

Post 434:

            I’m not a huge fan of straight-ahead comedy movies or TV as much as drama or suspense, but I do enjoy a funny book. There’s something weird about an inert and soundless object causing you to laugh out loud. It’s really great in public. People think you’re a frigging loon. First of all, who reads? Second, laughing only at words?

            Weirdo.

            I picture a guy or gal at a coffee shop reading something in the corner—something that smart people or a really good algorithm recommended. They’re just minding their own, and suddenly a cackle escapes their mouth. Everyone looks that way. Tattoos get bent out of shape. People forget that it smells like bong residue and frigging coffee and people that pay too much for coffee. The forgetting lasts two very long seconds, then everyone goes back to their phones and talking about what’s trending on thistooshallpass.com.

            I’ve pulled the laugh out in public. I did it whilst reading The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore. I like this writer a lot. Clever, dirty, witty, and he seems to take real pleasure in crafting characters of low repute. It’s comedy and it’s also a mangling of Shakespeare and some stories from Edgar Allan Poe, so the writer obviously holds nothing sacred as far as literature goes.

            Good. Because literature is just another human making up some stuff. It can be wonderful and transcendent and enrapturing and other things that matter, but it can also just make you laugh and get you away from the dirty old world for a bit.

            It’s fun. Check it out. There’s some shifting points of view and a few little callbacks to plays, like the use of a Chorus, but it’s really easy to follow and (forgive me) more fun to read than the script of a play—you know, because books.

            Give it a shot. It’ll give you a laugh. Warning. Rated mature. See you after.