"Duh, Bor-ing" by Joseph Epstein

        Joseph Epstein writes this essay about the idea of boredom, how it has developed, and what we know about it.  Although he is no expert on boredom, Epstein was the editor and a contributor of essays at The Weekly Standard.  Epstein pulls ideas from some of the best pieces of writing about boredom and formulates an idea about what we can do with this information.  He finds that boredom tells people that their lives need change, and it is also good for us.  It allows us to have time for introspection.  He lets the readers know that they cannot escape boredom, for it will always follow us around.  Boredom shows us that we are all part of the universe for a short while, and then we are gone.  Epstein’s purpose is to show the reader that boredom puts us in our place, and that we should all learn to accept and appreciate it.  The audience that Epstein is writing to is the bored population of the world.  He hopes to change their views on the topic of boredom, and assure them that it is a necessary part of their lives.

            I believe that Epstein achieves his purpose in writing this essay by using humor as well as figurative language.  When explaining his own encounters with boredom, he writes, “After perhaps an hour of driving along the coast between Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, British Columbia, encountering one dazzling landscape after another, I though enough was enough; Mae West was wrong, you can get too much of a good thing; and I longed for the sight of a delicatessen stocked with febrile Jews,” (Epstein para. 21).  The humor used in his own anecdote shows the reader that he is not exempt from boredom, and he realizes that he struggles with it too.  However, it is his interpretation of that boredom that separates him from the rest.  Epstein uses figurative language and irony when he is describing Heidegger’s thoughts, “Boredom, in this reading, readies the mind for profound vision.  I could attempt to explain how, in Heidegger, this comes about, but your eyes, in reading it, would soon take on the glaze of a franchise doughnut.  Besides I don’t believe it,” (Epstein para. 12).  Epstein’s use of the metaphor about doughnut-glazed eyes gives the reader a laugh, as well as helps to prove his purpose.  He shows how many different interpretations there are about boredom, and contrasts his own beliefs with those of Heidegger.  Epstein chooses to include this in his essay to help the reader understand that boredom is more than what it seems, and instead of dreading it, we can use it as a tool to our advantage.

Boredom at its Finest
Office worker was bored with blank office walls, and created a masterpiece. 

Picure by Zach Noble