Weltschmerz
"pessimism; an apathetic or vaguely yearning outlook on life" Oxford Canadian Dictionary
Weltschmerz is, historically, a feeling of cynical detachment to the world - a world-wearniess in its direct translation from German - felt by great literary figures like Heinrich Heine and Lord Byron. Coined by Jean Paul, a German author, to describe the feeling that the reality we live in can never satisfy the mind, is the inspiration of this blog and many other books and poems by other cynical people.
High school was a long 4 years of work - if you're like me and you believed in the idealistic importance of work - and what really became of it? I've still ended up in another 4-5 years of study (though of better material), along side plenty of other people who hadn't and still haven't learned the importance of work. It seems that change does not exist.
So, weltschmerz is when you sit back and try to picture what 10 hours of concentration of an assignment really means in the long run, or when you go to a group interview for a job and, in response to why he applied for this job, a pompous, didactic guy replies with such jargons about how he wants to serve the students and the adminstration that you're thankful for studying long vocabulary lists in high school because you're now armed with heinous words to describe this pompous guy and the disappointment that you feel in the world at seeing such an empty, conceited suit being created by some process in the job market or university, or when youths in 19th century Germany just finish reading the Sorrows of Young Werther, or when Goethe enthusiasts realize that the name of the character whose sorrows were so bitter and deep is now the name of a sweet and mindless candy (Werther's Originals, mmm good), or when - well, you get the idea ...
Weltschmerz is, historically, a feeling of cynical detachment to the world - a world-wearniess in its direct translation from German - felt by great literary figures like Heinrich Heine and Lord Byron. Coined by Jean Paul, a German author, to describe the feeling that the reality we live in can never satisfy the mind, is the inspiration of this blog and many other books and poems by other cynical people.
High school was a long 4 years of work - if you're like me and you believed in the idealistic importance of work - and what really became of it? I've still ended up in another 4-5 years of study (though of better material), along side plenty of other people who hadn't and still haven't learned the importance of work. It seems that change does not exist.
So, weltschmerz is when you sit back and try to picture what 10 hours of concentration of an assignment really means in the long run, or when you go to a group interview for a job and, in response to why he applied for this job, a pompous, didactic guy replies with such jargons about how he wants to serve the students and the adminstration that you're thankful for studying long vocabulary lists in high school because you're now armed with heinous words to describe this pompous guy and the disappointment that you feel in the world at seeing such an empty, conceited suit being created by some process in the job market or university, or when youths in 19th century Germany just finish reading the Sorrows of Young Werther, or when Goethe enthusiasts realize that the name of the character whose sorrows were so bitter and deep is now the name of a sweet and mindless candy (Werther's Originals, mmm good), or when - well, you get the idea ...
posted by Kay at 8:24 PM
1 Comments:
I look at the idea of working at university a little differently... The way I see it, the only thing that matters in university is learning about interesting things. Marks are important to the extent that A) you need to do well enough to come back next term, and B) getting good marks is fun, but apart from that... The value of 10 hours of concentration on an assignment really lies in whether it was helpful to you in understanding the material that you're studying (which you presumably find interesting, right?).
What do you mean by the 'idealistic importance of work', incidentally?
heh... Also, try to guess who this is. :)
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