The commitment not to give up is the beginning and the harbinger of literary work. Without it, what is done does not become a work, but merely something fleeting and equally disposable. It is only this commitment that will sustain the effort when circumstances sabotage it, when the will to write itself fails. It is this that motivates habit, and it is only this that restores normality when habit, violated, transmutes a state of productive inertia into absolute torpor.
Category: Notes
It Is Really Impressive to Contrast…
It is really impressive to contrast the harmless appearance of letters with their marvelous power of evocation. In fact, their ability to describe precisely and in detail is unparalleled, allowing the mind to produce vivid images that can always be recalled. It is enough to think back to Dostoevsky’s Petersburg, dark and snow-covered, with open taverns and coachmen passing to and fro; the Brazilian hinterland, the suburbs of London, Lisbon and the Alto Minho… all of this appears with impressive vividness, accompanied by the emotional charge coming from the setting evoked. The numerous characters, their choices and their mishaps, the ever particular atmosphere that emanates from each work… It is, in fact, thanks to letters, a life created, mentally lived and assimilated, whose impressions are remembered forever. And all of this is unsuspected by anyone who does not read.
Often What Motivates Misanthropy…
Often what motivates misanthropy is not a total repulsion for what is evil in man, but simply a divergence of interests. To put it this way, it sounds like a small thing, but there are differences that are so complete that contact is always a hindrance, always a waste of time, if not an annoyance. And so the search for a point of contact that is known not to exist becomes painful. Without it, there is no possible human relationship, and if there cannot be one, searching for it comes down, as the popular expression goes, to punching a knife.
What Is Valuable About Theosophists…
What is valuable about Theosophists, at least at first, is not the syncretism of the doctrine they profess, but the initial impulse to study and understand different doctrines, seeking in them what is true and good. In short, it is that old humility in the face of the unknown, that genuine interest in the different, which begins with the granting of credit, manifested in a willingness to listen. So obvious and so basic. If theosophy were to teach people this one virtue, it would already have proved invaluable. All the rest is moaning.