Why Folly?

I have always been attracted to Folly, in one way or another. The praise of something as foolish as Folly arouses my long-nurtured affection for contradictions, which I take to indicate truth. I take Folly very seriously - I intend to pursue it in the most rigorous manner and not only in order to intensify the paradox. I have always thought that there is nothing funny about Folly unless it is seriously premeditated. The most shallow and superficial jokes are funniest when they conducted in carefully picked conditions - specific timing, a certain atmosphere and so forth. One may say, that such an endeavour renounces the shallowness of the joke from which we began. But if it was not the for the initial shallowness, it wouldn't have been possible to construct the complex sophistication. Something of the primordial foolishness indeed remains, traces of instinctive Folly in the work of art of multi-layered humour.

It was said on W.S Gilbert that his foe was folly, but he purposed a steady defence of Folly when he observed that it carries a grain of truth and wisdom in it. Moreover, Folly may serve to facilitate the understanding of such truths, especially those difficult to accept. But Gilbert's words suggest another, deeper message - that those truths that Folly conveys cannot be adequately covered by conventional wisdom. The Jester's Folly is subject to no academic rule and it possesses a potential force that can wither the successful upstart. Are there such truths, only available to Folly? I do not know for certain, but I do think that by hiding some truths, Folly may serve to expose them. Indeed, even when it isn't absolutely necessary to wrap truths in Folly, it may still be very helpful or in the very least - funny. In any rate, I intend to explore this path further - seriously pursuing Folly and examining serious matters in a silly manner. Where this will bring me, I do not know, but I have a feeling I will end up where I need to be.

When they’re offered to the world in merry guise,

Unpleasant truths are swallowed with a will –

For he who’d make his fellow-creatures wise

Should always gild the philosophic pill!

(Yeoman of the Guard, Act I)