Tragic relief

I've mentioned before that I'm thinking a lot about what balance to strike between emotion/seriousness and humor. Reading an interview with Daniel Levy, the co-creator and best character in Schitt's Creek [In Canada, if you want to check it out; in the US] made me think about it again. When asked about the success of the show...

We set out to create strong, funny characters that were grounded in reality and I believe we've found an amazing cast to bring those characters to life. ... We didn't want to shy away from embracing the occasional emotional beat and I think that's helped set the show apart from other comedies out there.

"Emotional beat." I like that. I think Connie Willis is good at adding emotion to her comedy, and so is Pratchett--especially towards his last books.

First off, I have to say that I simply hate it when reviewers call my work "wacky" or "zany". Those people are going to be hunted down by the Mafia! Seriously, I suppose around the fifth or six Discworld book, I discovered the joy of plot. I think it was Esther Friesner who said you have to have tragic relief. If a book is nothing but funny, then it is nothing but funny. There is no contrast and it's hard to take anything seriously. It's hard to worry about the fate of a character. (Pratchett in interview)

"Tragic relief." Awesome.

"He's got better and better over the years – he now follows the story, not the jokes, while I think the early books followed the jokes." (Gaiman on Pratchett)

And here's rom com writer Jennifer Crusie on a similar theme:

"...if there was one thing I’d learned in my creative writing classes it was to avoid melodrama, to never be sentimental, to go for irony and detachment whenever possible because otherwise I’d get killed in the critiques. But I think I knew all along I was wimping out, that if I’d had any backbone, I’d have gone first for the hearts and not the brains of my readers, so I decided that for my first book for Bantam, I’d try something new, something different. Hearts would be touched, tears would be shed. By God, I was going to be emotional.

...the important thing I learned is that tragedy is like comedy. You can’t add it to a book, you have to find both the humor and the pain within the story and then write both as truthfully as you can" (Talking about The Cinderella Deal)

Hmmm hmmm hmmmmmmm.

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