Word: ennui
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...errantly--to have taken place on Jan. 1, A.D. 1. At any rate, the history of the past thousand years shows that mass psychology--if not events themselves--tends to behave in predictable ways when multiple zeros loom on the calendar. So if not plagued by incipient hype-induced ennui, how then should we be feeling as the 20th century winds down? "Convinced of exhaustion, extreme peril, exorbitant risk, explosive transformation." This is historian Hillel Schwartz's description of the fin-de-siecle mind-set in his definitive book Century's End. Schwartz was writing in 1988 and looking forward...
...audience's feeling of ennui and superiority to the characters becomes clearest with the resolution of the play. Janie's boyfriend, Marty (Shrier), moves very rapidly through their relationship. He places a down payment on an apartment without even consulting her; when she doesn't feel comfortable moving in with him, he becomes upset. But as she starts to push him away from her life, he becomes more insightful, telling Janie that she's "shy and clumsy" and that she makes her life "harder than it has to be." Ironically, Janie uses Marty's advice and insight to dump...
...cultured, sophisticated Europeans to flock to it. It was absurd, a sure failure. Imperial America at its most foolish. Five years ago, Parisians smoking cigarettes at Les Deux Magots sniggered into their cafe au laits as Disneyland Paris opened. No way would the land that invented Existentialism, perfected ennui and made dourness hip go for the hyperactive cheeriness of Mickey Mouse. Ce n'est pas possible. For a while, it seemed like they were right. For its first few years of operation, Disneyland Paris was a laughing stock, losing money, attracting small crowds and providing ample ammunition for America bashers...
...touch of gray at the temples, a wistfulness for waylaid innocence--that made Mastroianni a worldwide star. As the Dolce Vita gossipist, the moviemaker in Fellini's great 8 1/2 (1963) and the writer in Michelangelo Antonioni's La Notte (1961), he moved like a man in perpetual postcoital ennui, elevating spiritual passivity to a metaphysic and a fashion statement. "Mastroianni" became a kind of emotional cologne for the modern male. And no one wore the style as elegantly as he: the dark suit, the narrow tie, the eyes of a man who's been up three nights straight doing...
...rough sketch for Happiness Is a Warm Gun. He does a Yokoized What's the New Mary Jane, a previously unreleased number with Lewis Carroll-like lyrics and avant-garde inventiveness. But there's also an urgent I'm So Tired, still one of Lennon's most potent songs--ennui, annoyance, panic and plea in two minutes flat. The mood of these sessions is serious fun. Songs tail into parody as the lads assume the IDs of sham bands: Ricky and the Red Streaks, or Los Paranoias ("Come on, enjoy...