Comedy Or Tragedy?

"Flandry sat down and laughed. Why not? The gods, if any, did. I sometimes think we were created because the gods wanted to be entertained one evening by a farce - but no, that can't be. We are high comedy at least."
-Poul Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (New York, 2012), p. 143.

(The Gods Laughed is the title of a collection of Poul Anderson's short stories.)

Are we comedy? As mentioned before, I recently attended a celebration of the life of local teacher and writer, Julian Holt. A harrowing farewell statement by Julian was read. He had concluded that human life is a tragedy that is more accurately expressed by the novels of Thomas Hardy than by those of Charles Dickens with their cheerful endings.

Julian recalled atrocities committed by the armed forces of Great Powers during the twentieth century and also his own son's death at the age of twenty. Impersonal forces beyond our control...

However, Julian also valued the responses of irony, absurdity and laughter. And Dominic Flandry is keenly aware of the suffering caused by technological warfare.