Laughing At Nothing – John Marmysz

When you have understood the destruction of all that was made, you will understand that which was not made. —The Buddha In the previous chapter we uncovered the basic premises that underlie the phi- losophy of nihilism, distinguishing it from other, related systems of thought. Authentic nihilists, we found, endorse the following three claims: (1) Humans are alienated from such perfections as absolute Being,Truth, Goodness, Justice, Beauty, etc. (2) This circumstance of alienation is other than it ought to be.

(3) There is nothing that humans can do to change this circumstance. Together, these three claims comprise the basic premises that the nihilist takes for granted when reasoning and drawing conclusions about the human condition. Nihilism has traditionally been considered a philosophy of despair because of the emphasis that it places on the vanity and worthlessness of our earthly struggles.1 From the perspective of the nihilist, nothing that we do is of real worth because nothing of which we are capable measures up to the superlative standards set by absolute Being, Truth, Goodness, Justice, Beauty, etc.

Since the superlative is always beyond reach, all of our accomplishments in this world are, in a sense, substandard. Human life is a constant and hope- less struggle that involves a perpetual falling away from the highest, most wor- thy ideals. The farther we reach, according to the nihilist, the more painfully we fall away from all that is true, good and perfect. Nihilistic thinking pon- ders and meditates upon this incongruity between our real-life capacities and Chapter Five Decline, Decay, and Falling Away the most valued standards of achievement, concluding that nothing we are capable of doing satisfactorily measures up to our highest aspirations.

The trap that past thinkers have commonly fallen into when dealing with the “problem of nihilism” is to conflate all of the negative associations that have become attached to the concept of nihilism with the concept itself. So it is that we find many of the nihilists and commentators on nihilism that I sur- veyed in both the Introduction and in Part One seeking a means for the “over- coming” of nihilism, and thus, they believe, the overcoming of despair.

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For information, address State University of New York Press, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207 Production, Laurie Searl Marketing, Jennifer Giovani Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Marmysz, John, 1964– Laughing at nothing : humor as a response to nihilism / by John Marmysz. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-5839-3 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7914-5840-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Nihilism (Philosophy) 2. Comic, The. I. Title. B828.3.M265 2003 149′.8—dc21 2003042561 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, vii INTRODUCTION THE PROBLEM OF NIHILISM, 1 PART I SCRU T INIZING NI H ILISM CHAPTER ONE GERMAN AND RUSSIAN NIHILISM, 15 German Nihilism, 15 Russian Nihilism, 17 CHAPTER TWO NIETZSCHEAN NIHILISM, 21 The Christian, the Anarchist, and Socrates, 22 Apollo and Dionysus, 24 Healthy Culture and the Well-Ordered Society, 27 Ascent, Decline, and the Eternal Return of the Same, 30 Heidegger and Nietzsche, 34 CHAPTER THREE WORLD-WAR AND POSTWAR NIHILISM, 43 The National Socialists, 44 Camus and the Existentialists, 46 Yukio Mishima and Asian Nihilism, 50 Nihilism in America, 55 Contents CHAPTER FOUR NIHILISTIC INCONGRUITY, 61 The Descriptive, Normative, and Fatalistic Premises of Nihilism, 68 The Historical Complication, 74 Pyrrho, Stirner, Rorty, and Skeptical Pragmatism, 78 PART II DECLINE, ASCENT, AND H UMOR CHAPTER FIVE DECLINE, DECAY, AND FALLING AWAY, 91 CHAPTER SIX AMBITION, ASPIRATION, AND ASCENT, 105 CHAPTER SEVEN HUMOR AND INCONGRUITY, 123 Jokes, 136 Comedy, 138 Humor, 141 CONCLUSION HUMOR AS A RESPONSE TO NIHILISM, 155 POSTSCRIPT, 167 NOTES, 173 BIBLIOGRAPHY, 195 INDEX, 203 vi LAUGHING AT NOTHING This work began as a doctoral dissertation written under the guidance of Pro- fessors Pablo De Greiff, Carolyn Korsmeyer, Mariam Thalos, and Henry Sussman at the University at Buffalo.

Their encouragement, thoughtful com- ments, and enthusiasm were indispensable in allowing this book to take its present form. I am indebted to Frances Marmysz and Juneko Robinson for their encouragement and companionship during the time that I was engaged in researching, writing, and polishing this work.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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