Lack-Excess Social Dialectic
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#01
Only a Joke Can Save Us: A Theory of Comedy · Todd McGowan · p.31
Lack and Excess > The Exigencies of Social Coherence
Theoretical move: Lack and excess are not opposed but structurally co-constitutive: the subject's primordial lack (produced by entrance into language/signification) is the very condition of possibility for excess/enjoyment, and social cohesion is maintained precisely by keeping the two experientially separated — a separation that comedy momentarily undoes by revealing their identity.
Just as there is no possible social order without lack, there is none without excess. If lack ensures that no one breaks the social bond, excess ensures that everyone has a libidinal investment in it.