[lit-ideas] Re: Schadenfreude
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:14:14 EST
I'm so happy I can post!!!! -- (second today, hey).
Geary aptly called his poem, "Schadenfreude". I thought I had seen a book
about untranslatable books with that title, but I may be wrong. What amazon.com
advertises now is "Schadenfreude, Baby!", by L. Lee, "a delicious look at the
misfortunes of others, and the pleasures they bring". In any case, Geary
used it for his brilliant synecdoche, "Brooks Brothers brother" imagery.
I pasted this from the OED. Oddly, the first time, I hadn't noticed the
pasting had made the Greek disappear. It's 'epikhairekakia', if you must:
1852 R. C. TRENCH Study of Words, p. 29
"What a fearful thing [but I've seen worse. JLS]
is it that
any [old] language
should have a word expressive of the pleasure which men
[and boys]
feel at the calamities of others;
for the existence of the word bears testimony to
the existence of the thing.
[But cfr. D. G. Myers on 'G-d']
And yet in more than one [two?]
such a word is found...
In the Greek epikhairekakia, in the German, ‘Schadenfreude’.
The second quote, by Carlyle, may have an etymological point (for I do fail
to find cognates for 'schaden' and 'freude' in English).
1867 CARLYLE Shooting Niagara: & After? p. 12
Have not I a kind of secret satisfaction,
of the malicious or even of the judiciary kind
(schadenfreude, ‘mischief-joy’, the Germans call it,
but really it is justice-joy withal),
that he they call ‘Dizzy’ is to do it.
1895 C. LOWE German Emperor William II, p. 256
But the Schadenfreude, or malicious joy,
of the French was premature.
1901 Quarterly Rev., vol. 193, p. 316
Sometimes it [sc. Queen Victoria's smile]
would be coyly negative, leading the speaker on,
the lips slightly opened,
with a suggestion of kindly fun,
even of a little innocent Schadenfreude.
1902 Contemp. Rev. May 662
I am persuaded that what
(no doubt by a slip of undesigned candour)
is described in the recent Life of Claude Bernard
by an eminent English physiologist
as the ‘Joys of the Laboratory’,
are very real ‘joys’ to the vivisector; that is, Schadenfreude,
Pleasure in the Pain he witnesses and creates.
1902 C. HAGUE tr. Brentano's Origin of Knowledge of Right & Wrong 85
Pleasure at the misfortunes of others (Schadenfreude) is bad on the
first ground.
1920 F. HAMILTON Days before Yesterday p. 118
The particular sentiment described in German as ‘schadenfreude’
‘pleasure over another's troubles’
[How do we get, syntactically, that it has to be _another's_ trouble? In
some other expressions it's precisely the opposite: "m-th-r---er"]
... makes but little appeal to the average Briton except
where questions of age and of failing powers come into play."
1939 Palestine Post 31 Aug. 6/3
"There appears to be a certain amount of ‘Schadenfreude’ in
London..at Germany's failure to get the German-Soviet Pact ratified.
1947 AUDEN Age of Anxiety (1948) I. 14
The Schadenfreude of cooks at keyholes -- must say I prefer Geary's
plain "Schadenfreude".
1974 K. CLARK Another Part of Wood i. 8
Arthur Rackham..certainly had a vein of schadenfreude (what is now
misleadingly described as sadism)
and took an intense delight in scraggy fingers.
1977 ‘E. CRISPIN’ Glimpses of Moon iv. 62
Solidarity or no solidarity, Widger was not wholly without Schadenfreude at
seeing his informative colleague discomfited for once.
1978 ‘A. STUART’ Vicious Circles 15
For a Russian..there is a curious fascination, mixed with Schadenfreude,
about..titles and honours lists.
[here below it's not clear it is _other's troubles_ right?]
Cheers,
JL
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