#and just. absurdism and existentialism. as not a form a pessimism

[soldier-poet-king]

Man, as a bitch with chronic depression and haunted by grief over my "unlived lives", who's white knuckling my way into a will to live via forced cheerful joy at the absurdity of life and dedication hopeful existentialism, eeaao sure is ripping me a new one

#bonus points for being a queer with bad mother relationship #franposting #anyway. it took me so long to watch this bc i Was Afraid #but it could not be more made for me #i am full of both grief and comfort #actually there is smthn deeply chestertonian abt it. i said what i said. #and just. absurdism and existentialism. as not a form a pessimism #but a form of determined genuine hope in the face of nihilism #optimism isnt the solution to despair. but a white knuckled bittersweet joy is #i have so many thoughts. my heart is bursting

[metasnkpotato]

Are there any quotes (from anything) you’d say you live by?

Hello, 

I apologize for the long, long response time. To explain a little why, technically, Internet access has been complicated lately and writing a proper answer on an old smartphone half dying is a bit harsh. But I also wanted to take the time to properly mature this ask !

To say that I’d live by a quote would be difficult, I don’t think any quote, even those below, can essentialize a way I get through everyday life because there isn’t one (and the people for whom it’s the case must be quite rare actually), but these quotes represent important fragments of thinking that come back regularly. So they mustn’t be taken in their entirety but rather as pieces, and in this respect all this remains nuanced. And also because even though I’m the kind of weird person to have frequently quotes in the head, your question is indeed kind of relevant if we can put it like this ahah, I’ve certainly forgotten heaps of its, so sorry for omissions in advance.

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The struggle itself to the summits is enough to fill a man’s heart. 

The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus

If I had to advise anyone to live by a maxim, it would be this one. A powerful incitement to live happily in an absurd world, which takes place at the end of an essay that refutes suicide and despair at the lack of hope that we encounter more and more in a world that becomes atheist and who realizes the futility of everything for which we struggle. Life doesn’t make sense, and we spend our time looking for one in a derisory way. It’s a fight lost in advance, no doubt about it. Nevertheless, we can still longing the happiness. 

Two things fill the heart with an ever new and ever increasing admiration and veneration, as the reflection attaches itself to it and applies to it: the starry sky above me and the moral law in me.

Critique of Practical Reason, Kant

Maybe it’s just because it also comes from Kant’s epitaph, and being the most rationalist philosopher we’ve ever had, such lyricality can only be striking, but I feel that those words touches something very deep. To explain it in a nutshell, to be sure of being roughly understood in the idea : Kant starts from the most common experience, that of the contemplation of a starry sky, and brings it closer to the moral law, i.e. the possibility which every man has to determine himself by means of reason, to act freely to perform an action by duty. This moral law, like the starry sky, differs from one another as exteriority differs from interiority. But both are signs towards the infinite, that of the starry sky towards the infinity of worlds and times, that of the moral law to the value of the human person. It’s a form of explicitation of the connection that one can feel as a fact, between the ego and the universe in a way. The explanation of this quote could be way much longer, but I didn’t choose it for Kantian philosophy but rather for the sensible chord between particular and universal interest that it touches, and for this something not reducible to words that it gives off as a fact.

To hope is to deny the future.

Syllogisms of bitterness, Cioran

I would say that the strength we find in continuing to hope for happiness at Camus’ nihilism could be counterbalanced by the credit we can give to Cioran’s lucidity. The pessimism of Cioran’s thought makes that he’s often attached to authors like Schopenhauer or Kierkegaard (both authors of an optimism quite… difficult to see), and rarely taken seriously. He uses that himself after all, by naming his books for example, as The Trouble with Being Born. He has a style for provocation or punch, but black humor that transpires in his pages allows both to express a melancholy that rarely comes out in such a brutal and explicit way without going through the pathetic lament, and to ‘laugh’. So, not to make the reader feel more depressed, but less alone in his melancholy. It’s something incredibly amazing to have managed to make something so dark and twisted so limpid at the same time, and make a kind of pride to claim it with a sense of humor. Cioran is great for that, and it’s probably in his philosophy that I feel myself sensitively the more currently.

I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me. But it’s hard to stay mad when there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing at all in once, and it’s too much. My heart fills up like a bloom that about to burst. And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it. And then it flows through me like rain. And I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life.

American Beauty

American Beauty, a real masterpiece at least for that kind of lyricism. In addition, this sentence comes to the conclusion and manages to loop on something rather happy even if the end is not. Like Kant’s quote, it touches something important about the feeling of the beautiful, the sublime with sensitive and poetic’s words and in this quote, I find something very powerful. It describes a feeling that has no name but which is known to everyone on the proverbial field, a mix between universal and individual, and the effect that follows is dazzling.

And to finish with a quote from Snk to say to stay on the them of this blog (even if it’s gone away since a long time), 

It was always in front of me, but I pretended not to see it.

This line doesn’t even exist in the manga, it was added in the anime so it’s a bit bastard and the explanation here is stupidly long and beside the true meaning of the scene. But strangely, this is one of the lines that has impressed me most of SnK. The passage from a force that slumbered in potentiality to fulfill in actuality, something that was there but that needed an incentive to exist is something that I believe being true. And the fact of seeing it be done in a girl who seemed weak a few moments ago and who realizes that she possesses the strength to do what she wants is very 'stimulating’, to put it simply. It’s just in a second and in a sentence, the realization of a wrong vision of the world, a comfort that was made in the belief of a sweet environment that collapses, but that gives birth to strength in an act of rebellion. This is certainly not guided by hope and in this sense it’s rather pessimistic, since despite the rebellion against the cruelty of the world, it just leads to the mimicry of its cycle of violence to avoid being the victim, without avoiding the fact that there is a victim. But the fact that it’s a force that still pushes the action, and fill the existential emptiness that was present in the character a few seconds before, by a simple passage to lucidity of “I lived in a safe zone but it’s just deny” … well it probably touches something sensitive in me too. However, with the recent revelations of the manga, this scene takes on a very different connotation so among all this, Idk if this quote is still valid or if it will regain an other signification.

*

The strange introspection that allowed this ask was quite interesting, I hope not misunderstand the purpose of it initially because tbh it made me a little afraid at first. 😂 And I hope didn’t being bothering by too personal, if it’s the case sorry for that.

  Thank you for allowing this, and thank you very, very much for your interest ! (I feel as if a celebrity had just shaken my hand in the street or something like that ahah)

[penhive]

Sayings of Beatnik Rabbi

I carry the cross of life with hopeful resurrection of fame, fortune and money.

Riches, fame and money are undeniably good things to experience in life.

To swim in the shark infested waters of life is not an easy thing.

I can forgive but I cannot forget.

Be like the slow tortoise who won the race in the end.

Kindness is an experience of life.

I live in the sea, amidst affirmation and negation.

Patience is the waiting period for great and grand things to happen.

Put away envy and hate, for they are venoms of the soul.

Every child is a philosopher of innocence.

I am of worth to God, more than the sparrows of the air, more than the lilies of the field.

Celebrate life with the meaning of hope.

Though life is mortal, there are great things to accomplish in life.

Charisma is the individuality you carry in the soul.

Optimism needs a positive belief for good things to happen.

When a culture is decadent, irony and satire set in.

Pessimism is the harbinger of downfall and ruin.

Just like the moon which reflects the light of the sun, you are a reflection of your soul.

Patience is a virtue that needs to be passionately cultivated.

The inner time is the lived moments of the soul.

Mind has the ability to negate what is displeasing to it.

As you wake up each day, fill yourself with gratitude.

Life’s great moments are about to happen, so celebrate in happiness.

Wisdom is wings of the soul in understanding.

Break the absurd in life by making creative choices.  

Take your desires to the highest mountain of hope and the lowest sea of want.

Passion is as beautiful as a butterfly.

When life stings you, be patient and forgiving.

You are you and that is all that matters.

It’s evening and mystics are floating in the sky.

Endurance is the stamina of intuition.

Having self-worth is the best thing to have.

Don’t be discouraged when life treats you unfairly.

Learn life from the school of hard-knocks.

The gut feeling inside you is the voice of instinct and hope.

Don’t bother about things that cannot be changed in your life.

Feeling can be measured as the depth of the soul.

Don’t betray your conscience.

Making a balance between the signifiers and the signified is a mastery of the soul.

Sanity you are wound in the soul.

Let the art of nature be your life teacher.

Can one grasp the infinite God with the residence of finitude?

I want to forget my past, overcome the present and anticipate good things in the future.

Love is infinite as the sand on a beach.

Negate your worries in the sea of optimism.

Experience is the Guru of life.

Treating oriental cultures as the exotic is a mistake made by the Occident.

The future of experience is to create new lessons in life.

Being is a catharsis of the aesthetic.

Music is the highest form of art.

Don’t let worry and anxiety tear your soul.

Nihilism is the struggle of the being to come into existence.

Rapture is the poetry of the bodies in copulation.

Ecstasy you are the heart of altered states of consciousness.

Prayer is the altar of God’s listening ear.

If you want to achieve great things, you must leave your comfort zone.

Mammon is money coming into existence.

Experience builds personality and it is the truth of individuality.

Don’t hide your true-self behind a mask.

Be sensitive to other people’s feelings.

The soul does not rust with age, it grows all the more beautiful.

I want to navigate around the cape of Good-Hope and Luck.

I have planted the seeds of fortune and money in my heart.

How, I wish that good things in life will happen to me.

The Ego is the heart of want and desire.

Despair I break your chains to freedom.

Existentialism is the celebration of life in the absurd, and we as participants behave as clowns and idiots.

Oh, how I long for a windfall bounty.

Patience, when I come near you, don’t go far.

If you give love: you get love.

The past is known, the present is experienced and the future anticipated.

Every night of life has a new dawn beginning as a ray of hope.

Twilight colors dance in the sky as musicians performing an orchestra.

Who doesn’t desire and deserve fame, wealth and fortune?

Even though I don’t have money, I respect it and treat it with courtesy.

Don’t pay heed to anyone who infringes your consciousness.

Structuralism found meaning as ideas and things, and postmodernism questioned meaning as residing in privileges and marginalization.

There is the bit of the Quixotic in every soul.

When it comes to writing I am mad.

Throw all worries into shreds.

The song of freedom echoes in my heart.

Words are things brought forth.

The beginning of thought lies in the creation of meaning.

It’s puzzling that 26 letters of the alphabet can create worlds of infinite meaning.

Let you heart affirm possibilities.

Being can be a tool for self-analysis.

#Sayings #Maxims #Aphorisms #apophthegm #art #aesthetics #literature #philosophy

[79de2852b7]

Crocodilism and Misunderstanding a Snail Painting

In the end of the fifties, poet Efraín Huerta founded (and was possibly the soul member of) “El Cocodril- ismo”, a loosely defined literary movement in Mexico. In his column ?Llamado a las siete? for the magazine Cinema Reporter he writes:

“Pero en san Felipe nacio el cocodrilismo, flamante posición ante la existencia. Nueva dimensión del sentimiento creador. Extraordinaria escuela de optimismo y alegría.”

(“But in san Felipe Crocodilism was born, a flaming position towards existens. A new dimension of the creative spirit. An extraordinary school of optimism and happiness.”)

Going on to suggesting a manifesto to clarify the movements decided opposition to all kinds of pessimism and looserdom, however well or badly organised. He also later explained more concisely:

“Hay que meterse bajo la dura piel del cocodrilo: animal que soporta, persevera y no se esconde: sigue allí bostezando, o a lo mejor, riéndose de nosotros. El cocodrilismo consiste en refutar el dolor con humor.”

(“You have to get under the hard skin of the crocodile: animal that supports, perseveres and does not hide: it is there yawning, or maybe laughing at us. Crocodilism is about refuting pain with humor.”)

Huerta probably meant crocodilism less seriously than I’m imagining here. It’s creation may simply have been a tounge-in-cheek way for Huerta to critique the contemporary modes of poetry perhaps overly preoccupied with existential pain and problems. He had also suffered periods of serious illness which might have effected his outlook on the poet as an eternal sufferer.

In either case, Huertas use of a crocodile is at best sentimental, but most likely arbitrary. In crocodilism the crocodile is simply an image to project his newly found appreciation for life upon.

Huerta was because of this peculiar choice of image named “El Cocodrilo” for the rest of his life and beyond. Something that he has in common with René Lacoste, the founder of the brand and the reason for the brands logo being a Crocodile. In Lacoste’s case though, the crocodile has a somewhat different meaning. Lacoste acquired the nickname because of his determinate playing style. For Lacoste the crocodiles calm demeanour is aggressive. The crocodile isn’t indifferently relaxing through hardship, but waiting for a chance to strike. The use of a crocodile is here based on it’s status as a predator, but with René Lacoste largely forgotten, the crocodile seems almost absurd as a symbol for a upmarket brand.

In 1968 Marcel Broodthaers’ founded Museum of Modern Art, Department of Eagles. This museum was located in his live-in studio in Brussels and consisted of crates formerly used for the transport of art, and postcards with well known 19th century art works pictured. He used this museum mostly to generate corre- spondence in the form of letters and public statements until, in 1972, he was asked to regenerate his museum inside Kunsthalle Dusseldorf.

The eagle which had until then been fairly ignored by Broodthaers now took centre stage. Since it’s origin as part of the museums name was mostly a poetic gesture and the animal in itself was of very little importance to Broodthaers, he decided to borrow works and objects from other institutions on the theme of the eagle. It being the national animal of Germany there was no shortage of such material, but for Broodthaers the eagle had nothing to do with the country. He meant the gesture simply as an exercise in projection of meaning. In fact he knew that the animal had few similarities with the symbolism bestowed upon it. The eagles in Marcel Broodthaers museum where completely meaningless, in a good way.

Long before coming across Marcel Broodthaers I saw a picture of a very funny little painting of a snail hang- ing among larger, more abstract works. I found out that the little snail was a work by painter Michael Kreb- ber, and that this snail painting wasn’t the only one. While searching for more snail paintings on the internet I also learned about Krebber’s lazy, fatalist attitude to painting, which led to me interpreting the charming little snail as a kind of lorem ipsum for painting; paintings he could make in the spirit of total lack of inspiration. This seemed very liberating and exciting to me, and I felt that it sort of forced painting into a new corner.

I later learned that the snail paintings were nothing of the sort. Michael Krebber was indeed just as ironic and pessimistic as before, but the snail paintings turned out to be copies of a painting Kate Middleton had made during a visit to a inner city school in Los Angeles in 2011. This is arguably even funnier and gives the snails another dimension as the ultimate inoffensive subject matter. I commend both Middleton and Krebber for this excellent choice. They were, however, not the paintings to end it all which I had wished for, but at least they opened up the opportunity for the wish to exist.

This realisation is also the real moment of birth of my own crocodiles. Their meaninglessness had bothered me for a bit, and I had tried to justify them by stories about my color blind fathers preference for their polo shirts, or by saying that I simply liked crocodiles, both of which felt half-true. This misunderstanding of Krebber however made me realise that the meaninglessness that was bothering me was in fact the strength of my crocodiles. I could paint them on my government dept letters and print them on my hospital gowns or just by themselves on huge canvases and they would constitute whatever context they were put into. My croc- odiles could in fact become the real version of Michael Krebber’s snails and carry on the furiously positive spirit of Huerta’s Cocodrilism.

Charles Benjamin, May, 2018