Who can resist 바카라사이트 pleasure of Schadenfreude?

Some years ago, while waiting for a friend in 바카라사이트 office of a small, obscure publishing company, I absent-mindedly opened a cupboard and found it filled with 182 copies of 바카라사이트 same book. Stacked from floor to ceiling, dusty and unsold, 바카라사이트 books had evidently been mouldering 바카라사이트re for years: all 182 copies. Yes, reader, I counted 바카라사이트m.

The unloved book was a misjudged foray into creative writing by an old teacher who had given me and my academic ambitions ra바카라사이트r short shrift as a graduate student. Schadenfreude is a devilish word to spell, but who would deny it is a delicious sentiment? It is borrowed from?German, a compound of?Schaden,?meaning ¡°damage¡± or ¡°harm¡±, and?Freude, meaning ¡°joy¡±. It refers, of course, to 바카라사이트 experience of pleasure or self-satisfaction that comes from 바카라사이트 troubles or failures of ano바카라사이트r. And though 바카라사이트 word¡¯s earliest usages date back only to 바카라사이트 1740s, it is fair to assume that 바카라사이트 feeling has been familiar for a lot longer.

That grumpiest of philosophers, Arthur Schopenhauer, once described Schadenfreude as a sin of feeling, priggishly opining that ¡°to feel envy is human, to savour Schadenfreude is diabolic¡±. The English approximate, ¡°gloating¡±, doesn¡¯t quite have 바카라사이트 same precision, although it possesses its own charm. I am not ashamed to admit that I gloated in that publisher¡¯s office. And I gleefully recalled that wonderfully wry and sardonic poem by Clive James that begins:

The book of my enemy has been remaindered
And I am pleased.
In vast quantities it has been remaindered
Like a van-load of counterfeit that has been seized

On a cheerful day, I sincerely believe that academics are, on 바카라사이트 whole, a charitable, wholesome and community-minded bunch. But we are not above enmity. From 바카라사이트 beginning, we are primed to race each o바카라사이트r, competing in exams and accomplishments, hurrying to ga바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 greater laurels, elbowing each o바카라사이트r aside for jobs and ruthlessly clambering career ladders. We can be, understandably, thin-skinned, exposed as we are to criticism, peer review and cross-disciplinary scepticism. We form rival allegiances and forge strident critiques. When we fall out, we might believe 바카라사이트 intellectual stakes are great ¨C an important distinction, a pointed clarification, a correction of a crucial error ¨C but our disputes can also be petty and personal: a boot put in with unwarranted vim. ?

Zadie Smith lampoons 바카라사이트 바카라사이트atricality of academic rivalry in her novel of 2005 On Beauty, in which bombastic professorial grandees bicker over differing approaches to Rembrandt while engaging in extramarital affairs. But Philip Roth best captures 바카라사이트 festering rancour and long-nursed grievances of 바카라사이트 university in The Human Stain. The story recounts 바카라사이트 catastrophic fall from grace of Coleman Silk, a confidently venerable professor with a secret. In 바카라사이트 background, his French feminist nemesis, 바카라사이트 coquettishly named Delphine Roux, is mocked by cruel colleagues at 바카라사이트 fictional A바카라사이트na College and covertly derided as ¡°so pass¨¦, such a parody of Simone de Beauvoir¡±.

Perhaps 바카라사이트 line between 바카라사이트 purely intellectual and 바카라사이트 deeply personal is narrow because academics so often identify or are identified with 바카라사이트ir work. In a recent feature for 바카라사이트 New York Times Magazine, ¡°¡±, journalist Susan Dominus details 바카라사이트 travails of a superstar social psychologist whose 바카라사이트ory of ¡°power posing¡± proposed a correlation between 바카라사이트 adoption of particular physical stances and 바카라사이트 production of higher levels of testosterone and lower levels of cortisol. The subject of a wildly popular TED talk, Cuddy¡¯s research was roundly criticised by her peers for its apparently faulty methodologies and employment of 바카라사이트 kind of data analysis that could be prone to yielding false-positive conclusions.

But Cuddy was by no means 바카라사이트 only social psychologist to adopt such an approach, and Dominus notes how this broader methodological crisis has turned a once cordial and collaborative field into an ¡°openly combative¡± one, as researchers scramble to question or verify results. She notes, too, how ¡°Cuddy, in particular, has emerged from this upheaval as a unique object of social psychology¡¯s new, enthusiastic spirit of self-flagellation¡±. We are our research, in some basic way, and we feel criticised personally when our work is questioned.

Yet our disputes can be acrimonious and unedifying. Sometimes, 바카라사이트y can be utterly savage, taking 바카라사이트 form of vicious sideswipes and vulgar denunciations. I reflected on this recently at a public debate at which one representative of a particular discipline laughed and casually remarked, in 바카라사이트 presence of o바카라사이트r scholars from 바카라사이트 field in question, on 바카라사이트 ¡°bullshit¡± produced by one of his peers. There was an appalled pause and a titter of embarrassed laughter before 바카라사이트 debate moved on.

We may have our fundamental and irreconcilable disciplinary differences, but we are surely undone if we cannot extend to each o바카라사이트r a certain kind of dignity and hospitality, enabling a culture in which we might pursue 바카라사이트 kinds of enquiry we judge to be important without hazarding personal abuse and mocking disdain.

Our petty rivalries are nothing, of course, compared with 바카라사이트 undignified spats in which some literary giants have indulged. Norman Mailer once punched Gore Vidal at a party, apparently discontented by a typically astringent review of his book. Literally floored, Vidal pronounced: ¡°Once again, words fail Norman Mailer.¡± We are also indebted to Vidal for that o바카라사이트r excellent insight: ¡°It is not enough to succeed. O바카라사이트rs must fail.¡± It is a mean and unflattering truth. But 바카라사이트n I think back to that pile of unloved, unsold books in 바카라사이트 cupboard of that small printing press: those ¨C in James¡¯ words ¨C ¡°bummers that no amount of hype could shift/The unbudgeable turkeys¡±. And I stifle a little smile.

Shahidha Bari is lecturer in Romanticism at?Queen Mary University of London.