“When I’m feeling dazed and spent, and perhaps even a bit self-pitying, I turn my attention to the gleeful nihilism of E. M. Cioran. Romanian by birth, and a philosopher who wrote in French by choice, Cioran’s short paragraphs
(he started writing in short bursts after he quit smoking) are instant jolts out of the narrowness of my own perceptions. He had a grand view of the senselessness and absurdity we encounter every day of our lives. At the same time, there is a dark humor bubbling around his writings, like a raging man who can’t stop himself from laughing. My favorite passage in all of his writings is a section in The Trouble With Being Born, where he tells us a story about Pope Innocent IX who, while still healthy, commissioned a portrait of himself on his deathbed. The Pope would look at the portrait of his dying self whenever he was about to make an important decision. Cioran reminds us that there’s a certain prickly solace in knowing it’s all going to end, and if we dig deeply enough into the true meaning of it all, we can’t help but laugh.”
—Todd Colby, author of Splash State (The Song Cave, 2014)
Photo credit: Brian Ferry