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Terry Pratchett has Alzheimer's
MusicScribbles:
The shitty part about all of this is that Alzheimer's isn't just a part of growing older. It is a disease, and we know how to cure it. The problem is that we have no idea how to engineer the drug that will do it.
Spinless:
--- Quote from: Johnny C on 13 Dec 2007, 10:35 ---Yeah dude my grandma has Alzheimer's and it sucks.
Terry Pratchett having Alzheimer's sucks.
If Dick Cheney woke up tomorrow with Alzheimer's, that would suck.
Alzheimer's sucks.
--- End quote ---
This is the best post in this thread! Do not be a shit for a head if somebody feels bad about another persons misfortune, just because other people may be having just as much, or more misfortune than the first person!
Dick Cheney having Alzheimers would suck, but I would not care until I found out about it! It is hard to care from within my blissful ignorance! Do not make me feel like a jerk for not knowing about an individuals misfortune! It is not nice!
We all should learn that we can't know about everybody's problems, but it is still special when we do! Don't try to take the specialness by being a shit for a head.
casull:
--- Quote from: Anyways on 13 Dec 2007, 14:59 ---casull: To clarify; I guess I was just caught off-guard by your phrasing, I read it in a wrong way. I suppose that's what I get from trolling the WoW forums too much. Sorry.
--- End quote ---
Oh man I totally remember that feeling from my WoW days... I've learned to let my defenses down a bit around here :P
onewheelwizzard:
A deterioration in Terry Pratchett's mind and writing ability is a tragedy for the same reason that a fire in a museum is a tragedy, and by the same token, it would be equally valid to object to calling a museum fire a tragedy without paying the same special attention to a fire that happens in someone's home.
Like a museum, Terry Pratchett's mind is a resource of distinctly creative thought and expression to which a very large number of people are exposed, presenting a significant proportion of the world with opportunities to enrich their own minds and therefore their own lives. Since the same cannot generally be said of the average residence or the average person, the word "tragedy" can be used to signify the exceptional circumstances surrounding the destruction of something like a museum or Terry Pratchett's mind.
When it gets right down to it, though, if "tragedy" is used in this way, the word is really only meaningful in terms of these exceptional circumstances surrounding the event, not the event itself. If the emphasis felt when reading or hearing a word like "tragedy" extends into a value judgment of the event itself and those directly involved, the word has been misinterpreted (which is easy and understandable considering the number of connotations that can be attached to it).
In conclusion, Alzheimer's sucks.
Ballard:
But you see, tragedy is subjective. I assure you, you would be more distraught were your house to burn down than, say, the Uffizi Gallery or the Library of Congress. People tend to respond to personal tragedy on a completely different level because it is more acute.
You would have the reaction of any human being. Self-pity, fear, anxiety. Whereas towards a museum fire you might feel a dulled, vague, undirected distress.
The point being, no matter how honest and well-meaning your example is, you will never convince someone that their grandmother is less important than Terry Pratchett based on the fact that she probably never wrote an expansive series of science fiction novels (or any other fact, for that matter).
While I understand and, to an extent, agree with your point, I see less harm in dropping the argument entirely and focusing on the author's ailment.
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