Distance and Proximity
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#01
Only a Joke Can Save Us: A Theory of Comedy · Todd McGowan · p.143
Distance and Proximity > Envisioning the End of the World
Theoretical move: The passage argues that the affective register of any event—comic, pathetic, or indifferent—is not intrinsic to the event itself but is entirely a function of the subject's positional distance or proximity to it, using three films about Earth's destruction as comparative cases to demonstrate how comedy specifically requires the precise interplay of identification and distance.
The film as a whole also sustains this interplay of distance and proximity. It creates identification with the events that occur while at the same time enabling spectators to view them as if they were happening to someone at a distance from them.