{"id":86489,"date":"2015-06-09T14:50:17","date_gmt":"2015-06-09T18:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=86489"},"modified":"2015-06-09T16:55:43","modified_gmt":"2015-06-09T20:55:43","slug":"copious-free-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/09\/copious-free-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Copious Free Time"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"CantYouSeeImBusyCard\"<\/a>

A postcard, ca. 1910.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWhy are narcissists always talking about how busy they are?\u201d my friend wondered as we left the party. At this party, a certain narcissist had been droning on about how much she had to do; how she really shouldn\u2019t be there; that she would be leaving any moment. The implication had been, I suppose, that she was far busier than anyone else\u2014or at least that her docket of tasks was more important. Or that she was more conscientious, maybe. I\u2019m not sure. But it did seem to signify a failure to live in the moment, as it were.<\/p>\n

This is a type most of us have encountered at one point or another. Two stand out in my mind\u2014a college professor and the manager of a restaurant where I worked one summer. Both liked to talk, constantly, about how frantically busy they were. But more than this, both of these people were fond of a certain phrase: in my copious free time<\/em>. As in, \u201cYes, yet another thing for me to do in my copious free time,\u201d or, \u201cThanks, Bob! We all know how much I need to fill my copious free time!\u201d or, \u201cI think we all know who\u2019s going to end up doing that\u2014with all my copious free time.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cCopious free time\u201d has a perfectly respectable lineage: it\u2019s from the Tom Lehrer song \u201cIt Makes a Fellow Proud to be a Soldier<\/a>\u201d\u2014specifically the opening monologue thereof:<\/p>\n

\n

I recall this sergeant\u2019s informing me and my \u201croom-mates\u201d of this rather deplorable fact that the army didn\u2019t have any official, excuse me, didn\u2019t have no official song and suggested that we work on this in our copious free time. Well, I submitted the following song, which is called \u201cIt Makes a Fellow Proud to be a Soldier,\u201d which, I think, demonstrates the proper spirit, you\u2019ll agree. However, the fact that it did win the contest, I can ascribe only to blatant favoritism on the part of the judges.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But what hath Lehrer wrought! The phrase is now the province of the pill. When these people say it, the delivery is sarcastic, sometimes weary, occasionally bitter. The implication is always that someone is taking advantage\u2014maybe of their good nature, but usually of their work ethic and insistence on excellence. It\u2019s different from being a martyr, although there are certainly martyrish elements. Because martyrs do<\/em> things. The copious-free-time types don\u2019t, in fact, seem any busier than anyone else. But they believe <\/em>they are. And what\u2019s more, they believe that you believe it\u2014at least after they\u2019ve told you.<\/p>\n

Sadie Stein is contributing editor of <\/em>The Paris Review, and the <\/em>Daily\u2019s correspondent<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhy are narcissists always talking about how busy they are?\u201d my friend wondered as we left the party. At this party, a certain narcissist had been droning on about how much she had to do; how she really shouldn\u2019t be there; that she would be leaving any moment. The implication had been, I suppose, that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[18401,15127,450,13528],"class_list":["post-86489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-busyness","tag-narcissism","tag-parties","tag-tom-lehrer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIn My Copious Free Time...<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sadie Stein on the irritating habits of people who are perennially \u201ctoo busy.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/09\/copious-free-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Copious Free Time by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"June 9, 2015 \u2013 \u201cWhy are narcissists always talking about how busy they are?\u201d my friend wondered as we left the party. 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