On the Heights of Despair
by
by
Ilinca Zarifopol-Johnston (Translator)
Not Walt Whitman... But Close
This fictional memoir sums up a young man’s view of being old. Being old means finally having to confront the end of oneself. Cioran does this as a self-professed therapeutic exercise. His translator calls the book a prose “song of myself,” thus connecting Cioran with Whitman. Perhaps; but could this be more than merely the sense that each is the opposite of the other?
Whitman finds his joy and inspiration in his good health; Cioran revels in his physical suffering as the source of artistic virtue. Whitman is called by the “urge” of the world; Cioran feels the urge of death. Whitman celebrates; Cioran mourns. Whitman looks forward to a “lucky” Death; Cioran wants us to give Death the fear it deserves. Whitman says “I exist as I am, that is, enough.” Cioran says, “We are so lonely in life that we must ask ourselves if the loneliness of dying is not a symbol of our human existence.”
One could go on cataloguing the precise contradictions between the two. Their views on their own lives and that of the world itself are so obviously antithetical that the list of correspondences quickly becomes boring. Nonetheless there is this that makes them brothers: the irresistible necessity to express their innermost, subjective selves. Both feel they are exploding with something of universal significance. What each perceives is simply too powerful to remain hidden.
What both provide, therefore, is a sort of phenomenology of the soul. Not as a promotion or recommendation, but as a description. In a way it is not the content of each exposition that is most important but the method of construction. As Cioran says, this method is one of lyricism, that is, the attentive expression of emotions and other physical states. No ideas, no arguments, no explanation, no theory. So despite their radically different stances, Whitman and Cioran are actually similar examples of this lyrical method. They certainly aren’t philosophical positions from which to choose.
This fictional memoir sums up a young man’s view of being old. Being old means finally having to confront the end of oneself. Cioran does this as a self-professed therapeutic exercise. His translator calls the book a prose “song of myself,” thus connecting Cioran with Whitman. Perhaps; but could this be more than merely the sense that each is the opposite of the other?
Whitman finds his joy and inspiration in his good health; Cioran revels in his physical suffering as the source of artistic virtue. Whitman is called by the “urge” of the world; Cioran feels the urge of death. Whitman celebrates; Cioran mourns. Whitman looks forward to a “lucky” Death; Cioran wants us to give Death the fear it deserves. Whitman says “I exist as I am, that is, enough.” Cioran says, “We are so lonely in life that we must ask ourselves if the loneliness of dying is not a symbol of our human existence.”
One could go on cataloguing the precise contradictions between the two. Their views on their own lives and that of the world itself are so obviously antithetical that the list of correspondences quickly becomes boring. Nonetheless there is this that makes them brothers: the irresistible necessity to express their innermost, subjective selves. Both feel they are exploding with something of universal significance. What each perceives is simply too powerful to remain hidden.
What both provide, therefore, is a sort of phenomenology of the soul. Not as a promotion or recommendation, but as a description. In a way it is not the content of each exposition that is most important but the method of construction. As Cioran says, this method is one of lyricism, that is, the attentive expression of emotions and other physical states. No ideas, no arguments, no explanation, no theory. So despite their radically different stances, Whitman and Cioran are actually similar examples of this lyrical method. They certainly aren’t philosophical positions from which to choose.
posted by The Mind of BlackOxford @ September 25, 2019
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