On Thursday, Christine Blasey Ford stepped out onto the stage of a congressional hearing and told a panel of mostly male lawmakers that the laughter of two boys had seared her. But most of all, she said, she remembers the laughter of the boys — “the uproarious laughter” — the kind of mirth so morally complex in Shakespeare’s work. Ford: Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter, the laugh — the uproarious laughter between the two, and their having fun at my expense. “Raping and pillaging throughout history has been accompanied by laughter,” Provine said. Laughter, Provine said, is “primal.” Just as its dark side can be indelibly imprinted in memory, it also holds a memorable place in the Western canon.

Source: Washington Post September 28, 2018 10:28 UTC