The Morality of Laughter

the long version

"With that unapologetic salvo, F.H. Buckley, in this book on the serious subject of laughter, takes the side of the guardians of good taste in the battle against the soulless forces of modernism." "For those who favor grace over grotesquerie, a so-called new classicism has emerged in recent years as an antidote to what many thinkers, conservative and otherwise, view as a perilously cynical decline in standards. But whether the arts need just a shot of beauty or the aesthetic equivalent of a heart transplant is still uncertain. What is clear, however, is that they've become a target." "Buckley's smart bomb? Laughter, which turns out to be not only the best medicine for living the good life, but the necessary preemptive strike in what the author sees as the fight to regain our sense of humor and beauty - even moral rectitude."--Jacket.