Currentmacro
Orientation: Comedy of Society · Crime Comedy · Neo-Nonsense.
It tells you the main tension the book is built on.
In this page ~4 min
Definition
Current → Branch → Engine
A current is the macro orientation of a novel’s laughter. It stays readable. It does not freeze the book into a rigid genre label.
The atlas uses a simple ladder: Current → Branch → Engine, then refine with the Toolbox: Environment + Comedy level. Labs and flags are optional.
Branchwhere it plays
The social arena that produces friction.
Examples: Etiquette, Manners, Workplace, Family.
Enginehow it moves
The comic dynamics that drive scenes and plot.
Examples: Frustration, Winner, Comeback, Vaudeville.
ToolboxOpen →
Refine: Environment (concrete terrain) + Comedy level (Engine / Thread / Turn).
Labs + flags: optional, used when relevant.
Current
Comedy of Society
The individual facing the group: codes, institutions, social pressure.
Comedy of Society observes how people miss each other — through roles, rituals, politeness, hierarchies, and the cost of “fitting in”.
Branch (where it plays)
- Etiquette / Code (clubs, rituals, roles)
- Manners (social embarrassment, romance, cruelty)
- Workplace (office, campus, bureaucracy)
- Family (domestic pressure, roles, repetition)
Engine (how it moves)
- Frustration (skid, collapse)
- Winner (success paradox)
- Comeback (reinvention)
- Vaudeville (clockwork misunderstandings)
Refine with the ToolboxOpen →
Environment (concrete terrain) + Comedy level (Engine / Thread / Turn).
Labs and flags are optional layers.
Current
Crime Comedy
Transgression as a comic device: plans, blunders, escalation, elastic morality.
Crime Comedy turns plot into a machine. The laughs come from competence gaps, rational criminal thinking, and consequences that outgrow the plan.
Branch (where it plays)
- Caper (plans, blunders, escalation)
- Heist / Burglar (craft, chaos)
- Comic noir (dark edges)
- Cosy / Amateur (community, misread clues)
Engine (how it moves)
Crime brings its own engines (schemer, hapless criminal, comic investigator…),
but it can also reuse classic engines: Frustration, Winner, Vaudeville.
Refine with the ToolboxOpen →
Environment (concrete terrain) + Comedy level (Engine / Thread / Turn).
Labs and flags are optional layers.
Current
Neo-Nonsense
Vertigo of meaning: rigorous prose in a world that slips its own logic.
Neo-Nonsense responds to cracked certainties (systems, science, ideology). Comedy can be tonal, structural, or metaphysical — often with cinematic grammar.
Branch (where it plays)
- Absurd / Surreal (deadpan chaos)
- Postmodern satire (systems, paranoia)
- Comic SF (cosmic bureaucracy)
- Meta / Formal (narration as device)
Engine (how it moves)
Neo-Nonsense often pushes engines into structural territory:
- Rigour → crack (systems glitch)
- Paradox games (logical traps)
- Existential self-mockery (the “I” vs universe)
Refine with the ToolboxOpen →
Environment (concrete terrain) + Comedy level (Engine / Thread / Turn).
Labs and flags are optional layers.
Orientation
Where to start?
Start with a novel or an author, then follow Current → Branch → Engine.
If a book is “hybrid”, the guide still works: the ladder remains stable and the Toolbox clarifies centrality (Engine / Thread / Turn).
Start with a novel guideOpen →
Pick one book. Identify its current, branch, engine. Refine with environment + comedy level.
- stable comparability
- clear hybrid handling
Start with an author profileOpen →
See recurring devices: institutions, tempo, engines, and tonal signatures.
- Core Comedy / Hybrid / Comic Incursions
- cross-links to novel guides
Toolbox
Toolbox used in every guide
Refine every guide with the same terms: Environment + Comedy level.
Labs and flags remain optional layers.