| Author | Message | ||
     Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.152.183.4 |
http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?p=78070#post78070 | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.152.183.4 |
A bit depressing that the Art of Pessimism has not retained its rarefied quality and power. Above is a link to a trending topic. The Optimum of the Pessimum. Or the Pessimum of the Optimum? It's fashionable to be pessimistic, and thus diminishing its power? A trending topic that stops here. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Pessimism has been going downhill for a long time. If you blend optimism and pessimism do you produce an opossum? | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Great pessimistic Art? Francis Bacon was the King, imo. Another great Irishman... | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
I wonder if we're mostly "glass half full" or "glass half empty" people here?  | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Very much "half full" in my case, Caroline, and I would consider myself an optimistic realist. I believe that people tend to fall into 9 broad categories of interaction with the universe, which should be pretty easy to work out from the above. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
There's a contradiction built into the conventional notion of 'optimism', as those who most strongly proclaim their optimism are often pretty fragile and unable to cope with any challenge – the kind of people who say they can't stand to listen to or watch anything 'depressing' because it 'brings them down'. (Stevie, that fairly obviously doesn't apply to you.) Whereas self-proclaimed pessimists are usually far more robust, not frightened by happy thoughts, quite able to take in a cute rom-com without going into a crisis. If you can't look into the night, you can't see by daylight either. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.151.147.87 |
Technicallly speaking, the glass must always have air in the top half, so it's half full of water plus half full of air, ergo it's always full. (Unless you put it in outer space where the vacuum conditions would render it empty) | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.151.147.87 |
(and possibly broken) | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.151.147.87 |
And Zed isn't a half empty/half full type - he's more of the "Hey, where the hell is the burger I ordered?" type. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.156.210.82 |
I don't even have a fucking glass. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 94.197.127.79 |
That's probably cos you smashed it to pieces and stuck it in someone's face, me dear! Glass half full for me, except for when it's half empty. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
Mine's completely empty ....  ... 'cos I just finished my last little drop of water!  | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
What does a nihilist see? | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.40.254.41 |
No hills. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Thanks, Joel. That's very kind of you. I proclaim myself to be a realist and view existence accordingly but I am perfectly aware that in my actions and reactions to apparently random events and the actions of other sentient beings I act like and come across as an optimist. This then must be my instinctive state of being as opposed to my perceived state of being. Hence I am an optimistic realist. You, on the other hand, strike me as a bit of an optimistic pessimist. Just pray you never run into a pessimistic pessimist! | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.179.34.133 |
believe that people tend to fall into 9 broad categories of interaction with the universe, which should be pretty easy to work out from the above. Only nine and not ten, Stevie?  | ||
| John Forth (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
Bah! I never expected anything from pessimism anyway. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
The tenth is also the zeroeth, Mick. I wonder is there a proper word for that? | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
If not I propose "zilth" as a new word! | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
"Just pray you never run into a pessimistic pessimist!" You mean like practically everyone I have ever dated... | ||
| Christopher Overend (Chris_overend) Username: Chris_overend Registered: 03-2012 Posted From: 217.33.165.66 |
As I haven't bought a glass, if I were to have one and it were half-filled with water, I'd be a thief. Pessimism will win in the end. I read an analogy somewhere that optimism is doomed to failure on an evolutionary level. The caveman who, lying facing the wall in his cave, hears a stick crack behind him and dismisses it as the wind, has poor genes to pass along, and deserves to be eaten for all our sakes. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 178.118.78.185 |
Pessimism is the right attitude to forestall surprises. If things turn out bad like the pessimist has foreseen, he can always say "Told you so." If they turn out good, so much the better (I suppose).  | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.18.174.156 |
They are drawn to your contradictory optimism, Joel, which means they tend to laugh when you profess yourself a pessimist. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.66.23.11 |
It's predestination that was doomed to failure from the start, not optimism. |