/lit/ - Literature

>>21659071

This guy is my fren

>>8786003
Maybe all of this is only of interest to me because I feel like I have been split between two contradictory attitudes and comparing these people and finding the Orwell essay gave me the words to explain the confusion I felt. I think some "existential crises" might really be similar confusions, not having a consistent attitude. I guess it's just a question of the attitude you have towards life.


EDGAR Away, old man; give me thy hand; away!
King Lear hath lost, he and his daughter ta'en:
Give me thy hand; come on.
GLOUCESTER No farther, sir; a man may rot even here.
EDGAR What, in ill thoughts again? Men must endure
Their going hence, even as their coming hither;
Ripeness is all: come on.
GLOUCESTER And that's true too.

Nietzsche on Hamlet:

>In this sense the Dionysian man has similarities to Hamlet. Both have had a real glimpse into the essence of things. They have understood, and it now disgusts them to act, for their actions can change nothing in the eternal nature of things. They perceive as ridiculous or humiliating the fact that they are expected to set right a world which is out of joint. The knowledge kills action, for action requires a state of being in which we are covered with the veil of illusion. That is what Hamlet has to teach us, not that really venal wisdom about John-a-Dreams, who cannot move himself to act because of too much reflection, too many possibilities, so to speak. It’s not a case of reflection. No! The true knowledge, the glimpse into the cruel truth overcomes every driving motive to act, both in Hamlet as well as in the Dionysian man. Now no consolation has any effect. His longing goes out over a world, even beyond the gods themselves, toward death.

>>7824348

Why is Montaigne so neglected today? I just read the essays, these are perfect writings, insightful, accessible, among the comfiest things ever written and the perfect example of Renaissance Humanism, why isn't he a more widely part read part of the canon?

A collection of Montaigne's essays.