Topic 123: The Vogue of Boredom

Carol:

Men of the Ton

George Sanders in All About Eve

The title of the article is “Bored to Death,” and it recounts the suicide of actor George Sanders in 1972.  After a career that included such films as Rebecca, Picture of Dorian Gray, and All About Eve, which won him an Oscar in 1950 for best supporting actor, he was tired and sick, and sick and tired of life.  Whatever the real reason for his suicide, the note he left behind  seems to befit the style he had set for himself as an actor and writer of Memoirs of a Professional Cad: “Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored” (source: Asher-Walsh).
 

The word that comes to mind is “ennui.” The dictionary uses synonyms like listlessness, apathy, indifference and, of course, boredom. In the late 20th century of existentialism, the word evokes a sense of “world weariness.”  It is just as likely to be discussed by philosophers as by psychologists -- “the human condition” or “a human’s condition.”
 

I love reading Austen and the Brontes, and I never get tired of watching whatever TV and movie adaptations of their works show up although I am picky about Jane Eyre. These novels portray middle and upper class women as on a perpetual hunt for love and security as they embroider, loll around in parlors, stroll in country gardens, sigh and flirt at soirees. Elizabeth Bennet and her sisters would never use the B-word although there are characters in the novel who portray a sense of cynical detachment. The word “boredom” itself shows up  in the 19th century Oxford English Dictionary and apparently it starts showing up in Dickens. According to Wikipedia, he uses the word six times in his 1852 novel Bleak House.
 

Looking back to the previous century, we get a glimpse of boredom as an affectation, a “fashionable”  lack of interest or passion in the world. In her 1782 novel Cecilia, Fanny Burney captures this “vogue of boredom.” Cecila is approached by a Mr. Meadows, a fellow guest at a concert, who announces in a languid voice, “I am tired to death! Tired of everything.”  After he abruptly leaves her side, another guest explains that Mr. Meadows is the absolutely height of fashion both in his dress and in his comportment. 

A man of the Ton [Mr Gosport explains]... must invariably be insipid, negligent, and selfish... He must never... confess the least pleasure from anything, a total apathy being the chief ingredient of his character; he must, on no account, sustain a conversation with any spirit... (Book 4, Ch.6)

Beau Brummel caricature

The term “man of the ton” was in common usage during the late 1700’s and even shows up in a New York literary magazine in the 1890’s. It refers to the phaeton, a racing carriage frequently used by young men of the day to dash from party to party in search of divertissement. So, a “man of the ton” was the equivalent of a 20th century playboy knocking about in his Jaguar or Lamborghini (source:McDowell). By the early 1800’s this type of bored, self-absorbed fashion type would evolve into the dandy personified by Beau Brummel, the early 19th century stylesetter. Brummel would become the model for such modern “bodice-rippers” as Georgette Heyer’s character Beau Wyndham in The Corinthians whose “air proclaimed his unutterable boredom, but no tailoring, no amount of student nonchalance, could conceal the muscle in his thighs, or the strength of his shoulders” (source: quoted in Guest Poster).
 

I suppose if Beau Brummel had lived in Hollywood in the ‘50’s, he might have run into another “man of the ton.” Mr. Brummel, meet Mr. Sanders.

Sources:
 Ascher-Walsh, Rebecca. “Bored to Death.” 8 May 1992.
            http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,310396,00.html
Burney, Fanny. Cecilia: Memoirs of an Heiress.  (Book 4 Ch. VI )  http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Cecilia/Book_4/Chapter_vi
Guest Poster. “A Closer Look at Georgette Heyer.” 27 July 2010.Austen Blog.
http://austenblog.com/2010/07/27/a-closer-look-at-georgette%C2%A0heyer/
Walsh, Carolyn. “Revolutionaries and Romantics: The Regency—“. 31 Oct. 2010. The Culture Concept Circle. http://www.thecultureconcept.com/circle/romantics-and-revolutionaries-02-the-regency-characters-caricatures-and-connubial-bliss-harmony-before-marriage

Megan:

The Blessing of Boredom

I have this memory of my childhood, complaining to my mother that I was bored and she told me I was lucky – that boredom was a luxury. The suggestion was that the luxury lay in being worry- and responsibility-free – that the state of boredom could only be achieved once all other basic needs such as clean water, food, shelter and the support of a loving family had been met. I’m not sure if this is a real memory, but I’m sure she would agree with the sentiment.

I almost never get bored anymore. Even when I’m not interested in what’s happening around me, or on TV, I find myself fairly content to sit around and remember how lucky I am that my needs are met. Most of the time I can sit comfortably with myself in silence, and I’m pretty lucky there too because I know a lot of people can’t do that.

It’s hard to concentrate on the topic right now. Our morning began with a panicked phone call from my grandmother reminding us that my aunt is in Kauai right now. My father managed to reach her – asleep in her rental car parked on a hill where she and her friend had taken refuge from the incoming Tsunami waves. I have friends in Japan and Okinawa and most of them have reported, via Facebook, that they are safe.

My grandmother called back again, this time about the Tsunami warning for the west coast, after hearing reports that a coastal Oregon community had been evacuated. My brother lives in Portland, and it was concern for him that prompted the second call. The Oregonian  has a headline still proclaiming that 7.5 foot waves and river flooding are expected, but the article itself has been updated that the expected arrival time has passed and the wave never came. 

Earthquakes are frequent enough in Japan that they seem to have invested in ensuring the strength of their buildings, but how does anyone prepare for wall after wall of water, except to try and get out of the way? We don’t know the extent of the damage yet, probably won’t know for days.

The next few weeks are probably going to be very difficult for Japan, but luckily they have the resources and infrastructure in place that they won’t experience the devastation of the Haiti earthquake or the Indonesia Tsunami.  But still, satisfying those basic needs of clean water, food and shelter will probably be everyone’s main concern for awhile.  And for those of us safely out of the way, maybe we can look for ways to assist them (even if only through thoughts and prayers) before we return to our blessedly boring lives.