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A review by e333mily
On the Heights of Despair by E.M. Cioran
5.0
in 2016 i saw a quote from cioran on tumblr & downloaded the pdf of this book. i printed it out & highlighted all my favourite parts in green. it became a crumpled, coffee-stained collection of papers that i probably still have somewhere, in my room.
years later i found a hard copy in a brooklyn bookstore & have been slowly making my way through it again, underlining all my favourite parts in black pen. i think i have finally come to understand that i detest cioran’s philosophy & love his lyricism.
but when you are sad it is nice to have someone else tell you about sadness. it’s so self indulgent but also so comforting when this /thing you think is so uniquely yours is actually so universal. and it’s been turned into something so poetic.
here are some of my favourite underlined bits:
“I live because the mountains do not laugh and the worms do not sing...For one who has lost everything there is nothing left in life except the passion of the absurd.”
“On summer afternoons haven’t you experienced that sensation of strange pleasure when you abandon yourself to the senses without any special thought and when intimations of serene eternity bring an unusual peace to your soul? It is as if all worldly worries and all spiritual doubts grow dumb in front of a display of overwhelming beauty, whose seductions render all questions superfluous.”
“If pain is part of your being, overcoming it is like a loss and causes a pang of regret. I owe to suffering the best parts of myself as well as all that I have lost in life.”
years later i found a hard copy in a brooklyn bookstore & have been slowly making my way through it again, underlining all my favourite parts in black pen. i think i have finally come to understand that i detest cioran’s philosophy & love his lyricism.
but when you are sad it is nice to have someone else tell you about sadness. it’s so self indulgent but also so comforting when this /thing you think is so uniquely yours is actually so universal. and it’s been turned into something so poetic.
here are some of my favourite underlined bits:
“I live because the mountains do not laugh and the worms do not sing...For one who has lost everything there is nothing left in life except the passion of the absurd.”
“On summer afternoons haven’t you experienced that sensation of strange pleasure when you abandon yourself to the senses without any special thought and when intimations of serene eternity bring an unusual peace to your soul? It is as if all worldly worries and all spiritual doubts grow dumb in front of a display of overwhelming beauty, whose seductions render all questions superfluous.”
“If pain is part of your being, overcoming it is like a loss and causes a pang of regret. I owe to suffering the best parts of myself as well as all that I have lost in life.”