The doctrine of the Dolorous Joke was the second of the four Targhandic mysteries. Targhandism was a bifurcated religion; new adherents were recruited, given explanations of Targhandic doctrine and teachings, and allowed to participate in public ceremonies, but as converts were judged to be more committed to the Targhandic movement, they were initiated into the hidden secrets of the faith. The "Dolorous Joke" was the precept that humans neither lived in a state of divine grace nor faced judgment in the afterlife for their actions but in fact were damned and living in hell. (Targhandic traditions apparently differed on a regional basis on the question of which of the six hells humanity had been consigned to or if, in fact, there were six hells rather than only one.) This contradicted the emphasis on self-betterment provided to those knowing only Outer Targhandism, and differed significantly from such earlier heretical beliefs as Utolioism and Raíchaism, which simply held that certain people were in fact devils wearing human flesh.

 

The idea that the Great God is interested in humanity's struggles, tribulations, and offerings only as a cruel joke -- perhaps not even cruel, for who can explain the ways of the Great God? -- was, by many accounts, both terrifying and liberating. Cut off from any promise of exit from the hell of physical existence into the proper spiritual plane of pure energy (at least before being initiated into the penultimate and ultimate mysteries), Targhandic leaders frequently behaved shockingly. While the mass of Targhadites followed the new interpretations of the Sixty-seven Truths, those which had been held to cover the proper behavior between social orders were ignored and even inverted by initiates; as the Targhandic proselytizer Ghizni once wrote, "To any man, the death of the king of apes is more likely an occasion to laugh than an occasion to mourn." Although the context of her letter was the desecration of the Imperial Zoo, the hidden meaning was presumably clear to her correspondent, the scientist and Targhandic follower Piroska-Grinds-Mountains. It is unclear if the work of Arghrondi-Who-Smiles and subsequent laughing artists was meant to express this mystery metaphorically, or if the revulsion with which Arghondi's work was received by the authorities merely reflected their attitudes to the underlying message of empowerment of the Fifth Estate to see themselves as unlicensed artists.

 

This aspect of Targhandic teachings likely explains why Targhandites were among the few exceptions to the Uzdumalian belief in portents; the Great God, they held, was not above dangling a promise and pulling it away for a laugh, and the hell to which humanity had been consigned was nothing if not ever-fluid. The fact that the Sixty-seven Truths covered proper behavior in times of sorrow and morning, servile debasement, rages righteous and unrighteous, and contemplative "focus" but gave no guidance about laughter was held to be one of the crowning ironies of the Great God's joke.

 

See also:

Arghrondi-Who-Smiles

Heretical Sects of Uzda

Sixty-seven Truths

Hell