Arghrondi-Who-Smiles

One of the signs that a new era had begun to arise out of the ashes of the post-Uzdumalian culture came in the form of a most singular entertainer, Arghrondi-Who-Smiles, and his many imitators. For several decades, public entertainments had been limited to the plaintive, wordless humming of several itinerant troubadours, including Barbineto-Who-Cries, Ulala-Who-Pines, and Everything-Is-Wanted. Their sorrowful melodies, performed entirely without accompaniment, were punctuated, whenever possible, with groaning and tears. As interest in these figures began to be taken for granted, the common practice of weeping on command gradually lost its poignancy and a new model of aesthetic perfection was found in Arghrondi-Who-Smiles.

Childhood

Arghrondi, who started his career as Arghrondi-Who-Cries, was born outside the Intrigular, the wall that, at the time, surrounded the Principal Artist's city of Kreyinte. While the gates were open from dawn until midday, little Arghrondi, whose parents were off working as rebula-pickers, would find his way in to the central fountain of Kreyinte, where hordes of hummers gathered to practice their craft. Some, he later said, would be so carried away by their sadness that the bawling would draw off the tune entirely. It was while watching their faces crumple under the weight of sadness and universal compassion that he first developed the idea for his original act.

Early Performances

At the age of fifteen, Arghrondi began performing just outside the walls of Kreyinte, at a spot where one could hear the cacophonous humming of the practicing hummers could be distinctly heard. At dawn he would arrive, consume half a loaf of bread, and smile as broadly as he could, shuddering with silent laughter. As the hours wore on, his smile would wane with exhaustion, until, at mid-morning, it began to tremble toward a frown. An hour later, Arghrondi would be wracked by violent sobs, and by midday, he could be found near death, wet with tears and mucus, lying along the walls of Kreyinte. When the sun reached the zenith and the humming from inside the walls had died off, he would pick himself up, consume the rest of the bread, and walk home.

Reception

It wasn't long before Arghrondi-Who-Cries had attracted a significant audience. Unfortunately, those who wrote about his act in the Extra-Intrigular press had interpreted it as a satirical parody of the pseudo-pieties of manufactured suffering as popularized by the post-Uzdumalian troubadours. As crowds came in greater and greater numbers to visit Arghrondi's spot outside the Intrigular, they began to laugh as his face fell. By the time Arghrondi was seventeen, his largest crowd came only for the last half-hour of the performance to double over in laughter as he fell over on his side. Thus a comic genius was born.

Mature Performances

Seeking a new audience and a new style, and having moved past his outrage at the crowds he thought had misinterpreted his work, Arghrondi decided his training period had ended and he was ready to travel to nearby towns with a new act. Calling himself Arghrondi-Who-Smiles, he would enter a town, weeping profusely, at dawn. Once he dragged himself into the city center, his weeping would gradually cease. By mid-morning, his face appeared almost content, and, by noon, his mouth and eyes were drawn into the most extreme rictus of ecstasy imaginable, his body trembling with joyful silent laughter. This act was so demanding on the artist's body that it usually ended with him vomiting into the nearest fountain, still shaking with laughter.

Without a Kreyinten license, of course, this act was entirely illegal, but what was even more disturbing to authorities was the reaction of the crowds who gathered to watch him. Instead of laughing, which would have been entirely appropriate under the law, the crowds would begin to hum sad old songs, thus themselves becoming illegal performers. As Arghrondi's act had been developed as a reaction to popular songs, it was appropriate that the audience, in this case, would take on the role of entertainer, and Arghrondi himself would provide the listener's emotion, except that the "entertainment" here (usually a hideous cacophony of mocking, tuneless humming) would be a reaction to Arghrondi's expressions.

Scholars have found Arghrondi to be a particularly useful illustration of many of the aesthetic features of early Targhandism, and so he has found a posthumous fame that even exceeds the magnificence of the crowds he was entertained by at the height of his career.

Arghrondi-Who-Smiles died at the age of 25, stabbed in the back by a member of the Yuraewan police who could no longer tolerate the sound of his audience, who immediately fell silent.

References:

Kreyinte

rebula-picking