On [:] Laughter | Mikhail Bakhtin, 1965

Konstantin Somov Two Masks Pair on the Eve of the Carnival 1930 — Konstantin Somov, Two Masks (Pair on the Eve of the Carnival), 1930

“The principle of laughter and the carnival spirit on which the grotesque is based destroys this limited seriousness and all pretense of an extratemporal meaning and unconditional value of necessity. It frees human consciousness, thought, and imagination for new potentialities. For this reason, great changes, even in the field of science, are always preceded by a certain carnival consciousness that prepares the way.”

Mikhail Bakhtin, 1965