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Friday, January 11. 2013

Bohemians do not age well

Elizabeth Wurtzel wrote a much-commented-about essay (about herself, of course, in whom she seems excessively interested) last week, Elizabeth Wurtzel Confronts Her One-Night Stand of a Life.


There are some grim aspects to her report from the front lines of the follow-your-impulses approach to life, but, in the end, I have to comment that I think it's just great that, in America, there is the freedom and opportunity to construct a life any way one chooses.


As long as I do not have to end up supporting it, that is. Despite all of her opportunities, I fear we all may end up supporting her in her old age, if she achieves it. True bohemians are supposed to die young-ish, of TB, cirrhosis, drug overdose, AIDS, broken heart, or other such romantic maladies:


Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss in Our Essays, Psychology, and Dr. Bliss, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 14:13 | Comments (21) | Trackbacks (0)

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sorry couldn't read the whole thing. Read enough to know that perhaps if she learned some manners and left the heroin alone she might find someone willing to put up with her.
#1 grant1863 on 2013-01-11 15:50 (Reply)
I think, Dr. Bliss, that you may have meant to showcase Mimi from La Boheme rather than Violetta from La Traviata but I'm just a picky opera buff. Your point is well taken.
#2 D on 2013-01-11 16:10 (Reply)
That would have worked too, but I love this bit.
#2.1 Dr B on 2013-01-11 16:17 (Reply)
Hmmmm....my husband of 35 years is due home in about 6 minutes. I stopped at the store & got him a box of beer that is "supposedly" a pre-prohibition style. He read Last Call a couple years ago, and enjoyed telling me all about it. I think he deserves an extra-long hug when he walks in the door.....
Susan Lee
#3 Susan Lee on 2013-01-11 16:57 (Reply)
These "I basically wasted my life so far, and I'm in my 40s" stories are such downers, particularly when they just drip and ooze with stupidity.
#4 Sam L. on 2013-01-11 21:10 (Reply)
Those are evolutionary dead ends. They may burn bright for awhile, but are pathetic at the end. Don't waste time on or with them.
#4.1 BillH on 2013-01-12 10:43 (Reply)
Unless you see a cord attached, beware the stare at the navel.
#5 buddy larsen on 2013-01-12 15:13 (Reply)
There have always been people dying without children. If we could make a list of the damned fools, to be without children I would happily support them in their old age, unfortunately, too many damned fools have children, raise them to be ignorent, unemployable louts and THEN live to be old and we have to support their whole families. Many with eight children and five or six "fathers".
#6 Peter (Link) on 2013-01-12 15:15 (Reply)
I'm half-Bohemian, only in the ethnic, descended-from-Czechs sense, not the behavioral sense, and I'm not aging so well either.
#7 Gene on 2013-01-12 15:15 (Reply)
The dead have few regrets.
#8 PacRim Jim (Link) on 2013-01-12 15:40 (Reply)
That may be true, but many of the dead had a lot of regrets prior to dying.

As such, living a life that does NOT fill you with basically nothing but decades of regrets over your poor choices while you wait to die alone might be a slightly better lifestyle choice.
#8.1 AustinRoth on 2013-01-12 15:49 (Reply)
For the most part, the dead are pretty quiet about their regrets. So to say.
#8.2 Mikey NTH on 2013-01-12 15:50 (Reply)
--i thought it was "the dead have few egrets"
#8.3 buddy larsen on 2013-01-12 17:53 (Reply)
Dat der remark was for the birds, Buddy. Or should I say Boidy.
#8.3.1 Gringo on 2013-01-13 00:47 (Reply)
I think you're generalizing from one data point here. Elizabeth Wurtzel may not be aging well (I'm uncertain on this), but I know a lot of Bohemians who have Auntie Mamed their ways through middle age, and whose young friends all think they're fantastic...
#9 Marcopohlo on 2013-01-12 16:06 (Reply)
It's worth remembering that Elizabeth has suffered from chronic and debilitating depressions and still managed to write some best selling books, go to Yale Law, and practice as an associate under David Bois. I don't know how much you can make of her writing an article that says "I'm depressed and unhappy right now."
#10 Charlie Martin (Link) on 2013-01-12 16:14 (Reply)
I have not one iota of sympathy for this woman. She has the mind of a child: never thinking about the future, always living in the present. She made this bed, and she can lie in it for all I care. She never had a husband or children because she saw them as "compromise," as a way to tie her down...just as modern feminism has taught her to think.

Some day, you have to grow up, psychologically as well as physically.
#11 Sloan on 2013-01-12 16:24 (Reply)
Elizabeth, I have the answer to your problems: CHANGE YOUR NAME! In German 'Wurtzel' means 'root' which is one small step from 'radical.' Change your name to, say, Buffett and your life will be sweeter...and you'll have lots to choose from. See, life can be simple.
#12 Sidney Raphael (Link) on 2013-01-12 16:25 (Reply)
While she was under Bois (Fr. 'tree'), Root fit better than Buffet, except when David was being windy, which is often.
#12.1 buddy larsen on 2013-01-12 17:18 (Reply)
Wurtzel should be deported back to Bohemia if she's going to carry on like that.
#13 Frankly on 2013-01-12 17:01 (Reply)
Truly the only way one can look back on one's life and even be marginally satisfied is when the life has been spent in service to others.

That service may be as far-reaching as Mother Teresa's example, or as 'local' as being dedicated to supporting your own little family.

I do not admire hedonists.
#14 Lark on 2013-01-13 00:05 (Reply)

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