Melodrama & Tragedy
Watching the good comedy or drama, we are very much ahead of the misguided protagonist. We can appreciate his fall, as he is other than we A great description of most of what we watch and why we watch it. During a comedy we watch others slipping, sliding, muffing their lines, being foolish or being fooled. It's fun to laugh at others. Tragedy is me cutting my finger. Comedy is you falling down a sewer and dying. Cruel, but correct. We love to laugh -- at others. our appreciation is heightened by the simultaneous knowledge that we are the same. Also true. We can appreciate because he is other, but the other we see looks so much like me that I can laugh or cry in sympathy. There but for the grace of God go I. A misguided protagonist (main character) who makes the wrong choices. We are the protagonist in our novel-life and in our lives there have been some wrong choices. Melodrama is the useful (and pleasing) removal of that second perception. I had to read that over & over. Pleasing Removal of second perception? Second perception? That we are the same. A melodrama is pleasing because we have removed the belief that "We are the same?" Yep. Melodrama -- Good Guys, Bad Guys -- is great fun to watch. He is other than me -- and he is evil wrong, mean, cruel, or beyond belief kind, caring, careful, considerate. Melodrama is a kind of fairy tale for adults: it is easy to see who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. Easy to make sure decisions. Tragedy? The unresolvable battle between two competing "goods" -- stay and take care of your ageing parents -- go out, marry, start a family of your own. Two competing evils -- kill innocent civilians who are standing next-to-terrorists -- allow terrorist to bomb innocent civilians. Entertainment? Comedy, Drama, Melodrama. Life? Inevitable life-long tragedy where every member of the cast dies