[lit-ideas] Re: Laugh Tracks

It occurs to me that people are so led around in Bernays style "Crystallizing Public Opinion" that people literally can't be trusted even to figure out what's funny. They have to be cued to laugh with laugh tracks. BTW, the term Kristallnacht comes in part because Goebbels kept the book "Crystallizing Public Opinion" on his desk, needless to say an irony (no doubt a delicious irony to Goebbels) in addition to all the broken glass meaning of the word. (Source: Human Smoke, Nicholson Baker)
There's really no reference to broken glass in the word 'Kristallnacht,' which literally means 'crystal night.' And the other common English name, 'night of [the] broken glass,' would have nothing to do with the verb 'to crystalize,' used in the book Goebbels is said to have kept on his desk. (Did Goebbels really spend much time in his office?) Here, crystallization refers to giving a definite form or shape to, hence, shaping, hence, figuratively bringing together or forming public opinion. Nicholson Baker is trying to force a meaningful relation between the title of Goebbel's book, and 'broken glass.' There is none.
On a more serious note, if people 'literally' can't be trusted (the deceitful buggers) to recognize humor without the prompting of a laugh track, why should they ever laugh at movies, plays, or books? 

Robert Paul

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