“Nothing is more dispiriting than ‘And they all lived happily ever after,’ which means, in information entropy terms, ‘And then nothing interesting or noteworthy ever happened to them again for the rest of their lives.’” — Brian Christian, The Most Human Human
So much for happy endings
September 18th, 2011 · 4 Comments
Tags: Lit & Crit
4 responses so far ↓
1 Catherine // Sep 18, 2011 at 11:59 pm
If happiness is akin to peace, and peace is the opposite of injustice or conflict, I’m fine with the happy ending thanks.
2 Tetman Callis // Sep 19, 2011 at 5:43 am
But what if happiness is not akin to peace? And what if the opposite of injustice is justice, and justice can only be grasped through conflict?
3 Catherine // Sep 19, 2011 at 11:29 pm
Yes but afterwards, after the injustice and crisis and conflict surely one just wants a warm bed and safe dreams. That is what I call happiness and peace.
4 Tetman Callis // Sep 20, 2011 at 4:24 am
Warm bed I have. I am glad of that. So many do not have it as good as I do.
Dreams are another matter. I don’t know of any safe ones. My daydreams are of things that almost certainly would prove to be mixed blessings. My dreams while sleeping last night were of fighting with laughing burglars who freely bribed incompetent police with sacks of money. It’s good to be awake this morning (though I’m not very awake yet).
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