Studying Great Openings
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Perennial Classics)by Milan Kundera
The idea of eternal return is a mysterious one, and Nietzsche has often perplexed other philosophers with it: to think that everything recurs as we once experience it, and that the recurrence itself recurs ad infinitum! What does this mad myth signify?
Putting it negatively, the myth of eternal return states that a life which disappears once and for all, which does not return, is like a shadow, without weight, dead in advance, and whether it was horrible, beautiful, or sublime, its horror, sublimity, and beauty mean nothing. We need take no more note of it than that of a war between two African kingdoms in the fourteenth century, a war that altered nothing in the destiny of the world, even if a hundred thousand blacks perished in excruciating torment.
Will the war between two African kingdoms in the fourth century itself be altered if it recurs again and again, in eternal return?
Dangerous Beauty
Venice, 1583 – the richest, most decadent city in Europe.
Its women were treated like property – few even knew how to read.
But there were some who enjoyed a different fate…
The following story is true…
We danced our youth in a dreamed up city, Venice, paradise, proud and pretty
We lived for love and lust and beauty Pleasure then our only duty
Floating then ‘twixt heaven and earth And drunk on plenty’s blessed mirth
We thought ourselves eternal then Our glory sealed by God’s own pen But paradise we founnd is always frail Against man’s fear will always fail.
The idea of eternal return is a mysterious one, and Nietzsche has often perplexed other philosophers with it: to think that everything recurs as we once experience it, and that the recurrence itself recurs ad infinitum! What does this mad myth signify?
Putting it negatively, the myth of eternal return states that a life which disappears once and for all, which does not return, is like a shadow, without weight, dead in advance, and whether it was horrible, beautiful, or sublime, its horror, sublimity, and beauty mean nothing. We need take no more note of it than that of a war between two African kingdoms in the fourteenth century, a war that altered nothing in the destiny of the world, even if a hundred thousand blacks perished in excruciating torment.
Will the war between two African kingdoms in the fourth century itself be altered if it recurs again and again, in eternal return?
Dangerous Beauty
Venice, 1583 – the richest, most decadent city in Europe.
Its women were treated like property – few even knew how to read.
But there were some who enjoyed a different fate…
The following story is true…
We danced our youth in a dreamed up city, Venice, paradise, proud and pretty
We lived for love and lust and beauty Pleasure then our only duty
Floating then ‘twixt heaven and earth And drunk on plenty’s blessed mirth
We thought ourselves eternal then Our glory sealed by God’s own pen But paradise we founnd is always frail Against man’s fear will always fail.
God made sin that we might know his mercy.
I find myself within his eyes
I find myself within his eyes
I long for more myself to know
He hears, it seems, my silent cries
And makes my heart my reason’s foe
How can this be, to love so quickly?
“Love does now wait,” is his reply
What magic weaves his touch to trick me?
How can I now my love deny?
He hears, it seems, my silent cries
And makes my heart my reason’s foe
How can this be, to love so quickly?
“Love does now wait,” is his reply
What magic weaves his touch to trick me?
How can I now my love deny?
posted by Shalla at 8:37 AM
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