A friend sent me a review of Under Milkwood: "What's so funny about a town full of sociopaths? Dylan Thomas knew the answer: that life is better lived with a dark passion than a squeaky-clean complaisance; that with all their flaws, the denizens of Llareggub are divine creations, deserving of forgiveness and acceptance, laughter and love. Thomas' characters make us laugh, even as they engage in a myriad of sins more deadly than those normally committed by those of us in the outside world. Why do we laugh? Because, in spite of their sins, these outlandish characters are not so very different from you and me." (I also got clued in as to the original eman.)
This reminded me of a bit I heard on TV yesterday: author Adam Davies was talking about his book, "The Frog King". (I see that Amazon lists it as "The Frog King: A Love Story".) He was saying that in this book, he wanted to explore whether someone who has many flaws and isn't necessarily likeable could in the end be found to be worthy of love (note--this is a severe shortening of all that he had to say). He said he discovered his favorite moment in all of literature when he was in the 9th grade (approx. age 14) and it is still his favorite: when Odysseus gets back home and no one knows him after so long a time, until his childhood nurse recognizes him by an old scar on his leg. Mr. Davies said that, "We are known by the scars life gives us", and I thought that was kind of profound.
It sounds like both this play and this book more or less celebrate the un-"pretty" (figurative sense, not literal), not-very-nice people.
