Fictionlet

[the_gneech]

Brigid groaned as she clicked off the TV with the remote. "Geeze, I'm so sick of all this. So much stupidity. So much corruption. You just find yourself staring at the world and wondering how you can stand to get up in the morning. I'm worn out. I can't take any more angst."

"Not angst," said Greg. "Ennui."

She rolled her head back on the couch and looked over at the table where he was working. "What?"

"A deep-seated feeling of world-weariness is ennui, not angst. Angst is despair arising from doubt and frustration, as in 'anxiety'. Angst is an emotional crisis; ennui is more of a continual state. Since you're fed up, rather than freaking out, you don't have angst. It's ennui you can't take any more of."

She closed her eyes, as if just looking at him were wearing her out. "Thanks," she said. "Mere words cannot express how grateful I am to you for clearing that up."

"On the other hand," Greg continued, "if you just felt vaguely unhappy without any discernible cause, that would be malaise."

-The Gneech

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Comments

[laurie-robey.livejournal.com]

<MST>
Have some malaise, sucka!
</MST>

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

One of the great one-liners!

-TG

[blacktigr.livejournal.com]

Love this one. Will share. :)

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :)

-TG

[exatron.livejournal.com]

I'll be feeling like that when I get home this evening and find 30 election-related messages on my answering machine.

newspaper clipping

[mammallamadevil.livejournal.com]

Greg, 30th yuppie and author of some note, was found with a deep indentation in his skull in an undisclosed urban apartment today---he is expected to fully recover. Suspects include Brigid, his roommate, Yvonne, a potential paramour, and a previously unassuming vacuum cleaner salesperson who was randomly subjected to Greg's verbal repartee.

Uncle Bob (who had a semi-plausible alibi) is not concerned and isn't coming back from his cross-country tour in a mint-green '64 Pontiac Tempest...

MLD

Re: newspaper clipping

[hossblacksilver.livejournal.com]

No, the Llama is wrong. That hippie wasn't in a '64 Pontiac Tempest, he was in a '63 Buick Skylark.

Re: newspaper clipping

[mammallamadevil.livejournal.com]

that's right....thanks for the save!

MLD

[kylet.livejournal.com]

Hee hee. That's actually kinda useful to know :-)

And a little something I noticed by misreading that. So being fed up is ennui. Being f-ed up is angst?

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Cody has angst; Eeyore has ennui. ;)

-TG

[raemonde.livejournal.com]

] That's actually going to help me in... writing more strips. I was going to use 'malaise', but I suppose 'ennui' is more appropriate. I would have looked it up eventually, but now I don't have to. :)

-Rob

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Pleased to be of service! :)

-TG

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

Is there any important difference between ennui and Weltschmerz?

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Weltschmerz is sadness brought about by wishing the world was a better place and realizing it isn't. So it's close to ennui, but doesn't carry the same feeling of "sick of it all"-ness.

-The Gneech

[confusedoo.livejournal.com]

Thank you. This is so perfect.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked it!

-TG

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

hmmm.. how does that differ from being 'jaded', Eeyore? :D

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Somebody who's jaded feels like they've "seen it all" and so nothing impresses them any more. "Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt, saw the TV movie" is jaded.

-TG

oh!.. George Sanders!

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

wowwwww.. I guess I had ennui and jaded all backwards then..! ennui-wuuuwie is the oooey gooey one :D

[ski-fox.livejournal.com]

English majors...

^_^