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XI

MY DEAR WORMWOOD,

Everything is clearly going very well alad to hear that the t friends have now made him acquainted with their whole set All these, as I find frohly reliable people; steady, consistent scoffers and worldlings ithout any spectacular cri quietly and comfortably towards our Father’s house You speak of their being great laughers I trust this does not hter as such is always in our favour The point is worth sohter into Joy, Fun, the Joke Proper, and Flippancy You will see the first a friends and lovers reunited on the eve of a holiday A adults some pretext in the way of Jokes is usually provided, but the facility hich the shter at such a time shows that they are not the real cause What that real cause is we do not know So like it is expressed in much of that detestable art which the hu like it occurs in Heaven - a less acceleration in the rhythhter of this kind does us no good and should always be discouraged Besides, the pheno and a direct insult to the realisnity, and austerity of Hell

Fun is closely related to Joy - a sort of e from the play instinct It is very little use to us It can so else which the Ene: but in itself it has wholly undesirable tendencies; it proe, contentment, and many other evils

The Joke Proper, which turns on sudden perception of incongruity, is aprih much relied upon by second-rate te in its results The truth is that humans are pretty clearly divided on this matter into two classes There are some to whom "no passion is as serious as lust" and for whom an indecent story ceases to produce lasciviousness precisely in so far as it becohter and lust are excited at the sas The first sort joke about sex because it gives rise to ruities because they afford a pretext for talking about sex If your man is of the first type, bawdy huet the hours which I wasted (hours to me of unbearable tediu-rooroup the patient belongs to - and see that he does not find out

The real use of Jokes or Humour is in quite a different direction, and it is specially prolish who take their "sense of humour" so seriously that a deficiency in this sense is almost the only deficiency at which they feel sha and (race of life Hence it is invaluable as ashame If a man simply lets others pay for him, he is "mean"; if he boasts of it in a jocularbeen scored off, he is no longer "mean" but a comical fellow Mere cowardice is sharotesque gestures can passed off as funny Cruelty is shameful - unless the cruel man can represent it as a practical joke A thousand bawdy, or even blasphemous, jokes do not help towards a man’s da he wants to do can be done, not only without the disapproval but with the adet itself treated as a Joke And this temptation can be allish seriousness about Huht be too much of it can be represented to hi a "lack of humour"

But flippancy is the best of all In the first place it is very economical Only a clever human canelse; any of the flippant people the Joke is always assumed to have been made No one actually makes it; but every serious subject is discussed in a manner which implies that they have already found a ridiculous side to it If prolonged, the habit of Flippancy builds up around a ainst the Eneers inherent in the other sources of laughter It is a thousand , the intellect; and it excites no affection between those who practice it,

Your affectionate uncle

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