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[Malicevamp24]

Periodically I read this oddball book about a new take on an old religion, and I mourn, breifly, that no one has ever managed to make this concept work.

Maybe it takes a Martian.

Still, whenever I read it, one particular scene has always stuck with me, far longer than any other  image or thought that the book presents, the whole of which I find fascinating and enlightening to one degree or another.

The scene is this:

Michael and Jill in the zoo, looking at the monkeys and Michael finally, after years and years, "getting" humor.

"I grok people. I am people… so now I can say it in people talk. I've found out why people laugh. They laugh because it hurts so much… because it's the only thing that'll make it stop hurting."

It's that one line, the last one, that repeats in my head. When I first read it I actually had to stop, and close the book, and think about it, because it made no sense to me. And yet the rest of the book had rolled along fine. I had understood everything, granted on a fourteen year olds level, but I had grokked most of the rest of the book. But this one line made me stop, and really ask myself, "Is that really why? The reason we laugh?"

I am thirty now, and I've never really figured out whether I agree or not. There are certainly times when I feel unwell, sick or just down, and I say to Jim, "find me something funny". It definitely helps. But there are other times when I think I laugh for no reason, or because other people are laughing and it's contagious, or I'm already in a ahppy mood and simply everything strikes me as funny or joyful. It's at those times that I can't help thinking Michael was wrong. It can't always be about pain.

In the end I think the answer may be too simple for me to truly understand.

After all, people cry when they're happy too.

[Ravynne]

I think it's individual  and  situational.  That character observed and came up with that conclusion based on their point of view, and it may be correct for him at that time, but it's not a fair blanket statement.

Laughter is one of our base tools.  It can portray SO many different emotions.  There's giggly silly laughter, happy joyful laughter, derisive laughter, sarcastic laughter....and it can either make you feel good or cover up what we're really feeling. 

Actors are taught that to make convincing crying sounds, you start with a stilted laugh and build on it, twist it....they spend hours practicing. 

In a movie that we who took the Thresholds of Life intensive had to watch, called "The Sea Within" starring Javier Bardem as the lead character who is a quadraplegic, when someone asks him why he is always laughing, he says "When you can't escape, and you constantly rely on everyone else, you learn to cry by smiling, you know? "  It's just another way we use laughter to cope. 

[Disk]

Ah, Stranger in a Strange Land.  Not Heinlein's best book, but it was one of his political rants.  Moon is a Harsh Mistress was one of his better rants.

I wouldn't read too much into just one line from the book.  Overanalysing something can be just as bad as skimping.  Just go with the theme and you'd be fine.  Humor is essentially whatever you happen to find funny.  Everyone's humor is different, and trying to apply one definition to every person will not end well.

[Em]

For some people, yes, it is.

But when Miriya laughs, it is simply beautiful joy, and those around her can't help but at least smile, if not laugh with her.

[Truthsong]

When I read that, I had to stop and ponder, too.  Now it's been so long since I've read the book that I don't recall my thought process.  I thought I remembered that he said something about how we laugh at others' pain because it hurts us or something.  Now I'm going to have to go back and read that book. 

I have to agree with what others have said.  It's different for different people and for different situations.  I don't believe we can boil down why we laugh to one explanation. 

Liz*

[Wanderer]

This is just a thought as I have not read the book, but could it be that what he means is that life is hard for most of us, and there is plenty of pain and hurting, without which we would have no basis for joy and happiness and thus no reason to laugh?  I think that without pain, we would not know joy or find much humor, but with pain we can find humor in even some of the worst of situations and it makes us feel a little better.

[Vagabond]

I do think it's one of many reasons why we laugh.  I've done a lot of that kind of laughter over the past 2 weeks.  But there are certainly other reasons too.
I love Heinlein.  He's practically a patron saint in this house!  LOL  Hubby has a "Heinlein for President" t-shirt that's one of his favourites.

[Malicevamp24]

I never understood why Scientology caught on when the Church of Michael didn't...