The role of humour in serious fiction

One of the first things that impressed me in the reading of Shakespeare's plays (he was, after all, quite good at his job) was his use of fools, clowns, eccentrics and humour at intervals in even the darkest of tragedies.  He realised that you cannot tell a dark story successfully if you do not have moments in which you lift the gloom and let in the light -- and the plays are full of richly comic characters.  This principle of light and shade has, perhaps, been forgotten about in many recent TV dramas; one of the reasons why I got a bit fed up with the successful series called "Hinterland" in the end was that it was unremittingly gloomy.  Hardly anybody ever smiled, let alone laughed, and the viewer was dragged in to the misery portrayed on screen.  Celtic Noir, on the model (quite consciously) of Scandi Noir...........

Many of the great novelists realised the importance of comedic episodes too.  Just think Dickens and his catalogue of rogues, villains and eccentrics!  Some of them are seriously weird, if not creepy and grotesque -- but it is because of their presence that the Dickens novels, when translated onto the screen, become so colourful and so memorable.  We don't remember the words -- just the images.

In my own small way I have tried to emulate the masters in the eight novels of the Angel Mountain saga -- and in my writing I quite deliberately tried to alternate episodes of extreme darkness and trauma with episodes of eccentric good humour.  This goes with Martha's character -- as somebody having to deal with bipolar condition, her periods of deepest and darkest depression have to alternate with episodes in which she is on top of the world, full of high spirits, living and loving life to the full, and having fits of the giggles with her beloved handmaiden Bessie.......

Anyway, when I am asked about those funny bits of the text which have given me, as a writer, the most pleasure, I mention these:

The Battle of Parc Haidd, on pp 341-345 of House of Angels, in which a group of muscular men with very small brains make fools of themselves by digging a hole in a field looking for a non-existent treasure. The whole scene is wildly over the top, but I wanted something frothy and eccentric as a counterbalance to the brutality that exists elsewhere in the book, including the letter from ”An Irish Friend” which follows on pp 379-385.

Martha’s theological discussion with Rector Devonald on pp 50-56 of Dark Angel, during which she gets him to agree to a church wedding for Patty and Jake.

The episode relating to the loss of Martha’s ugly chest following a distraint order, on pp 120-123 of Rebecca and the Angels, and the subsequent return of the chest by the Ceffyl Pren mob, described on pp 135-137.

The episode in which Martha seduces Amos Jones in Tycanol Woods, recounted on pp 185-196 of Flying with Angels. The seduction of a married minister of religion may not strike the reader as funny -- but I enjoyed writing this episode, trying to make it gentle, poignant and funny at the same time.

The Big Meeting in Brynberian Chapel, recounted on pp 217-226 of Flying with Angels, in which Shemi rescues Amos from excommunication.

The episode in which Shemi deals with the charge of murder brought against him in the Petty Sessions, on pp 238-243 of Flying with Angels.