2009-06-21

On Being Shy

During this year i had to create a "shy font".. I have to say i lived this project I enjoyed these philosophic ideas and i read it not less than 20 times.. this is a part of Jerome's ideas..
Enjoy...

A shy man's lot is not a happy one. The men dislike him, the women despise him, and he dislikes and despises himself.
The shy man does have some slight revenge upon society for the torture it inflicts upon him. He is able, to a certain extent, to communicate his misery. He frightens other people as much as they frighten him.

This is a good deal brought about by misunderstanding. Many people mistake the shy man's timidity for overbearing arrogance and are awed and insulted by it.
A shy man means a lonely man--a man cut off from all companionship, all sociability. He moves about the world, but does not mix with it.
He sees the pleasant faces and hears the pleasant voices on the other side, but he cannot stretch his hand across to grasp another hand.
The shy man, like a leper, stands apart. His soul is full of love and longing, but the world knows it not. The iron mask of shyness is riveted before his face, and the man beneath is never seen.
Yes, shy men, like ugly women, have a bad time of it in this world, to go through which with any comfort needs the hide of a rhinoceros. Thick skin is, indeed, our moral clothes, and without it we are not fit to be seen about in civilized society. A poor gasping, blushing creature, with trembling knees and twitching hands, is a painful sight to everyone, and if it cannot cure itself, the sooner it goes and hangs itself the better.
His character is unformed. He speaks in such a low pitiable voice.

He longs to "go it" with the others, and curses himself every day for not being able to. He will now and again, screwing up his courage by a tremendous effort, plunge into roguishness. But it is always a terrible _fiasco_, and after one or two feeble flounders he crawls out again, limp and pitiable.
I say "pitiable," though I am afraid he never is pitied.
You scarcely ever meet a really shy man--except in novels or on the stage, where, by the bye, he is much admired, especially by the women.
The shy man, who never looks at anything but his own boots, sees not and is not tempted. Happy shy man!
The boys tell him that he's "worse than a girl," and the girls repudiate the implied slur upon their sex by indignantly exclaiming that they are sure no girl would be half as bad.

--Jerome k. Jerome

1 comment:

  1. He sees the pleasant faces and hears the pleasant voices on the other side, but he cannot stretch his hand across to grasp another hand.
    I love this.

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