The saddest person alive ...

Agent Smith December 06, 2022 at 17:54 2275 views 9 comments
wants to compliment you, but coming from him/her it would be an insult!

:zip:

Comments (9)

Nils Loc December 06, 2022 at 18:38 #761401
So they'd remain silent, because they know their compliment would be wrongly construed as an insult by their peers. But why? Because so and so said so, thinks so?

And in their silence they'd further suffer/indulge in their sadness for failing to try at all because they know what others think.

Or they'd land the compliment and the burden of their sadness would lift, but not so much more than the weight of a needle on a camel's back.

Maybe the saddest figure would not be able to speak anyway. The prospect of will and motion would be too sad... or so sad as transcend/dissolve any self recognition of sadness. The attribution would come from second and third parties and the internal state of the "sad" person might be ineffable.

"Look how sad that guy is?"

"That isn't a sad guy, that's a catatonic statue, lost in the bliss of oblivion."

"Sad from my point of view and from the Queen's. RIP. There is poo all over him and that's sad."

Agent Smith December 08, 2022 at 04:02 #761764
Reply to Nils Loc

I like where you're going with this. May be we could turn it into a game if sorts.

Nils Loc December 08, 2022 at 06:34 #761787
Quoting Agent Smith
I like where you're going with this.


Not sure where this is going. You've yet to elaborate.

Are you drawing a connection between what perceived social status confers on the value of a compliment? The saddest person might have then have extremely low status for you. So like a girl in the movie Mean Girls, you say on reception of said compliment from notoriously sad Megan: "Ewwww, Megan, go join the pigs in the cafeteria, and stop insulting me with your gross ass compliments. You'll never be our friend."
Agent Smith December 08, 2022 at 06:50 #761790
Reply to Nils Loc :grin:

Something like that. :up:

As a specific case of sorrow and as a general case of agony.
Agent Smith December 09, 2022 at 08:02 #762095
A list of relevant words/word phrases: Pain, unhappy, sad, sorrow, anguish, agony, grief, loss, glum, gloom, doom, excruciate, torment, angst, the blues, the doldrums, hell/ish, nightmare, etc.
javi2541997 December 09, 2022 at 12:55 #762148
Quoting Agent Smith
Pain, unhappy, sad, sorrow, anguish, agony, grief, loss, glum, gloom, doom, excruciate, torment, angst, the blues, the doldrums, hell/ish, nightmare, etc.


It is interesting because all of those words, despite of being related to sadness, tend to be the most influential towards writers and philosophers.
Agent Smith December 10, 2022 at 05:13 #762455
Reply to javi2541997

It would be interesting to do a lexical analysis of writing - which groups prefer which words to express what is essentially, in Buddhist terms, dukkha.
javi2541997 December 10, 2022 at 07:02 #762466
Reply to Agent Smith Fully agree with you, friend. Lexical analysis is very complex but interesting. I am not confident enough to debate on it... I don't have such criteria or knowledge.
Probably in the future!
Agent Smith December 10, 2022 at 09:02 #762469