Irony is a delight. Irresistible, at times. And for some temperaments, essential. But it is difficult not to see where it leads, or rather, it is difficult not to see the effects of its prolonged, regular practice on the practitioner’s personality. To understand this, it is enough to investigate where one’s motivation stems from. There are forms of irony that, in short, uplift; others degenerate. And this is perceived not by the reactions they provoke, but by the sentiment the ironist nurtures within himself. To always sit at the table, to center one’s life on scathing criticism, is something that should only be done with a constructive and purifying purpose.
Tag: writing
It Does Not Seem at All Reliable…
It does not seem at all reliable to try to draw parallels between writers’ physical fitness and their intellectual character, and the proof of this is that, based solely on their writing, one can hardly glean any clues about the former. However, it is very interesting when we discover that a writer was also an athlete during his lifetime. The fact is less interesting for the possible feats achieved, and more for the importance of the athletic habit in daily life: for the necessity of it, and for reaping the benefits of exercise. There are, of course, different kinds of exercise; however, it is clear that, provided they are performed with some intensity, work flows much better afterward. The difference is noticeable: physical work is followed by a sense of relaxation, a positive serenity that benefits intellectual activity.
There Is Something Strange About the Way…
There is something strange about the way ideas take shape in the mind. Sometimes, it’s fun to play at facing the problem of the blank screen, the blinking cursor, and the text yet to be written. Then, one realizes the following: the idea does not spring forth when the mind is active, when it imagines phrases and themes, and reflects on what it will write. If the mind intensifies its thinking, it eventually exhausts itself, but the idea does not come. However, if the mind allows itself a moment of pause, sometimes when lighting a cigarette or pouring a cup of coffee, which interrupts the thought and creates a void, a momentary inertia, it is in this very moment that the idea springs forth, leaving the writer with the task of shaping it and writing it down.
The Aspiring Writer Will Be Shocked…
The aspiring writer will be shocked if someone tells him that not even Cioran himself agreed with the things he said, but that, despite this, he was a true master of the art of writing. Yet this is the case. And that is precisely why it is so difficult to find authors who write like him: because Cioran took the need to craft powerful phrases to its ultimate extreme. For him, it is not the content of what he is saying that matters, but rather the effect of the sentence. And when it comes to powerful sentences, there are not many authors who can compare to him.