pain, n.
late 13c., "punishment," especially for a crime; also "condition one
feels when hurt, opposite of pleasure," from O.Fr. peine "difficulty,
woe, suffering, punishment, Hell's torments" (11c.), from L. poena
"punishment, penalty, retribution, indemnification" (in Late Latin also
"torment, hardship, suffering"), from Gk. poine "retribution, penalty,
quit-money for spilled blood," from PIE *kwei- "to pay, atone,
compensate" (see penal
<http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=penal&allowed_in_frame=0>).
The earliest sense in English survives in phrase on pain of death.
"Pain" seems to be related thus to "pay," and remorse, or its display,
is intimately related to concepts of justice and retribution. Public
displays of screaming penitence under torture, in pre-Enlightenment
Europe, and current media coverage of trials in which the faces and
demeanor of the defendants are scrutinized for signs of remorse...which
are weighed in consideration of a just penalty... this idea of paying
with emotion, how does it tie in with empathy?
On 10/27/12 4:45 PM, Alan Sondheim wrote:
There's also the other Goffman book, Stigma, which is relevant and
excellent.
I remember one oddity during the Vietnam war - there was an oddly
apolitical stance, I think, among performance artists in the US; one
could watch an Acconci piece, for example, and read political action
into it, but it wasn't overt; what I remember in conversation with him
was mostly discussions about art which was emerging out of modernism,
but was still bound by a rather linear idea of success, style, and
progress.
- Alan
==
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web http://www.alansondheim.org / cell 347-383-8552
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current text http://www.alansondheim.org/rq.txt
==
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