Anyone interested in the subject of this blog should probably have at least a passing acquaintance with the writings of Arthur Schopenhauer, the granddaddy of modern pessimistic thought. I just bought a cheap little mp3 player to listen to audiobooks on my bicycle commute to work, and this was my first download.
SHORT CRITIQUE: The first 4 or 5 chapters were my favorites. After that, he wanders (rather uninterestingly, at times) into what I see as his personal prejudices, culturally induced and/or otherwise. Sir S. wielded a heavy hand of polarized rhetoric, to be sure, which might put some folks off. But where he's right, he's bloody damned right! A must read (or hear).
The book is in the public domain, and the download is free as are all the books at the site I've pointed to. Comes in a zip file; just pop her open and slide the individual chapters over into your player's folder. Voila!
Btw, listening to books is really nice on the bike. Less overall noisiness than music, and doesn't drown out the sound of the traffic bearing down on you. I've listened 3 times now, and am moving on to an old scifi novel by Robert Silverberg. If anybody knows of some good podcasts or audio documentaries, feel free to share.
When I work up the nerve, I'm planning on listening to Gibbon's 'Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire'. Always meant to read that, never got around to it. I'll also be searching for H.G. Wells "History of the World" pts. 1 and 2. Did read that once upon a time, but am thinking it would be a great listen.
PROGRESS REPORT: Outlining, researching and working a bit on chapter 1.
P.S. The guy doing the voicework on this book is VERY good.
9 comments:
I stumbled across Schopenhauer by accident in my university library about 30 years ago. What a breathtaking revelation! Here was a man who had discovered "the truth", or come darn near close!
Btw, narrations of some of his work are on youtube, or at least used to be.Perhaps the same as the download Jim mentioned. Check him out!
Schopenhauer is THE great pessimist. Every anti-natalist worth his or her salt should immerse themselves in his work. if you're looking for a light way in, check out the Penguin collection of his work entitled 'Essays and Aphorisms'.
Karl, I almost added the last sentence of your post to my own! A great introduction to the Master.
a free schopenhauer shopping is
recommended at project gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search.html/?default_prefix=author_id&sort_order=downloads&query=3648
or look at gutenberg.org
I read Schopenhauer in a Spanish edition. It contains a ridiculous introduction where his anti-life stance is refuted with a puny, pathetic, frank capra-esque "existence is wonderful". Later we are taught that his mother was scolding him all the time because of his grumpiness: "Son, if you keep beign so pessimistic you'll never have any friends". We are told, as the moral of the story, that he eventually fell out with his mother. Sniff. Funny how some self-appointed scholars are blinded by this kind of biographical phallacies. Disney should make a film called Pollyanna vs Schopenauer.
Anyway, congratulations again for the blog. I'm steadily amazed by the quality of the comments around here.
Jim: I hope your next book is so compelling, lucid, moving, ground-breaking (I ran out of adjectives) as the first...
I think I first heard mention of Schopenhauer in those 'Power of Myth' interviews featuring Joseph Campbell in the '80s. At some point, Campbell paraphrases Schopenhauer as saying "Life is something that should not have been." (Don't quote me here...working from old memories). He actually addresses the problem a couple of times, I think, though he winds up falling back on some version of the 'that's life' rejoinder.
I also remember at one point Campbell saying that life really doesn't have any 'meaning', provoking a vehement denial from Bill Moyers, the interviewer. The power of myth, indeed!
Josep, thanks for the kind words regarding my book. I'm hoping to make the next one a little more fun, though at least equally engaging. The necessary next step in the dialog, I think. The way I see it, pessimism is just one side of seeing things realistically; the side that usually gets ignored. But there's room for realistic positivity as well, and that's where I'm coming from this time around. Although, I have my doubts that a lot of people will see my message as positive. We'll see, I guess.
I would echo Karl's exhortation, but recommend, as the most fundamental underpinnings of Schopenhauer's diagnosis of the human condition, sections 57 and 58 (life is shit, a priori) of World as Will and Representation, volume One (best translation), and 59 (life is shit, a posteriori). The definitive core of everything he says elsewhere about the plight of being alive that I have yet encountered in his writings is located in these sections.
Excellent point, Rob. Allow me to add to that that Chapters 45 and 46of Volume 2 of WWR are extensions of the thoughts developed in the chapters you mention and are equally powerful and stunningly written. In fact, I can't resisit quoting the opening lines of Chapter 46:
"Awakened to life out of the night of unconsciousness, the will finds itself an individual, in an endless and boundless world, among innumerable individuals, all striving, suffering, erring; and as if through a troubled dream it hurries back to its old unconsciousness. Yet till then its desires are limitless, its claims inexhaustible, and every satisfied desire gives rise to a new one. No possible satisfaction in the world could suffice to still its longings, set a goal to its infinite cravings, and fill the bottomless abyss of its heart. Then let one consider what as a rule are the satisfactions of any kind that a man obtains. For the most part nothing more than the bare maintenance of this existence itself, extorted day by day with unceasing trouble and constant care in the conflict with want, and with death in prospect..."
Anyone looking for more can check this link:
http://www.philosophicalsociety.com/Archives/On%20The%20Vanity%20&%20Suffering%20Of%20Life.htm
Rob, great suggestions re.chapters of WWR. Allow me to add that Chapter 46 of Volume 2 entitled 'On the Vanity and Suffering of Life' is also a masterpiece of sustained exposition on the innate and external trashiness of existence written in the most incredible prose style. In fact, I can't resist quoting the first few lines:
"Awakened to life out of the night of unconsciousness, the will finds itself an individual, in an endless and boundless world, among innumerable individuals, all striving, suffering, erring; and as if through a troubled dream it hurries back to its old unconsciousness. Yet till then its desires are limitless, its claims inexhaustible, and every satisfied desire gives rise to a new one. No possible satisfaction in the world could suffice to still its longings, set a goal to its infinite cravings, and fill the bottomless abyss of its heart. Then let one consider what as a rule are the satisfactions of any kind that a man obtains. For the most part nothing more than the bare maintenance of this existence itself, extorted day by day with unceasing trouble and constant care in the conflict with want, and with death in prospect...
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