{"id":98218,"date":"2016-05-16T15:34:21","date_gmt":"2016-05-16T19:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=98218"},"modified":"2016-05-16T16:01:10","modified_gmt":"2016-05-16T20:01:10","slug":"pity-the-fool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/05\/16\/pity-the-fool\/","title":{"rendered":"Pity the Fool"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

From Paris \u00e0 travers les si\u00e8cles<\/i>, 1879.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Good madonna, give me leave to prove you a fool. \u2014William Shakespeare,\u00a0Twelfth Night<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I feel sorry for people who don\u2019t suffer fools. They\u2019re missing out on so much! The quotidian, absurd human comedy; several of Shakespeare\u2019s finest characters; TV.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I can speak with total authority on this point, because I am a fool. I am also descended from a long line of fools. I don\u2019t mean we\u2019re given to gnomic utterances on the futility of existence: we\u2019re just idiots who don\u2019t know how to do practical stuff. We\u2019re also very prone to prancing around and singing. True, some of us are also asses, a couple are gullible, and a few are jerks\u2014and there are occasional exceptions that prove the rule, like my brother, for instance. But I think fool<\/em> is our genus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Only the other day, I decided to wash my fifth-story windows with a Swiffer mop. This obviously led to my climbing onto the outside of the window frame and attempting to scrub at a point high over my head, and also to some construction workers on a neighboring building\u2019s scaffolding screaming at me to get back inside, and that I was a fucking idiot. Which is the sort of thing I\u2019m talking about. (There was also that time I donned a belled hat and danced in a mummer\u2019s procession \u2026 )<\/p>\n

My life is very much enriched by the antics of other fools, too. In the course of a normal day, the fool fan is faced with an embarrassment of riches: preening narcissists, angry cranks, happy simpletons. Imagine if you didn\u2019t suffer fools! What would you do for fun? I suffer them gladly, jubilantly, joyously.<\/p>\n

Which is not to say I enjoy the portrayal of fools, save in the case of Shakespeare. There\u2019s nothing more tiresome than goofy neighbors or pure-hearted\u00a0Being There<\/em>\u2013style fool-on-the-hill characters. Like many things that make life worth living, they become terrible when translated to other media: cynical and crass and besmirched. Foolishness is after all a state of innocence, and innocence portrayed by the knowing is the essence of corruption.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The other thing you need to understand about fools is that it\u2019s very hard work, being one. Not just because we have to dance around for kings and fall off buildings. It takes stubborn will to remain ignorant\u2014not to mention all that seeing into men\u2019s souls business. As my mother once announced to with dignity to the family\u2014I believe we were mocking her\u2014\u201cIt\u2019s not easy being a fool.\u201d\u00a0<\/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":"

Good madonna, give me leave to prove you a fool. \u2014William Shakespeare,\u00a0Twelfth Night I feel sorry for people who don\u2019t suffer fools. They\u2019re missing out on so much! The quotidian, absurd human comedy; several of Shakespeare\u2019s finest characters; TV.\u00a0 I can speak with total authority on this point, because I am a fool. I am […]<\/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":[12511,7855,8408,8226,14918,22375,9927,9685,10172,22376,22377],"class_list":["post-98218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-city-life","tag-cleaning","tag-clowns","tag-family","tag-family-life","tag-fools","tag-hats","tag-media","tag-stupidity","tag-suffering-fools","tag-swiffer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nI Feel Sorry for People Who Don\u2019t Suffer Fools<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"They\u2019re missing out on so much! 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