"The Name of the Rose" Comedy and the death of God.

I have been thinking a little bit about comedy. Where it comes from. Why we find some things so funny? Why do animals seem to laugh? Why is our first involuntary reaction to some sort of pain or anguish occasionally laughter?

Anyways comedy is really not what this post is about. It is more about Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose." I haven't read the novel in a few years. But it is one of those novels that stays with me.

One aspect of the novel that has stayed with me is that in the handful of arguments between William of Baskerville and the Venerable Jorge on whether or not Jesus laughed: the Venerable Jorge, at least in my estimation, wins every argument. Even in his private moments William of Baskerville has little to no defense of his position. And will even admit he does not care whether Jesus laughed or not.

I guess where all this gets tied back to comedy is whether or not Jesus laughed. Is comedy on some fundamental level feeling better or superior to someone else? Is it in some way taking joy in the misfortune of others? Is comedy and laughter an animalistic reaction to the tragedy and reality of life?

The point being that the Venerable Jorge could see that if Jesus was God, and if God is all love and all-knowing then he could not laugh.

The thing is William of Baskerville seems to essentially reach the same conclusion at the end of the novel. He solves the problem by simply deciding there can be no God.

That is what I think is at the core of Umberto Eco's novel- the inability of modern man to have any connection or perhaps even genuine belief in God.

William of Baskerville is a sort of stand in for modern man and modern thought in a medieval European Abbey.

It only takes modern man seven days to destroy the Abbey ensure plenty of more people die and the death of God is brought to all.

Like I said. It is a novel that stays with me.