The Hudson Review, Inc.

The Snares of Wisdom Author(s): E. M. Cioran and Frederick Brown Source: The Hudson Review, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Winter, 1966-1967), pp. 539-550 Published by: The Hudson Review, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3849179 Accessed: 09/07/2010 15:00
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E.

M.

CIORAN

The

Snares

of

Wisdom

nce the Vedantic natural

we

realize

to

what

depth

appearances impossible "non-distinction

are credited to endorse is the

normal

consciousness, thesis according

it becomes to which

by the soul's

state." What is meant here by natural state is the state of The as it happens, is anything but natural. awake, which, being man apprehends existence he wakes living everywhere; directly he has ceased being nature, he starts detecting up, directly falsity in the apparent, in the real, and ultimately enter? appearance tains doubts and about the notion with them go viewed tinctions, from too great a height, of diversity and of the many the kingdom of knowledge, can vanishes. level On a certain only non-being hold up. As soon as only out of ignorance. but while odds with everything, to them is a and clinging thrive, appearances able that moves us to love or to hate them, to we feel at them. what How could we level against are disabused off We live gain awareness are benighted, scent of the inviol? we we come to grips with Yet that is of reality itself. Gone are and drama. tension When all dis?

phantasms? of their claim to rank once we they become or being between as essences. awake rather, opens Knowing, no conflict; them and us a rift that, unfortunately, represents But no, it is, rather, if only it did, we would have no complaint. the silencing

Contrary It flourishes and to differentiation. to multiplicity inclined only cut it? if it unmasked in the midst of semblances; them, it would its power In waking self from the stalk and wither. up, it forfeits whatever. De? to release, let alone sustain, impulse any creative liverance from inspiration, to seek it being at the farthest remove to a resignation, be tantamount in the case of a writer, would, he must fol? If he hopes to produce, more than that, to suicide. for evil. By and for evil alike, especially low his bent, for good from himself: from it, he becomes himself estranged liberating

of the tragic. . . . the dire abolition of all conflicts, of Vedanta, the soul is by nature to the affirmation

54<> his reverses his are

?E strokes than

HUDSON of luck. He

REVIEW could find above no surer way of and ad?

gifts placing and pain, life and death. Through his desire to versity, pleasure that he is be? be done with them, he may, one fine day, discover and the world, side himself with just enough vigor left to con? but at his wit's end when it comes to execut? ceive some project, ing it. This phenomenon means to make whoever from point, dying, must set at large: a bearing on the world his mark must completely divorce living at swordof contraries all such couples has

wrecking

himself

success

in wallow their irreducible differences, wantonly multiply on the surface of things. To he must, in short, remain antinomy; to "create," means oneself clearsightedness, denying produce, having herent the lie in? not to perceive or good fortune the courage of the multiple. A work in diversity, nature the deceptive as soon on appearances; can be created only if we blind ourselves to them stop attributing bereft of all our resources. stimulates us more a metaphysical than dimension, we

as we are

trifles, inflating where none exist. antitheses, spying conflicts spurious about this would universal from doing bring sterility. it alone can originate. is fertile; its lusion Through are able to give birth, to engender (in every sense of Nothing

setting up To refrain Only il? we

agency the word),

with the dream of diversity. to merge ourselves The gap between us and the absolute be and is, in fact, unreal; nevertheless, may which enthusiasts of action do not view as unreal, this unreality, is our very productive compatibilities, minds revel. he owes his existence. we are: The these The faster we hold means to appearances, the more all these which in? to create writer a work embracing in antagonisms

to these

trumped-up lively should than anyone, what know, better these sleights-of-mind, and beware of mirages,

about if he neglects or de? them; them, curiosity from under his own them, he will have cut the ground and find himself his materials, in a feet, discarded practicing void. he then turn to the absolute, Should what he will find in stupor. there, at best, is gratification a god hungering for imperfection within and outside Only losing nounces and brought himself, only a harrowed god could have imagined forth the creation; only a man made in his image can aspire to of the same an enterprise If wisdom order. foremost figures

E. the causes among reconcile us with fortune could of sterility, the world our

M.

CIORAN is because with and it does No our its utmost

541 to mis?

that and ambitions

ourselves.

befall

to saying that it kills them, which amounts nermost what self, our secrets, persecuting are lucky to have; it undermines enough compromises Have we our who all our defects. done violence and our to our desires, If so,

greater it wisens talents; them, it afflicts our in? sinister us, qualities us, we it

submerges and curse

molested we shall above

stifled those sage in

attachments us the

passions?

gave us, our most of everything, is no limit enthusiasms

necessary redoubtable

encouragement, who is to blame enemy, for the maladies who yearns

all the

for his bygone feels for having and, inconsolable them, conquered himself to the poison of quietude. Once we have succumbing of of all desire, it takes superhuman the nullity perceived powers and it takes saintliness, anew desire to experience obfuscation, who also hap? The detractor of wisdom yield to it unreservedly. to be a believer would "Lord, pened endlessly: help me repeat fall from grace, in error and crime, me wallow give me help words that will reduce that will scorch consume me, you and al? both of us to ashes." felt a craving, who has never Someone most crave and out be endurance, beyond the abyss. When made this a haunt world obsession, what it is to know cannot purity, on paradise too much has dwelled to pall. Disrelish of the hereafter, they begin with hell. With? obsession leads to an amorous for one religions?in Aversion dual would commit their to the equivocal aspect?would attraction to the elect, of all who dream of their

except nostalgia to the turmoil of someone

us for curing There he cured.

for the next

incomprehensible. outcast: such is the former follies and "the path toward made they have ment, tions, they were

movement

any sin just to stop treading note, with despair, the progress They perfection.,, in becoming whereas, detached, by tempera? In Milinda's for that calling. not suited Ques?

what distin? asks the ascetic, Menander Nagasena, King man: man from the dispassionate the passionate "My guishes lordl The passionate man, when he eats, tastes the flavor and the man tastes the flavor but the dispassionate of flavoring; passion not The whole of flavoring." the passion in the resides here below, everything secret of life of and of art, "passion flavoring."

542 When with

THE

HUDSON

REVIEW destitution,

one

we no longer experience it, we are left, in our smile. last resource: an exterminating

all our mo? detached means foregoing Becoming progressively tives for acting, it means the dividends of our defects losing and our vices, with the result that we sink into that state of mind as down known in the dumps?a the dis? void following into of our appetites, which has degenerated appearance anxiety indifference, ourselves submersion above as that life and stunted in neutrality. If in being wise we place in the dumps in being down death, It is there, we fall beneath. wisdom) are leveled, is invali? diversity for the writer especially that has no reason thus to it is other; can he

(understood underneath, with dated, who, lean

appearances

frightening in a world where one for

toward

impossible objects

aspect him to choose are

consequences, is on a par, everything of it rather than some

themselves

a subject?which and interchangeable

undistinctive?

if prefer Even

from this absolute as something rather desert, being is banished too picturesque. We are in the very heart of the undifferentiated, of the glum and flawless One where, in place of illusion, we see, before illumination us, a prostrate spread everything, disclosing but so radically our grain that we against to forget it. In a state of awareness, no man can move yearn least of all the man down in the dumps; he lives in the forward, of a ponderous midst non-existence of things unreality?the weighs upon him. cast off the fetters ceive To fulfill himself, of his own to breathe, he must merely which leads him to con? knowledge, this disclosure runs

of non-knowing as salvation. he can attain That only by defiance the spirit of impartiality and objectivity. against hurling which A judgment is "subjective," serves as unfounded partial, a source fleshed view what him. that as we between we had of with can When which now the nothing we used on the level of acts, dynamism: but when we are condemned reality, and of the world, what then still uphold? to be a madman the false is only to have an exact can we adhere to,

of ourselves

There

he disappeared, made us accept do by our real and

in us; the sage routed lurking so did our most precious possession, them without appearances ruining

of discriminating, at every turn, practice the illusory. So long as he was around, to fear, nor did appearances, which continuously

E.

M.

CIORAN before our

543 very He bankruptcy. there is nothing point. True de?

of changing into things the miracle wrought into he disappeared, they relapsed eyes. Once Now added spice to existence, he was existence. to engage our interest, and we have lirium is the absence of madness. To on the fulfill no vantage

except to break

we must religiously intoxicate ourselves ourselves, Where the One is concerned, counts, multiple. nothing the One itself. Let us be done with it, then, if we intend the if we wish to see an end to spell of indifference, on within and outside ourselves. Whatever shimmers of the world, by the name interesting As soon as we sober and ignorance. and tedium. us but barrenness around goes and is the up, we

monotony the surface fruit make out

of intoxication

nothing born of blindness, with falls apart on contact the Diversity, is blighted which knowl? of being down in the dumps, sensation and dread of the new. for identity a perverse fondness edge, what? When this dread takes hold of us, making every change, and farce, making in mystery its nature, seem rooted ever every event seem fixed which at not does once on unfathomable and God, but on the deity, not deign to create, nor trifling, on the even we have our es? immutable

eyes sence

indefinite that moment, ing, by its vacuity, has it, Fate likes our stalemate. which If, as antiquity symbolizes be the price man would the dumps to bring low whatever rises, beset (if less But the dumps undoubtedly pays for his elevation. pace and the it abates, falls prey to it. What animating frenzy sustaining if not a phenomenon is life, in the final analysis, of rage? A blessed ourselves. it we surrender it is essential to which Directly rage, the more they were drives come alive: seizes us, our unappeased The spectacle the more they give vent to themselves. contained, its origins. when and we then side, prove that we does, in spite of its distressing present to our nature, and to our true condition, are restored despicable off effortlessly it be. We are better than odious abject though An innate or persuasion. vice being "noble" by imitation pre? we cannot to an acquired ferable virtue, help but feel ill at ease with with the monk, who do not accept the themselves, people those who bend with backwards? the philanthropist, prophet, severely deserts than man) every living Life itself, creature it that slows somehow its or other

to exist, prefigur? and unsubstantial,

544 the gant miser man

THE

HUDSON

REVIEW man all to be resigned, mind their the arro?

to spend, the ambitious to be deferential?with the sage, who

who

manners,

who is never in check, himself keeps in is a foreign like it neither virtue himself. Acquired body: we others nor in ourselves. It is a triumph over self that nags us, a including feat pride that us down and makes us suffer even when we take weighs who it. Let us be content with what we are: anyone to better and misery. himself must really revel in torture in the it is certain is uplifting or, for that matter, cynical, that havoc wrought by anger?that performance, of rage. When blood rushes to the brain, and glory

longs If a book to stress

to tremble, the effect of days and days of meditation is There is nothing sillier and more degrading than such a fit, which is inevitably out of all proportion to whatever for it being once it has it; still, the pretext prompted forgotten annulled. subsided, dying borne about wavering doing, a stifled breath. "with our It's us until we fury keeps rankling the same with humiliations which If, in answer draw we our have think that in so conse?

crowning we begin

dignity."

reprisal, will not our

wavering only make cowardice.

to an affront, we first a slap and murder, between us lose precious time but, vacillation has

grave it is a lapse we cannot forgive an out? whereas ourselves, quences; even if its consequences are grotesque, would have con? burst, soled us. Painful as well as necessary, us from anger prevents and spares us serious it falling prey to obsessions complications: is a fit of madness that reprieves us from madness. So long as we can on it, on its regular appearance, as well as our shame. That equilibrium, no one will deny; but spiritual progress count we are assured it stands as for the in the writer of our way of

seal

Such

it is precisely his predicament we are considering here), not good, it is dangerous for him to govern his petulance. only He should do his utmost to nurture or the penalty will be it, literary death. since it is, unfortunately, angry we feel alive; only a we must be content with its by-products, mood, passing ranging from backbiting to contumely, any one of which offers us greater than disdain?so so abstract, the warmth frail, scope lacking and breath of life, and unlikely to give us the least satisfaction. Once we have turned away from it, we discover, to our delight, When

(since it is not

E. what on keen

M.

C I OR AN others are can

545

equal alone. Formerly, lation of finding Perhaps to pass does; that

pleasure besmirching terms with them, we we their would weak our

study

bring. At last we are we are no longer struggling, titilthem for the intellectual

we should judgment

by refraining, he is, never offers them. ill of

now we do it to strike home. point; own business: it is abasing, ignoble, on others. is what That, however, everyone we ostracize ourselves. animal Man, splenetic mind a commentary on his fellow men without that he is unable to speak well of them; sensation of them him a far bolder gives

disparaging but speaking

Not

and executes and of strength. If he humbles them, how? pleasure ever, it is not so much to do them harm as to save the remnants of his tating The at least he feels cles will incite anger, effects the remnants of his of long practice is not the only one to benefit from slander; it is as beneficial, if not more so, to the slandered, provided cut to the quick. If he does, his ideas as well as his mus? vitality, in disdain. to escape the debili?

slanderer

in a way he never thought it will be invigorated possible; is not a feeling but a force, an to hate. Now hatred at the ex? to thrive of diversity which allows beings ingredient as an individual to his status of being. Whoever holds pense him strive the to hate; to put himself best of these in situations slander, where he he will call be forced

must victim

himself a may being or of it, but in so doing, he uses an improper expression, it holds in store. The abuse the advantages else fails to recognize in words as in deeds, has some virtue only if it wounds we receive, as to feel us. Are we so unfortunate if it smarts, and awakens us, nothing? ability they easy ions that deal enough noised a work Then and their we shall the fall favors into a state of calamitous do will to the to slave creator? that invulner? us when find it forfeit to rise about could and even fate, men, slander rises above (whoever If we were deaf above death). reason would we have of others? perfectly Is it even

blows

us, what

opin? at a

task that

craves

the approbation have some we blot with out

conceivable By come

autonomous all the sensations more immersed

ourselves, inuring in common of living

nearly The others.

we are in

the more we long solitude, whom can we talk if others be dignified as an enemy?

to lay aside our pens. Of what and of to no longer exist, if no one deserves to opinion To have stopped reacting

546 is an alarming of our reflexes,

THE

HUDSON

REVIEW

a fatal superiority, at the cost symptom, acquired which us in the position of some maimed puts that he need not stir because he finds nothing divinity delighted worth the effort. At the other extreme, we feel alive in doting on obviously and significance, in flying off the things a cult of in? away, in making a sphere of inanity, inside fussing perpetually handle for no reason. doomed to pass

who yield to their passions or to their whims, People people who are forever stand out of harm's way (only Angloemoting, and Scandinavians, who are afflicted Saxons with a sense of de? set store by psychoanalysis; it holds no attraction for corum, To be normal, to preserve Latin peoples). our health, we should model ourselves not upon the sage, but upon the child, and kick and scream than whenever wanting to cry, we are at a complete stuck loss?needlessly used to cry, and later on as well, antiquity people sorrier us. What the urge comes could be upon For having to and not daring? unlearned to our eyes. In in the Middle

to and in the seventeenth century Ages according (the king, was quite at it). Since from the then, Saint-Simon, good apart man interludes remedies Romantic this, one of the most effective has fallen into discredit. Is it a momentary or eclipse, possesses, certain are we dealing is that us, all our with one a new whole conception of honor? of the What does that seem portion ills, insidious, diffuse, nagging us from making which restrains and of giving way to our infirmities plague to the in? rages in?

junction and afflictions, stincts.

may be laid a scene of most

our

primordial

have the right to howl for fifteen minutes We should a day, at to be created for this purpose. least; in fact, howl-houses ought "Don't someone will rejoin, us sufficient relief? words," "give to such outmoded revert Conventional Why practices?" by def? and deaf to our crying needs, words inition, self: not one with our innermost of touch goes that deep. are empty, stale, out emanates from it or first now made even their those

of tonic proper? themselves: have outlived theirs is a slow and pitiful They which of anemia The continues, they harbor decay. principle to work upon us with poisonous whereas the effect, nonetheless, ties.

appearance, have which

when If, at the beginning, they have been of some help, they might into curses are devoid been turned

E. howl, which is blood cures

M.

CIORAN

547

sometimes we howl, must have those who be from

us, fortifies us, and out, uplifts speaking a to release us. When we have the good fortune close walls. to our remote ancestors who in their Now, caves, all of them, as far removed including as we can

feel straightway roared incessantly doodled on the

in a society to living those happy days, we are reduced a man can so wretchedly where that the one place organized howl with impunity is the insane asylum. Thus we are forbidden our only means of dispelling of ourselves. If at least we very few, for the simple cannot be any so long The man who decency. go in tential lence." screaming an encounter, lunatic. The If we insist the the odium have books that wear himself of others, is no fetters who and the odium are and of consolation! there the in, of never There

reason as we holds

consolation

and lucidity lets himself

man in short, is a po? "distinguished" to anyone who "suffers in si? same applies a minimum of equilibrium, let us start upon a passion, Moreover, aid; don't at stake. to our at every opportunity, brews in rage, which be surprised health that it is tanta?

proclaiming the gut of life,

again, our

let us do it with minds will role come and

plays a conspicuous mount to convulsion novation. ligion leveling Religion is militant, all obstacles.

during periods in? of religious chaos, during periods and wisdom re? are totally incompatible: It plunges ahead, aggressive, unscrupulous. The admirable

in which

it is that it about thing our lowliest without which it would sentiments, deigns to sanction not have the strong grip upon us that it does. So far as it is con? in any direction. for one can really go the limit, cerned, Impure being selves leagued in every God. because it can offer none has a advantages, to assert himself, to exploit that requiring self-plunder, of these with way, forces, it invites our and mitigates neither our vital our? us to indulge bliss nor our down?

fall into

Wisdom,

effect on anyone who wants deadly of continual his gifts. It is a process we jettison our irreplaceable stock

of good and evil; it has no it is an impasse exalted into a discipline. What can it pit outlet, the evils of religion? Wisdom: against ecstasy, which whitewashes a system of capitulations: withdrawal reserve, abstention, namely, from but from a mineral-like not only the world all worlds, serenity, a craving for petrifaction, out of fear both of pleasure

54? and

THE

HUDSON

REVIEW or any saint, Christian histrionic have febrile, you along; they flatter

of pain. Compared to an Epictetus, seems a raving Saints otherwise, fanatic. that seduce temperaments you and carry

one them so violently. Moreover, your weaknesses by denouncing has the impression that it would not be hard to get along with a bit of extravagance them: suffice. Sages, on the or skill would nor adventure: other will stand for neither hand, compromise rage odious, they reject it in all its forms, they see thinks of vagrancy. Rather more a source of energy, that it is the man down in the dumps, who embraces it, knowing its victim. he may become positive, dynamic, though but in a fit of anger One does not kill oneself out of inertia, with oneself to this day, the exemplary suicide), (Ajax remains, they consider it as a source "I can no in a frenzy of feeling that could be defined as follows: This last ditch upris? stand being disappointed longer by myself." even if it rarely seems im? ing in the depths of self-disappointment, once we may have decided, us, though pending, keeps haunting and for all, not to do away with ourselves. If, for many years, a "voice" assured us that we would not make an attempt upon our less and less audi? lives, that voice, as we grow old, becomes So it is that the further the more we are at the we advance, silence. mercy of some explosive own ble. that he could proves just as well have and even it felt the impulse to do so, but turned murdered, And if he has a furtive, himself. look about against underground of selfthat is because he is following the meanderings him, He who kills himself hatred, which and he will meditating, succumb, with to the blow cruelty, perfidious not before he has reconsidered though it out of hand. It is our birth we must call to to cut revile out the at its source. blight that is difficult and It stands

his birth, damning if we wish account to reason monly to pass; we should We done.

birth, we pay it little of time. instant visits able

not com? it, but what must come death, against up against an event even more irreparable, we leave aside, heed. It seems to each of us as remote as the first rise of abolishing to forget the strives, through he sprang. of self-destruction himself unmention? appalled is not re?

Only he who dreams it; it is as if he cannot manage and of procreation mechanism

to destroy the seed from which hindsight, the rage and enterprising, Inventive

E. content nations them tion had toward to shake as well, commit that seemed acts individuals and allows

M.

C I OR AN from their

549

them

to renew

in flagrant violation to be growing sclerotic and found

it takes hold of torpor; themselves by making of their pasts; a given na? was actually in the

catastrophe,

itself. By doubting assigned to consternation, ourselves sign to understand selves the vogue times. key in self-directed fury, the fact that man will phenomenon contend seriously mere climatic This The to all that

heading it very mission guidance we re? of disaster, the necessity for our? we make it impossible

that fatality at certain enjoys is inexplicable in history may well lie in the dread of satiety and of repetition, in always prefer the bizarre to whole to the humdrum. Can we species. of a because disappeared

equally pertains that so many of them

that after millions and quirk? Isn't it more likely millions of years, the great mammals were fed up with traipsing over the surface of the earth, their weariness reached the having like consciousness, when instinct, starts warring exploding point with itself? Everything itself in frenzy. alive affirms and denies to die oneself Allowing a sign of strength. What state where cannot we selves. It ence, is paradoxical after pressing to arraign dishonest Indiffer? perhaps it, over the years, to grant us the calm and of a corpse. Why draw back now when, at last, it is be? and is a sign of weakness, we should be afraid even imagine the oneself obliterating of is slumping into a to destroy desire our?

incuriosity to oblige us and still enjoys, in our eyes, as much ginning pres? as ever? Is it not a betrayal, the idol we once ven? tige assaulting erated above all others? There from is no doubt they but that we our be derive some sort of pleasure about-faces:

Since our young. liefs we abjure, each of all possible causes.

quicken can strength This

spirit?recantation measured by the

keeps us sum of be?

wind up his career a deserter is precisely for all why Indifference, it once aroused, the fanaticism us in the end, and seems frightens our run of desertions, it sabotages intolerable: the by halting it arrests our growth. of our being, it be Could very principle that its essence is a negation which we did not know enough to distrust, until it was too late? In adopting it wholeheartedly, we

of us should

550 could alter merest dead, not their help but victims their

THE suffer

HUDSON the throes

REVIEW of extreme which incuriosity, has had the Whoever

intimation to have

beyond of them absent

recognition. will no longer gaze, eyes fixed He

anything, the world woes, ment. The steps him, declare ideal Pyrrho imbued, he

but appearances. anything of the living, and, in their underfoot which he trampled

the aspire to resemble on something else, on to will want to return

his former resume company, in dashing toward detach? astray grow of love in the foot? following of it and leave weary

person who is not a sage goes of one. Sooner or later he will or break war and with him, on him, failed to attain. if only as he does When out on

of breaking; he will above all on the everything, has for years invoked them when he is

someone

he justifiably Lao-tse, betray But is he seriously than ever, with their teachings? and can he presume to consider their himself them, betraying is that they are in the right? He is victim when his only reproach more in an acutely the man who, having awkward position, and from the world, to free him from himself wisdom shackle. detest it, to see in it just another [Translated Notes on Contributors by Frederick Brown] entreated comes to

can

The Evil Demiurge, by E. M. CIORAN, will appear in an early issue of this Review. ROBERT HAZEL* is the author of two novels, The Lost Year and A Field Full of People. A book of his poems, Who Touches This, is to be published in 1967. MAY SWENSON's new book of poems, Half Sun Half Sleep, is to be published by Scribner's this winter. A. ALVAREZ, author of Stewards of Excellence and The School of Donne, works as a free-lance writer in London. VINCENT STEWART,* a Texan by birth, is in the Department of English at Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

LELAND HICKMAN* was born in Santa Barbara, and attended the Uni? versity of California, Santa Barbara and Berkeley. He is currently living in New York City. CHARLES W. MILLARD has recently been appointed Director of the Wash? ington Gallery of Modern Art. LUCY R. LIPPARD* is a free-lance art critic and New York Editor of Art International. The poet and critic CHARLES HIGHAM, who lives in Sydney, is at work on a book on film directors. LEIBOWITZ* HERBERT teaches English at Columbia; his book on Hart Crane will be published by Columbia University Press later this year. Asterisk indicates a new contributor.