Posted by Atticus on October 5, 2004, at 11:17:42
In reply to Re: poem ... Got Eyes Like Leeches, posted by Jai Narayan on October 5, 2004, at 10:32:14
Hi Jai,
I'm fine. This little bit of musing is based on a woman I observed in a bar on Saturday. She just seemed (to me) to be looking at the broken spirits, the human flotsam and jetsam, washed up on the bar, stinking of gin. Never touched her wine. Never spoke to anyone. But her eyes were striking, like the equivalent of a vampire's fangs. So this is what I spun out of that. Sometimes I wonder if people who are not regular Babblers (or at least active participants) come to this site to do a little of the same thing. So this was a metaphor for that, too -- the kind of people who slow down for a dreadful car wreck and don't think, "How tragic," but rather, "Wow, glad that wasn't me. My life is bad, but that person's is worse. That makes me feel better about all the rotten things that have come my way." The Germans have an excellent word for it, "schadenfreude," which roughly translates as "taking a malicious satisfaction in the misfortunes of others." Ta. ;) Atticus
poster:Atticus
thread:398990
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/write/20040925/msgs/399166.html