"Duh, Bor-ing" by Joseph Epstein

            “Duh, Bor-ing” by Joseph Epstein explores the different facets of boredom. Epstein uses personal accounts and others opinions on the idea of being bored throughout his piece. The essay starts out with a list of things that could be considered a bore. The author continues on by stating: “One cannot be human without at some time or other having known boredom”.

            Epstein was a teacher and apart of the peacetime army; both of which he considered boring at one point or another. A teacher, he claims, is someone who cannot say something just once; they sometimes repeat themselves more than ten times. Peter Toohey, a professor at Calgary University, is quoted many times throughout the piece due to the fact that he has written multiple novels on the idea of boredom, including Boredom: A Lively History. The topic of boredom was brought about by the author’s curiosity on the components and theories of being “bored”. 

            The purpose of the essay was to go into depth on the concept of boredom.  The author introduces a multitude of concepts and opinions on the topic.  Readers are mainly people who are also intrigued by the question “What is boredom?” The audience of this piece will gain a greater understanding on what it truly means to be bored.

            Everyone has experienced boredom at some point in his or her life. This familiar feeling that all of us have experienced allows us to connect to the piece through the rhetorical element of pathos. The author uses Logos all through the essay by quoting the viewpoint of other authors, teachers and philosophers, including Martin Heidegger and Joseph Brodsky, viewpoints on the topic.

            As a reader myself, I believe that Epstein did a fine job in accomplishing his purpose; which was to go into greater depth on boredom. He did so by sharing his own thoughts, facts on boredom, and by showing how boredom is being coped with in modern times. He noted that the invention of the iPhone and the iPad has created a distraction for people’s boredom. These features allowed me to fully grasp Epstein’s purpose for writing this piece. 

In "Duh, Bor-ing" by Joseph Epstein, it is explained how everyone is affected by boredom at one point or another in their life.