Yes, the comic genius of Wittgenstein has been largely overlooked. Along with Keaton, one could recognize the influence of Wilde (through the Bloomsbury group), whose comedy concerned searching among the most trivial things to find nuggets of truth and beauty. This is a specifically *queer* strategy, perfected by Wittgenstein, and most of us who take pleasure in Wittgenstein do so for his elevation of the apparently trivial. 20th century Anglo philosophy worked hard to dismiss this aspect of W., in part due to homophobia, and to an academic environment that overemphasized the more “serious” aspects of human thinking. (“My propositions serve as elucidations in the following way: anyone who understands me eventually recognizes them as nonsensical, when he has used them—as steps—to climb beyond them.”)
Yes, the comic genius of Wittgenstein has been largely overlooked. Along with Keaton, one could recognize the influence of Wilde (through the Bloomsbury group), whose comedy concerned searching among the most trivial things to find nuggets of truth and beauty. This is a specifically *queer* strategy, perfected by Wittgenstein, and most of us who take pleasure in Wittgenstein do so for his elevation of the apparently trivial. 20th century Anglo philosophy worked hard to dismiss this aspect of W., in part due to homophobia, and to an academic environment that overemphasized the more “serious” aspects of human thinking. (“My propositions serve as elucidations in the following way: anyone who understands me eventually recognizes them as nonsensical, when he has used them—as steps—to climb beyond them.”)