There is an insurmountable distance between the misanthrope and his time that reveals itself with each attempt to approach it. The misanthrope who opens a contemporary novel will hardly be able to finish it, since he will gradually be overcome by a feeling of repulsion that will force him to throw it away, if he does not want to submit himself to a torture from which he has nothing to gain. Whose fault is this? Certainly not the novelist’s, who more often than not is only fulfilling part of his obligation to the future by describing minutiae and particularities. But there is no solution! His work, at every step, at every scene, will arouse bad feelings that will eventually suffocate the unadapted animal, and he will have to abandon it, if possible forget it. The misanthrope is someone out of place in space and time.
We Give More Value to Works That…
In short, we give more value to works that, from an entirely subjective perspective, generate a greater impact. This is the only parameter that really matters to us. It also seems to be the fairest, since it is independent of our predispositions. We cannot control what a work is capable of generating in us, and from this we realize that we can do nothing about its power. So, in the last instance, all that is needed in our judgment is sincerity to admit how much a work has been able to transform us.
Even If They Seem Full of Absurdities…
There are lines that, even if they seem full of absurdities, lead our thoughts to very interesting and sometimes unexplored areas. For this reason, it is good that we encourage the exploration of the nonsense: from it we occasionally extract the unprecedented and unexpected, and we may reach surprising destinations, even if this was not the intention of the author in our company. Does it make a difference? Apparently not…
Early Adulthood
Early adulthood is a critical phase because the young man is pressured to make decisions with long-lasting consequences without having made up his mind firmly enough, or, in some cases, without having the personality to take charge of the decisions made. Added to this is the frequent case of financial dependence, which ends up leading to submission to advice and opinions. Thus, he almost always gives in to the supposed “wisdom of the elders”, when in truth this is only useful to him as long as it is in conformity with what he truly wants for himself. Otherwise, such advice will only be the push into the abyss that will cause him the most severe regret he has ever experienced—regret, however, necessary for him to mature, and realize that only a life in which the consequences suffered are the fruit of personal choices is worth living. The amusing thing, in short, is that in most cases a few more years would be enough for decisions to be made in a more sensible way; but no, for some reason they have to be made hastily, perhaps because the mistake itself is fundamental.