Hmm I don't remember that exchange between Frodo and Saruman. Actually, when did those two ever interact?
Have you ever read The Unbearable Lightness of Being? That's where I got that bit about pity and compassion from Kundera. I'm drunk so I'm going to tell you all about it because it seems like a good idea right now. Hope it makes sense.
he was speaking of differnt languages. In Czech (which is what he writes in) the word compassion is derived form a prefix similar to co- which means "with" and a root that means "feeling." So it means co-feeling. To feel with another, to experience what they do. Whereas languages that derive from latin have co- (with) and passio, meaning "suffering." To suffer with another. Meaning we can't look coldly upon the suffering of others. We are not unmoved. But that is a much more distant feeling, and has entirely to do with suffering. This is the one that is like pity. In the first, one feels with the other. Their pain and their pleasure and what it is like to be them. So I've always separated the two in my head like that, into pity and compassion (even though etymologically it doesn't work in English. Don't care).
no subject
Have you ever read The Unbearable Lightness of Being? That's where I got that bit about pity and compassion from Kundera. I'm drunk so I'm going to tell you all about it because it seems like a good idea right now. Hope it makes sense.
he was speaking of differnt languages. In Czech (which is what he writes in) the word compassion is derived form a prefix similar to co- which means "with" and a root that means "feeling." So it means co-feeling. To feel with another, to experience what they do. Whereas languages that derive from latin have co- (with) and passio, meaning "suffering." To suffer with another. Meaning we can't look coldly upon the suffering of others. We are not unmoved. But that is a much more distant feeling, and has entirely to do with suffering. This is the one that is like pity. In the first, one feels with the other. Their pain and their pleasure and what it is like to be them. So I've always separated the two in my head like that, into pity and compassion (even though etymologically it doesn't work in English. Don't care).
wow I am quite druink