Resilience
The book I'm currently working with, Fools Are Everywhere, by Beatrice K. Otto, has a great chapter in it called "Overstepping the Mark." This chapter stands out because there is an emphasis on physical detail (of the court jester, mostly), describing incidents in history where a court fool will go a bit too far with h/er criticisms of the master, finding h/erself on a chopping block, in a noose, or at least in shackles, because "Telling a joke is more interesting when you can be put in jail for it."
Here's a good quote, with references to the cartoon-y nature of fools:
"There is in the jester a quality of resilience that means that even when he is beaten it does not seem to injure him. It is a resilience of the spirit that might either complement the physical litheness often associated with the jester or offer a contrast to a deformity. He never seems particularly perturbed by a whip decending on him, never inveighing against the injustice or cruelty of his punishment or begging for mercy: 'Like the comic characters in the film cartoons who may be cut to shreds, smashed flat, riddled with holes, or stretched into a thin line, yet which suddenly spring back into their original form or are miraculously put back together, the clown always seems to survive.'" (pg. 135)
The book I'm currently working with, Fools Are Everywhere, by Beatrice K. Otto, has a great chapter in it called "Overstepping the Mark." This chapter stands out because there is an emphasis on physical detail (of the court jester, mostly), describing incidents in history where a court fool will go a bit too far with h/er criticisms of the master, finding h/erself on a chopping block, in a noose, or at least in shackles, because "Telling a joke is more interesting when you can be put in jail for it."
Here's a good quote, with references to the cartoon-y nature of fools:
"There is in the jester a quality of resilience that means that even when he is beaten it does not seem to injure him. It is a resilience of the spirit that might either complement the physical litheness often associated with the jester or offer a contrast to a deformity. He never seems particularly perturbed by a whip decending on him, never inveighing against the injustice or cruelty of his punishment or begging for mercy: 'Like the comic characters in the film cartoons who may be cut to shreds, smashed flat, riddled with holes, or stretched into a thin line, yet which suddenly spring back into their original form or are miraculously put back together, the clown always seems to survive.'" (pg. 135)
1 Comments:
I love this idea of no begging for mercy. I think we can incorporate that into our approach as an ensemble, there is an abundance of resilience and there is no apologizing.
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