h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Paul, re: posts 19 & 20,

20, Au contraire, chronic depressives (dysthymics) tend to be very strongly humorous, merely using their bleak despondency as an affect to amplify their comedic purport. Its a point the insensitive often overlook, amplifying the sense of the dysthymic of the folly of human nature.

21, You're so right.

...which reminds me of an offer I got to go sailing with that two faced character a couple or three years back (that two faced aspect quite surprised me, I didn't know he could do that) before he was called away on other matters. I don't know the offer is still good, if I'll be able to connect up again and will probably have time conflicts of my own, but hope to renew the association nontheless...

My experience of the past year or so reminds me all too strongly of the fate of the arthropoidal alien ufologist from the h2g2 movie but has filled me with a terrible resolve.

ITIWBS:

I recall that when I was suffering for a deep depression, my doctor became very excited when I cracked a joke. I have read of others with similar experiences. What medical school did you get your degree in psychiatry from?

I was referring to the stable cases, not the crisis cases.

I think that what you may have been observing in people with longterm, chronic depression was coping mechanisms that had been perhaps developed during therapy sessions. For more than 15 years, I have been trying to get a depressed co-worker to laugh (not that I'm a clinician, but because I'm fond of her, and I like to hear her laugh). So, yes, if you have longterm depressive tendencies, and you've trained yourself to get your mind off your worries by looking at the humor in everyday life, then people might observe you and think you're funny and lighthearted. This seems like a good thing to do anyway....

Sometimes I have to remind myself that no two people are exactly alike. There may be exceptions to the patterns that any of us has observed in the world. Plus, some people are better actors than others. Every so often you hear of someone who seemed happy and well-adjusted, who then blows his (usually his; it could be her, but it's less likely) head off with a gun. The apparent happiness was just an act.

I never meant to imply that dysthymics are of light hearted and frivolous appearance or demeanor, quite the contrary, they delight in deadpanning but are inhibited about showing that delight. Nontheless that element of humor is always there, though they may find in disconcerting if one plays to it.

It's time I went. Bye - Solong!

Me too

Jab

by saying 'that makes you better than me' eyore states that he (eyore) is wrong

at least he gives the impression that he believes he is wrong

thus follows that marvin is indeed not useless - if you choose to believe that eyore is not as intelligent as a cretan liar

in other words: one has to realize that there are two questions, not one:

1. is eyore right in saying that marvin is better than eyore

and

2. is eyore right - period



ps: am i right?

I don't remember Marvin being in any of the Winnie the Pooh books. Nor do I remember Eeyore being in any Douglas Adams books. How, then, would either of the two have known the other existed?

Donkeys rarely have to live up to a high standard of evidence anyway. You either accept them as they are (lying, balking, braying, etc.) or you tune them out. Eeyore would have been loved whether he was right, wrong, or somewhere in between.

I'd really rather not go on repeating the answer. The answer is wholly contained in Post 36. If you are referring to 'you're better than I am' you're simply referring to the camouflage I put around the paradox. It means nothing unless you know in what sense Marvin is supposed to be better.

That the characters in the example come from different books is logically trivial, and factually trivial too. It makes no difference to the paradox. If it bothers you for some inexplicable reason, feel free to change the characters into characters from same book. But there again they would be false, because they are not speaking words they speak in the book.

Let's stop flogging a dead horse, chaps. The carification of the paradox is wholly conrtained in 'I'm never right'. It's all in Post 36.

Jab

I meant to say "*The paradox* is wholly contained in 'I'm never right'."

Perhaps you can't believe how simple the answer is. But it is that simple. If you want to explore the answer into realms of imagination, (not a put-down), in some way, then of course feel free. But in that case please let me be excused, as it was the logic that interested me.

Pierce - if you want a straight answer, you're hooked up on the trivial camouflage rather than addressing the question.

Sorry if my answers above disappoint you. I can at least thank both of you for taking such an intelligent interest.


Jab

well! no ones said it, so sorryI have to(can't leave an open opportunity)

re: Marvineyore eyore eyore't know better

I do accept that the answer is simple.

Good, Paul. Because your answer in post 26 said all that needs to be said on the subject.

Jab

Poor Eeyorick, I knew him well.

Ophelia, but I can't reach ya.

re 54:

the answers are simple indeed

But they didn't seem simple before we knew what they were.
You stand at the bottom of the mountain you want to climb, and it looks insurmountable. (Then you realize it's a piece of painted scenery )

Jab, are you sure 'pair o' socks' doaes not mean Pandora's Box??