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OP WARNING: Lots of questions at the end!
I am reading Jeffrey Eugenides's Middlesex and came across this thought in his main character / narrator:
Emotions, in my experience, aren't covered by single words. I don't believe in "sadness," "joy," or "regret." Maybe the best proof that the language is patriarchal is that it oversimplifies feeling. I'd like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions, Germanic train-car constructions like, say, "the happiness that attends disaster." Or: "the disappointment of sleeping with one's fantasy." I'd like to show how "intimations of mortality brought on by aging family members" connects with "the hatred of mirrors that begins in middle age." I'd like to have a word for "the sadness inspired by failing restaurants" as well as for "the excitement of getting a room with a minibar." I've never had the right words to describe my life, and now that I've entered my story, I need them more than ever.
How do you feel about this? Would you agree that the words for emotions fall short to describe human experience? (in English or in your other languages). Is there any "train-car construction" that you definitely would create in order to describe a specific emotion you have experienced? Finally, would you agree that this is a sign that "language is patriarchal"?
I'm curious to read your answers, and I'll also post mine when I have a bit more time to think about it. Thank you.
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted mixed emotions Marianna 07/30/05 07:31 AM Re: mixed emotions Faldage 07/30/05 10:32 AM Re: mixed emotions plutarch 07/30/05 10:39 AM Re: mixed emotions of troy 07/30/05 02:35 PM Re: mixed emotions Marianna 07/31/05 06:39 PM Re: mixed emotions belligerentyouth 08/01/05 02:55 PM Re: mixed emotions plutarch 08/01/05 03:25 PM Re: random thoughts on the topic. Zed 08/03/05 04:27 PM Re: mixed emotions of troy 08/03/05 05:14 PM "It has ever been thus" plutarch 08/03/05 06:35 PM Re: mixed emotions theContrarian 08/03/05 07:53 PM Re: mixed emotions plutarch 08/03/05 07:57 PM Re: mixed emotions theContrarian 08/03/05 08:10 PM Re: mixed emotions plutarch 08/03/05 08:53 PM Re: mixed emotions of troy 08/03/05 09:24 PM Special Feature? - The Limerick News plutarch 08/03/05 09:31 PM Re: Truly pissed off Zed 08/03/05 10:49 PM Re: Truly pissed off plutarch 08/03/05 10:57 PM Re: Truly pissed off snoot 08/04/05 02:51 AM
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