Dangerous Laughter, by Steven Millhauser Literary Essay
Life is all about balance. The balance of good, bad, happiness, and sadness all play a part in how well one lives their life. Nowhere do we see this more clearly than in Steven Millhauser’s Dangerous Laughter; a surrealistic short story that draws on the idea that everything in life needs to balanced in order to remain healthy. In the story, the author explores a society of bored youth who get consumed into a fad of orgasmic laughter. It eventually revolves around an ordinary teenage girl who succumbs to this fad, engulfing her in brief popularity that culminates in a tragedy that her classmates forget with surprising ease. Millhauser embeds each of his well crafted words with the concept of stepping away from the negative extremes of life, and particularly, youth’s susceptibility to it.
The story begins setting the scene of a group of adolescent youth living in a small town during the summer time. The characters introduced in the opening scene are established as characters longing for the extremes of new adventure and the utmost experiences. “We were fourteen and fifteen, scornful of childhood, remote from the world of stern and ludicrous adults. ...We were bored, we were restless, we longed to be seized by any whim or passion and follow it to the farthest reaches of our natures.” (Millhauser 75) Restless youth have a tendency for being vulnerable--needing to explore the world and learn the ideas of life for themselves, but along the way making an end number of mistakes because of it. This is something that Millhauser pats down for us during the first few pages of story.
In the book, something that began as a “harmless pastime” soon becomes something much more than that. ...”the idea had the simplicity of all inspired things.” (Millhauser 76) It begins with someone slowly saying a word, drawing out its “inner stupidity.” What attracted them to the concept of hilarity was not the actual words themselves, but “the sharp heaves and gasps of laughter itself.”
The story begins setting the scene of a group of adolescent youth living in a small town during the summer time. The characters introduced in the opening scene are established as characters longing for the extremes of new adventure and the utmost experiences. “We were fourteen and fifteen, scornful of childhood, remote from the world of stern and ludicrous adults. ...We were bored, we were restless, we longed to be seized by any whim or passion and follow it to the farthest reaches of our natures.” (Millhauser 75) Restless youth have a tendency for being vulnerable--needing to explore the world and learn the ideas of life for themselves, but along the way making an end number of mistakes because of it. This is something that Millhauser pats down for us during the first few pages of story.
In the book, something that began as a “harmless pastime” soon becomes something much more than that. ...”the idea had the simplicity of all inspired things.” (Millhauser 76) It begins with someone slowly saying a word, drawing out its “inner stupidity.” What attracted them to the concept of hilarity was not the actual words themselves, but “the sharp heaves and gasps of laughter itself.”