Comments on: Comments on 15401

Post number 15401

MiguelCardoso — Sat, 09 Mar 2002 14:06:30 -0800

Cheer Down With Cioran, The Big Daddy Of Miserable Bastards: Grab some instant cynical nihilism from the E.M.Cioran Random Generator! Is it any wonder the late, great aphorist is so unpopular in academe? Meanwhile, in Spike Magazine, Stephen Mitchelmore is the latest in a long series of critics to try and spread the old master's noble rot.

By: MiguelCardoso

MiguelCardoso — Sat, 09 Mar 2002 14:15:12 -0800

Dammit, the Random Generator just stopped working for me. An hour ago a new aphorism appeared every time I refreshed. Now it doesn't. Very appropriate. Sorry for that.

By: MiguelCardoso

MiguelCardoso — Sat, 09 Mar 2002 14:22:57 -0800

Well, here are some aphorisms from an OK web site about him. Though it's not the same. Oh why was I born?

By: Fat Buddha

Fat Buddha — Sat, 09 Mar 2002 14:29:55 -0800

The original link seems to be working fine now. And I shall be using it regularly to wind my fellow Birmingham City F.C fans up .

By: milkman

milkman — Sat, 09 Mar 2002 14:35:22 -0800

"As a general rule, men expect disappointment: they know they must not be impatient, that it will come soon or later, that it will hold off long enough for them to proceed with their undertakings of the moment. The disabused man is different: for him, disappointment occurs at the same time as the deed; he has no need to await it, it is present." This reminds me of an answer i used to often land on when challenged to articulate why postmodernism is not ultimately paralyzingly depressing (this came from a time in college where -- desperate for something simple and comprehensible, i had simplified PM as 'the death of hagelian modernism', which read to some people as a euphamism for 'the death of hope'. My answer -- as i tend to be a doggedly optimistic soul, even as i tend to be constantly disappointed -- was that the satisfaction of action comes from defying the inevitable failure. It requires a sort of poetic-tragic sensibility to appreciate, i guess. Yes, it will be futile, but i will do it anyway, and therefore promote the idea of the possibility of success. And so long as that idea of possibility exists -- even just as an idea, then the world is worth existing in, and things are worth doing. And if you expect the failure from the beginning, it frees you from your aspirations, and allows you to find joy in cultivating that poetic defiance. The joy is in the doing, anyway.

By: Postroad

Postroad — Sat, 09 Mar 2002 15:19:13 -0800

In the end, we all die. Poster refers a few times to "the great" Cioran...but the post seems instead to tend toward a disliking of this brand of fashionable despair that gets sewn in any spot in Europe but is then cultivated in France. Steve M. is a good critic and, from a few e-mail exchanges, Steven likes writers such as Cioran, writers who break from what is usually perecieved as mainstream. But he ends his essay with a typical anti-university, academia salvo, when in fact the lads and lasses in academica will pounce on just about anyone or anything in order to make their mark. And get tenure.

By: y2karl

y2karl — Sat, 09 Mar 2002 16:12:51 -0800

A mortal should think mortal thoughts, not immortal thoughts. Epicharmus of Syracuse

By: dong_resin

dong_resin — Sat, 09 Mar 2002 17:22:31 -0800

To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women. -Mahatma Gandhi

By: Settle

Settle — Sat, 09 Mar 2002 18:22:53 -0800

Ha ha ha ha birmingham city. What division are they? Community service? Maybe Liecester city can hire them to serve drinks or soften the pitch after a frost.

By: estopped

estopped — Sat, 09 Mar 2002 18:29:19 -0800

Blah, blah, blah. It reminds me why I decided not to go to grad school.

By: dcgartn

dcgartn — Sat, 09 Mar 2002 20:36:42 -0800

dong_resin: That quote was from Conan the Barbarian, not Gandhi. Don't worry, I tend to get them confused as well.

By: Optamystic

Optamystic — Sat, 09 Mar 2002 21:12:52 -0800

ATTENTION dong_resin: Do not, repeat, do not deviate from established Metafilter Humor Protocols, as set forth here. You have been warned.

By: clavdivs

clavdivs — Sun, 10 Mar 2002 12:08:53 -0800

"Sometimes when I cleaned the house, I came across strange papers" -Linda Lovelace.