Are You Not Entertained?
James Poulos, Ed. ·
Aug 19, 2010 at 4:59pm
What’s distinctive about boredom is that we don't see it as either a condition of our own selves or a sin, but rather something that just happens to us. When we’re bored, we don't think there’s anything wrong with us: we think the world is at fault. Stupid old world — it doesn't interest me. And interesting me is the world’s job. -- Alan Jacobs
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Jul '10
Re: Are You Not Entertained?
You bore me, James.
:--)
Honestly, boredom is a natural state of affairs in a 16 year old, for whom everything is about themselves. We allow it to become a sin when we refuse to grow out of that mindset.
May '10
Re: Are You Not Entertained?
Hey, don't blame me. I'm just re-writing some Gilbert and Sullivan lyrics for a blog post and wondering how I might get John Boehner in a pirate hat and Mike Pence to wear an eyepace and swing a saber.
May '10
Re: Are You Not Entertained?
And eyepatch, that is. Stupid tired, bored eyes.
Jul '10
Re: Are You Not Entertained?
What are you, in your '20's?
Yeah, the planet doesn't do fart jokes.
Jun '10
Re: Are You Not Entertained?
God didn't want us to be bored. That's why he gave us music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp4EdNUQaPc
Aug '10
Re: Are You Not Entertained?
I don't know about the rest of you guys, but my family sure treated us kids like our boredom was a sin.
I don't know if they were right in shaming us so much for being bored, and I hope not to do that to my kids -- that is, make 'em feel so guilty about just feeling boredom.
I just plan to tell my kids, "Oh, you're bored right now? Super! That means you can clean out the cabinet beneath the kitchen sink, or do that spackling, or weeding, or..." Perky-like. No need for guilt.
I bet they'll stop being bored real quick.
Edited on Aug 20, 2010 at 12:50pmMay '10
Re: Are You Not Entertained?
So true! To help usher our teens into adulthood, I've come to rotely answering their incessant "I'm bored" with a loving (and kidding) "You must have me confused with somebody who gives a [vulgarity]."
Edited on Aug 19, 2010 at 7:07pmMay '10
Re: Are You Not Entertained?
etoiledunord: God didn't want us to be bored. That's why he gave us music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp4EdNUQaPc · Aug 19 at 5:27pm
God gave us Bach: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X58vtxzgs7E
Jul '10
Re: Are You Not Entertained?
I think only boring people get bored.
Jul '10
Re: Are You Not Entertained?
"Bore: A man who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company." Gian Vincenzo Gravina
Re: Are You Not Entertained?
I daily give thanks for my boring childhood. It made digging into all of those books appealing, on a relative basis.
Re: Are You Not Entertained?
My mother told me that boredom was nothing more than mental incuriosity. Highly effective way of keeping us from complaining about boredom.
Jul '10
Re: Are You Not Entertained?
On the contrary, I always see boredom as my own fault. Much as Ms. Hemingway's mother described, I see it as my own lack of curiosity or drive to find new and interesting ways of keeping myself excited. Lord knows there are so many interesting things to do, see and learn about in the world, to fall into the state of boredom is due only to laziness on the part of the individual.
Jun '10
Re: Are You Not Entertained?
Caroline
etoiledunord: God didn't want us to be bored. That's why he gave us music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp4EdNUQaPc · Aug 19 at 5:27pm
God gave us Bach: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X58vtxzgs7E · Aug 19 at 6:02pm
That's great too, but the Paris Orchestral Ensemble is rather high-maintenence for us simple folk. :)
Jun '10
Re: Are You Not Entertained?
It IS the world's job to entertain, fascinate, and inspire me. The world works for me. It is just 1,000,000 unruly employees that overwhelm my capacity to manage it effectively! And what is more boring than yet one more employee that won't do the job you ineffectively assigned to them! Of course, once we learn how to leverage the talents of any of those employees effectively, they do their "job" with gusto!
May '10
Re: Are You Not Entertained?
Scott Reusser
So true! To help usher our teens into adulthood, I've come to rotely answering their incessant "I'm bored" with a loving (and kidding) "You must have me confused with somebody who gives a [vulgarity]." · Aug 19 at 5:59pm
For the record, a very mild vulgarity. (Sorry, editors: I truly thought that one was harmless enough to get away with :-) )
Re: Are You Not Entertained?
I haven't been bored since the internet was invented.
Jul '10
Re: Are You Not Entertained?
Ennui is the great tragedy of a bizzarely lucky existence. Oh the horror.
May '10
Re: Are You Not Entertained?
Oh, the ennui. And please, Jimmy, don't do yet another parody of Modern Major General.
Re: Are You Not Entertained?
I remember years and years ago, as a small kid, seeing the video game Pong for the first time, and thinking, wow, if I had that I'd never be bored.
The only time I'm bored, I think, is when I'm confronted with something boring -- a boring movie I'm watching, or, these days, if I'm watching a cut of a show I'm working on and I'm bored in a scene. That's a sign we need to punch it up or cut some more, or pick up the pace somehow. So, for me, boredom is something I have to be sensitive to. Am I bored writing a scene? Then the scene is probably boring. Better fix it.
When I'm home and having nothing to do, it just means I've forgotten to take the dog for a walk. Because there's never nothing to do. My default setting is "nap."