(some thoughts in connection with the "Internet" version of "Brief Encyclopedia of Caricature" compiled by Dmitri Moskin)

Any person knows not so much about him/herself.

"Who are we? Where are we from? Where are we going to?

These three questions, which are the name of famous Paul Gauguin's painting, are far from being solved. Our position in the world is uncertain. Is it possible to escape from this tragic uncertainty? Or just to pretend it doesn't exist? Or to adapt to it, somehow?

Humanity invented two radical ideas to solve this problem: myth and humour.

We are lost in the unlimited world. We can not reach God! We can not get out of the labyrinths of our existential being.

What to do? To create myths. And more - to laugh. Long live myths! But we should remember that any man-made myth tends to subject us to itself. Myth's power is total. The most reliable way to throw it to the winds is to make fun of myths.

Only human beings can laugh. What is the origin of this mysterious gift? Laughter is necessary to resist the pressure of uncertainty surrounding us. I do not know or understand what I was born for - but laughter helps me overcome my ignorance and non-comprehension. It is impossible to survive without laughter. It is the easiest way to relax. Laughter and survival correlate deeply and absolutely. It is the first clue of the laugh mystery.

The second clue should be found in immortal spirit of freedom. When people laugh they are free. Everything around tends to become thick and hard. As a result different dogmas are born. Laughter being antidogmatic is unique. Try to frame or to stop it! Useless...Perhaps freedom shows itself in full swing through laughter.

Laughter is spontaneous and involuntary. There is an expression "to burst out laughing". It means that laughter is impossible either to stop or to restrain. Unpredictable bursts of laughing like lightning relieve the tension and clear the atmosphere. It's impossible to fight with. Laugh is a kind of reflection of noosphere; neither a taboo nor cencor is able to ban it. "Those above" can't control or have any power over laughing. Being uncontrolled, laughter is of great importance for noosphere. Without laughing the degradation of a person is unavoidable: he/she can easily be turned into a slave. Laughter helps us save our dignity and freedom.

There are a lot of mysteries in the psychology of laughing. Obviously there is a very complicated link between laughing and intuition, laugh is not based on rational analysis.- The reaction of laughing on absurdity and imperfection is exact and unmistakable. Being a kind of critic, laughter helps improve the world around us - little by little it works in the name of beauty. Its importance for the esthetic evolution of our world is great. Laughing destroys the most dangerous virus of self-satisfaction. It implants good taste to ironical self-reflection, self-criticism. It is very important! What is more dangerous than stagnation? Laughter might be called the most important enzyme of evolution. It is like the urge of history, laughter prevents it from stagnation. The link between laughter and the vital life energy should be spoken of. Laughter is, perhaps, the brightest show of common sense. Laughter saves a person from insanity - helps survive in the most terrible circumstances. Laughter is like Saviour.

Very often myths limit our spiritual life. All the time we, ourselves, are building invisible ideological prisons. We are lucky because humour like a smuggler is breaking the walls - and laughter makes us free. Only two of numerous revolutions can be respected - technological and esthetic. The energy of humour is moving them. "Revolution" means "coup" (overturn) - the overturn of social values and poles. Humour has worked out poetics and techniques of inversions, taking place not in reality, but in the virtual space of culture. The most significant part of noosphere is carnival. The initial elements of carnival culture appeared with the birth of humanity. To replace low and high, to profane sacred - those are primordial devices of humour - they are not getting old, they are renewed and improved by every generation, that is why witticisms are always up-to-date. Esthetic effects of carnival inversion can not be overestimated. May be it is the best way out - to overturn the world , to change facade for a backyard. Extremes meet. Carnival culture is at its best in different transformations. It gives a person some boldness and courage. Servility and piety are alien for humour. The names of some martyrs are written down into the history of humour; people were humiliated and even executed for easy laughter.

''Homo sapiens is Homo actiosus.'' A person who acts or plays usually laughs. Intelligence, game, and laughter are the important human qualities. The game itself is valuable. Our creativity is fully revealed through it. Humour sometimes does not need social or humanitarian colouring, but it shows inexhaustible world of human fantasy. It is a game for a game sake - laughter for laughter itself - creativity for creativity. By playing we get to know ourselves - discover the infinity of associative links - understand unpredictable harmony of things. Humour including caricature widens our mind, making our creativity more refined , many-coloured, and enchanting. Caricature is evolving. Probably, there is no more accurate mirror to reflect changes of people's minds than caricature. What is reflected in this mirror? Though caricature is often funny, but it hardly reflects only ridiculous things. The history of caricature shows that the initial tragic character of human existence is changing- perhaps, it is approaching to its extreme points. Our burden is getting heavier and heavier! Nevertheless a person can not help laughing. But the colouring of his/her laughter changes. "Black humour" reacts strongly to maximum tension of existence, - but, metamorphosis of humour is deeper, subtler, and more various. The level of paradoxicalism is obviously increasing in it. The life itself is considered to be a paradox - humour lightens the ontological foundations of our existence. Where is the sense of our life and our world? Where is its rational foundation? In the depth we see the irrational abyss of our space. Instead of Sense - indistinctness, instead of Wisdom - absurdity. Are they really original and initial roots of our life? Absurd caricature expresses the deepest changes in the philosophical vision of the world. Properly speaking, it has become the first sign of these changes - honestly reflected the downfall of the rational world. What is the poetics of absurdity? It is very serious and, even more, very important. Esthetically assimilating the absurdity of life, humour helps us overcome the greatest ideological cataclysms.

The world cultures are various. But the nature of laughter is universal. Is not it the wonderful foundation for mutual understanding? Caricature does not need any translation. Today caricatures are not accompanied with words as it was in the past. They are for pure visual perception., so caricatures do not have any language barriers. Nowadays laughter is the most important integral factor in the noosphere. Many "socialist Internationals" have fallen to the ground - but laughter still unites nations. Perhaps, the sense of humour will save our planet from self-destruction - then, what is more serious than laughter?

Laughing people are more sociable, communicative, and agreeable. Laughter helps them understand mutual interests and concerns. The beginning of unity can be seen in any laughing crowd. Laughter makes people closer to each other, they stop being aliens and begin to trust each other, the tension disappears. Dmitri Moskin's fundamental work helps us see absolutely unanimous and undivided noosphere of our planet in the light of laughter. Paraphrasing Descartes' well-known words "Cogito,ergo sum" ( I think,- so, I live), we may exclaim " I laugh,- so, I live".

Yuri Linnik, Phi. D

 

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