While Rome Burns: Difference between revisions
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Dreaming of you.''|'''[[Tom Waits]]''', "Earth Died Screaming"}}
Something awful is happening. The world is ending, the economy collapsed, there's an earthquake, and rioting in the streets is commonplace. Everyone's in a
They're still reading a book, listening to music, [[Tropes Will Ruin Your Life|browsing this site]], whatever. Maybe [[Apathetic Citizens|they just don't care]], or they approve of what's going on. On the other hand, maybe they figure that if they're going to die, they might as well go out with quiet dignity rather than in a panic or with [[Rage Against the Heavens]]. If combined with [[Dissonant Serenity]] it might have heroic or [[The Stoic|stoic]] overtones.
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== Real Life ==
* [[Trope Namer]]: According to legend, Emperor Nero played the fiddle (or lute, or lyre) while Rome was burning down. Supposedly, his men actually helped ''set'' the fire. This story was more likely than not circulated by those who disliked/despised him. All actual evidence found suggests he wasn't even in the city at the time and quite possibly wouldn't have been in any position to help
His apocryphal behavior is traditionally described as "fiddling while Rome burns", which has predictably been played for all the [[Double Entendre]] it's worth for centuries.
* [[wikipedia:Lou Henry Hoover|Lou Henry Hoover]] did this a lot when stranded in China during the Boxer Rebellion. One time she was playing solitaire when an artillery shell crashed through her front hall. She kept on playing.
* According to a letter written by his nephew, Pliny the Elder took a nap in Stabiae near Pompeii... ''while Mt. Vesuvius was erupting''. Even though he was there in part to assist in the rescue of the villagers.
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