[P]hilosophy is the art of masking inner torments.
— Emil M. Cioran, On the Heights of Despair. (University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition October 1, 1996) Originally published 1933.
Emil M. Cioran — The Vale of Soul-Making
In search of the bohemian….
Reflecting philosophically, I have often attempted to examine the notion of bohemianism, to pin it down to some sort of tangible set of ideals and identities: all attempts have thus failed save to say that bohemianism is more a state of mind than anything else…
A friend of mine some time ago told me an anecdote about a group of Italian anarchists who turned up at a protest rally dressed in fine business suits. This clash of images provoked a completely perplexed response from the authorities who could not reconcile their dress code with the contradiction in their actual intentions.
Thus, bohemianism, like anarchism, should best be reserved as a ‘technique of mind’ rather than a code of dress that often presents mere images in place of deeply held sets of ideas or ideals.
[MN] 7 December 2021
On Boredom
When hit by boredom, go for it. Let Yourself be crushed by it; submerge, hit bottom. In general, with things unpleasant, the rule is the sooner you hit bottom, the faster you surface. The idea here, to paraphrase another great poet of the English language, is to exact full look at the worst. The reason boredom deserves scrutiny is that it represents pure undiluted time in all its repetitive, redundant, monotonous splendor.
– Joseph Brodsky in On Grief and Reason.
“You’ve nothing else to give the world which no one else can give except yourself” – Quentin Crisp
Keep Creating.
Keep creating.
There are no kingdoms to inherit.
No planet to be saved.
No prizes or trophies to be awarded.
Only the act of self-satisfaction.
Of self-application.
Knowing that you have done your best.
That at least you have tried, if sometimes in vain.
To do something.
Rather than nothing.
– Marcus D. Niski, as taken from my writer’s notebook, 4 May 2020, [MN]
On Genius
There is no genius as Corbusier implied. There is only steady, consistent, applied effort through diligence, insight, application and passion towards the expression of ideas in the most thoughtful and original attempt to capture them.
– Marcus D. Niski, as taken from my writer’s notebook, 4 May 2020, [MN]
Edmond Jabès — The Vale of Soul-Making
It is very hard to live with silence. The real silence is death and this is terrible. To approach this silence, it is necessary to journey to the desert. You do not go to the desert to find identity, but to lose it, to lose your personality, to be anonymous. You make yourself void. You […]
William S. Burroughs — The Vale of Soul-Making
In deep sadness there is no place for sentimentality. It is as final as the mountains: a fact. There it is. When you realize it you cannot complain.
― William S. Burroughs, Queer. (Viking Press November 1985)
Albert Camus — The Vale of Soul-Making
Words that come from the heart are always simple.
— Albert Camus, The Misunderstanding. (1943)
“A self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood” — Art of Quotation
“A self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood”
– Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, composer
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