{"product_id":"laughter-an-essay-on-the-meaning-of-the-comic-hardcover-2","title":"Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic - Hardcover","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhy do we laugh? What does comedy reveal about human nature, society, and the mind's strange elasticity? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this classic 1900 essay, philosopher Henri Bergson anatomises the comic impulse with surgical clarity and lyrical wit. For Bergson, laughter is no mere reflex. It is a social gesture, a corrective, a way for life itself to defend its supple intelligence against rigidity and habit. From pratfalls to irony, from the mechanical in the living to the absurd in the everyday, his argument ranges effortlessly between metaphysics and vaudeville. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith a new introduction by Simon Critchley, \u003ci\u003eLaughter\u003c\/i\u003e emerges as both a foundational text in aesthetics and a startlingly modern theory of humour--anticipating Freud, Chaplin, and memes alike. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAn appended essay by Wyndham Lewis offers a bracing counterpoint: a modernist's rejoinder to Bergson's genial philosophy. Together they trace the fault-lines between laughter and cruelty, vitality and violence, thought and form. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA century on, Bergson's question still bites: what makes us laugh--and why does it matter?\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 170\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.63 x 8 x 5 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e June 16, 2026\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48640131924217,"sku":"9781967751853","price":180.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0789\/2782\/3097\/files\/8qN2u7T0Yk9781967751853.webp?v=1783322254","url":"https:\/\/bookscloud.io\/products\/laughter-an-essay-on-the-meaning-of-the-comic-hardcover-2","provider":"BooksCloud Book Dropshipping","version":"1.0","type":"link"}