  Du Bos tries to resolve the paradox by making two points. He begins by saying that, although imitations of unpleasant events will arouse unpleasant emotions, these emotions are not as intense or as enduring as we receive from experience of the events themselves. This point cannot, by itself, resolve the paradox. Du Bos’s second point is that although the emotions aroused by imitations of unpleasant events are unpleasant, they are preferable to an emotion that we would otherwise feel. According to Du Bos, we are constitutionally subject to a feeling of deep ennui. This ennui is not merely boredom. Rather it is a weariness of the human condition.