Looking in the Wong Mirrors

"But we aren't always careful of our mirrors.  I'm not.  I made the mistake of thinking that I 'ought' not to write because I wasn't making money, and therefore in the eyes of many people around me I had no business to spend hours every day at the typewriter.  I felt a failure not only because my books weren't being published but because I couldn't emulate our neighboring New England housewives.  I was looking in the wrong mirrors.  I still do, and far too often.  I catch myself at it, but usually afterwards.  If I have not consciously thought, 'What will the neighbors think?' I've acted as though I had."-Madeleine L'Engle, A Circle of Quiet

The Age of the Broken Man

AThe age of the self-made man was also the age of the broken man... This >American sense= looked upon failure as a >moral sieve= that trapped the loafer and passed the true man through.  Such ideologies fixed blame squarely on individual faults, not extenuating circumstances.@-Scott A. Sandage, Born Losers

Fail

Slate magazine is writing an obituary of the term "schadenfreude." The new fun failure expression is "fail."

In an article entitled "Epic win: Goodbye schadenfreude, hello fail." Christopher Beam traces the origin of the expression to a 1998 Neo Geo arcade game called Blazing Star. If you beat a level, the screen flashes with the words: "You beat it! Your skill is great!" If you lose you're chided with this poor Japanese to English translation: "You fail it! Your skill is not enough! See you next time! Bye bye!"

It also introduces the current word for a form of schadenfreude, lulz, the questionable pleasure of hurting someone's feelings on the Web.

Schadenfreude is so 2007. I fail it. Bye Bye.

Failures are Unforgettable

Back in April, I wrote about Geraldo and his spectacular failure at finding anything remotely dramatic in Al Capone's secret vault. I quoted Neil Steinberg the author of Complete and Utter Failure who said, “the definition of real failure is the presence of true consequences—a fall, as opposed to a neglect to climb.”

Today I came across a poem that explores just that concept, but in a far more personal way. Philip Schultz' latest book of poetry is named Failure and the on-line journal Failure Magazine recently printed an interview with the poet. (The links in the preceeding text are respectively to buy the book and to read the interview) The entire text of the title poem is reprinted at Failure Magazine, and you can read it there. I wanted to share one stanza with you that helps to sum up my fascination with the losers of history, the people who never quite got it together.