The Narcissism Almanack: Varsailles Literature

“One year ago, I was nobody.”

‘‘Using this Samsung Galaxy for three years. It has everything that I need. (showing the Rolex at his wrist)’’.

“Whoa~ I like your kitchen! My kitchen is 3 times bigger. It’s too much work.”

The Covid failed to bog down the wheel of wealth accumulation. At least it’s the case in the U.S. The art of showoff gives no sign of decline in light of all the fear and death. In fact, it’s evolving faster than the dollars are piled up. The boom of social media has provided infinite possibilities.

My birthday gift (a pic of Lamboroghini)

2000: “Cost my dad half million. I love you Dad!”

2010: “Good match to our yacht.”

2020: “I hate the color🏎🏎. Not gonna drive it😱”

From direct flaunting to double down, now the era of Versailles’s Literature.

A victim gesture

“Versailles Literature” came from the Japanese manga series The Rose of Versailles. The Queen of France Marie Antoinette lived in the Royal Palace of Versailles. She had a sort of ill manner to show off her superiority and lifestyle. Upset, grumbling, self-deprecating, as though she was a miserable victim of her wealth. She thought it was smart and making both herself and the poor comfortable. Well, in the end, she lost her head during the French Revolution.

As though it was not harsh enough, they then used Versailles Literature to tease the talks or writings that intended to show off with a sorrowful look. You don’t really need a high-end to show off — “higher” is high enough. Now, you better live a miserable life.

“All my clothes way too large. Have to dump them and buy everything new. I will be broke.😭😭”

Throwing a piece of Versailles writing, they can enjoy the sense of superiority anytime, anywhere, on anything, without seemingly offending others. “My life sucks,” they thought they could win not only admiration but also compassion. Compassion turns into devotion easily, that’s smart.

Is it really smarter?

Versailles Literature is a new narcissistic token across social media. As the research shows, though, narcissism is one of the personality disorders, along with other mental illnesses like insanity, borderline, antisocial, and so on. People tend to address Versailles Literature in a mocking manner as it doesn’t seem to render the writer a serious threat to society.

We watch it like watching Disney’s “Tom and Jerry.” Tom always wants to catch Jerry to show him who is the boss. He always gets a smart idea to trap Jerry. In the end, he is always beaten up and teased by Jerry.

Nevertheless, it’s an illness.

As the experts point out, Versailles Behavior is one of the narcissistic acts. Behind the murmuring, upset gesture is the anxiety of identity. They want to be admired. Psychologist Rollo May said it well, “Vanity and narcissism — the compulsive need to be admired and praised — undermine one’s courage, for one then fights on someone else’s conviction rather than one’s own.”

Sense of insecurity.

Just this month, July of 2021, a paper titled “Narcissism through the lens of performative self-elevation” was published at “Personality and Individual Differences”. It points out that narcissism is an indicator of a strong feeling of insecurity.

The paper studied the personality of 270 people at the age of 20 or so. The research involved narcissism, echoism, and other mental illnesses. The results show that narcissism is a makeup behavior carried out to compensate for the sense of low self-evaluation — quite opposite to the common sense of narcissism. That said, Versailles Literature hides in its core the sense of insecurity, self-guilty.

Further, narcissism rips off one’s sense of self-safety, as result, they want to brandish whatever they possess to battle the insecurity. Although they have become smarter — or so they think, more often than not, they get more dislikes rather than likes. It baffles them a great deal. Having more sense of insecurity, they become more compulsive to use Versailles Literature — a downward spiral.

Victims do not always receive compassion

Social media makes instant, hostile feedback possible for any opinion we post. Some thought they may be able to make people less upset with a humbled, victim-like gesture, therefore win more praise and empathy.

Scientists have tried to help them. A research team from Harvard and the University of North Carolina conducted a survey. They designed three kinds of behaviors and studied how people liked or disliked them:

1, modest and complaining

2, modest and self-denial

3, flaunting directly.

The #1 was the most disliked manner. The second? Maybe the same surprising, the self-denial. They thought a prevailing humbleness is close to hypocrisy, therefore worse than ostentation.

Hmm~~there seems to be a large gap between the traditions in regard to how people take in the manner of modesty. Typically west vs. east.

But one thing is clear, Versailles Writers think they are smarter, but from their readers, they ain’t.

Not a privilege

The good news is, Versailles Literature is not the rich people’s privilege. It has nothing to do with your money and status. Yeah! we have something in common💪💪💪~~(Okay, I am a bit Versailles Literature now~ It feels…not bad🤗🤗)

The 99%:

“My hustband is often teased at the office for beig the only exec not driving a high end car🤬. All BMWs in the exec parking lot.” — Reddit post

“We can’t get cheap finance for our new house😥. They told us we own too many properties.” — Youtuber

The 1%:

“No one deserves to have that much money.” — Mark Zuckerberg

“If I were able to run for the third term, Michelle would divorce me.” — Barrack Obama

“I was worth about over million dollars when I was 23, over ten million dollars when I was 24, over 100 million dollars when I was 25……it wasn’t that important.” — Steve Jobs

More exciting, anybody can double down on Versailles Literature: write your own Versailles writing, mock others’ Versailles Literature.