That German Word

Have you ever been happy when something bad happens to someone you hate? The Germans call it Schadenfreude--joy in another's misfortune. While interesting people in Germany actually created a word for this emotion, you know it's present in every other country--and language.

For example, the Japanese are supposed to have a saying that announces, "The misfortune of others tastes like honey." French people call schadenfreude "joie maligne," delight in other's suffering. The Danes call it "skadefryd," Russians say "zloradstvo" and even in New Guinea they have this word, and call it "banbanam."

Still, I don't think it's great for you, UNLESS you happen to be writing fiction or plays. In THAT case, you need at least a little if you want to punish the characters who are torturing your main characters. The problem is, villains rarely get punished in life, so it's hard to believe it when you see that happening in fiction. In fact, when's the last time you saw villains getting what you think they deserved? A Disney movie, maybe? 

I think it takes a really clever writer to create Schadenfreude. It needs to be believable, and the "bad" characters somehow need to lead themselves there rather than being led. The other thing about villains is they can be a lot more interesting than your main characters and you have to watch that. 

Some years ago I was at a Renaissance Faire and stopped to watch a human chess game story. The "villain" had run off with a so-called princess and her groom-to-be had to rescue her. The villain kept challenging the groom because he hadn't really met the bride and was trying to rescue her out of chivalry. 

A lot of fighting occurred, this being the Renaissance Faire, with swords, fists, you name it. At the end, the villain forfeited the princess and she came out onto the stage, swearing and yelling. She was an absolute tyrant and as the groom's face contracted in horror, the villain couldn't stop laughing. The audience did too, and I loved the idea of everything in the story being the opposite of what you were expecting.

Yet I did feel sorry for the groom--so I wouldn't call it Schadenfreude. It is a good example, though, of how the way villains are being written has changed.

Writing about the Beat Generation, which was trying to turn convention on its head, is making me try to be very careful about antagonists who don't like Beats. I had to think long and hard about how my main character Ruby felt about social workers and how they treated her mom. In Fool's Errand, book 2 of the Beat Street Series, I wanted to explore how the social Mrs. Levitt turned Ruby's impression of her on its head, too.

All this is to say I haven't found a way to get any schadenfreude into my series (yet). I'm trying to decide if there's some in my plays, but that'll take a while to sort out. In the meantime, I probably (secretly) experience a little bit of schadenfreude now and then, but I'm trying to keep that mostly fictional. 

Of course I do have to say "mostly." And I hope (think) you understand.

Schadenfreude photo: Tu