Mr X weighs in

I thought this exchange, regarding the post below, was worth documenting -- if only as proof of my (and Mr X's) unabashed nerdiness. Here be the dragons of nerdiness, all ye who approach graduate school! Soon you, too, will communicate like this!

Mr X : OK, so schadenfreude is when you delight in someone else's cringe-worthy pain, usually in slapstick fashion.

Me : I know.

Mr X : This is where you're... what, delighting in someone else's envy of your programme?

Me : No, I think other people are chagrined by someone else delighting in the fabulousness of my programme.

Mr X : Ah... so this is not delighting in someone else's success.

Me : Exactly!

Mr X : Got it. Yeah, that's like double-anti-schadenfreude

Me : I'm usually the little toady in the room who everyone can ignore because I don't have a real job and carry no clout. So for Prof W to be impressed by me kinda pissed everyone else off. After all, who the hell am I?

Mr X : But, see, there are multiple levels here. I assumed you were delighting in their experience of double-anti-schadenfreude -- which would be your schadenfreude.

Me: You have a point there.

Mr X : This is all very Marxist -- it's the negation of the negation.

Me : Hegelian, really, but yes.