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A review by ottomobile99
On the Heights of Despair by E.M. Cioran
3.0
Cioran's philosophy is simple - no, it's not simple.
Pessimism and Nihilism: mix them together and add a bit of ecstasy to it. The work here at hand can be soothing to read on a gloomy or riddle day but don't expect it to cheer you up or act as a 'self-help' book. Much like a ton of other continental hazards, this doesn't present any solutions to modern man's issues; if you'll say, this is more of a treatise ( if you can even call it that) of humanity's most desperate thoughts and questions. It's like adding more bullets to the incumbent questions we've yet to solve - which is to be expected of , regardless.
Surely, I enjoyed this read but it can get repetitively tedious at times: if you picked up this book thinking that it'll enchant you or perhaps clarify your questions with any certain school of thought, you might as put it back where it was shelved. It's understandable that Cioran wrote this book when he was 22 years of age but the experience that drives the contents of this book are the struggles that numerous thinkers from his time faced. Be it Jean-Paul Sartre, Michel Foucalt, Albert Camus, Theodore Adorno, Jacques Derrida or so to speak. Unlike his contemporaries, he doesn't get too serious with philosophy( I don't mean to derange continental by any means, I do like the branch but as someone who astoundingly prefers analytic, it can be an eyesore) but rather plays around with his writing as if it were a playbook.
If you're looking for a sequel to Schopenhauer's "The Pessimist's Handbook" or Nietzsche but with oil and water, you can grab this book and finish it with a day's excursion at your local park.
Pessimism and Nihilism: mix them together and add a bit of ecstasy to it. The work here at hand can be soothing to read on a gloomy or riddle day but don't expect it to cheer you up or act as a 'self-help' book. Much like a ton of other continental hazards, this doesn't present any solutions to modern man's issues; if you'll say, this is more of a treatise ( if you can even call it that) of humanity's most desperate thoughts and questions. It's like adding more bullets to the incumbent questions we've yet to solve - which is to be expected of , regardless.
Surely, I enjoyed this read but it can get repetitively tedious at times: if you picked up this book thinking that it'll enchant you or perhaps clarify your questions with any certain school of thought, you might as put it back where it was shelved. It's understandable that Cioran wrote this book when he was 22 years of age but the experience that drives the contents of this book are the struggles that numerous thinkers from his time faced. Be it Jean-Paul Sartre, Michel Foucalt, Albert Camus, Theodore Adorno, Jacques Derrida or so to speak. Unlike his contemporaries, he doesn't get too serious with philosophy( I don't mean to derange continental by any means, I do like the branch but as someone who astoundingly prefers analytic, it can be an eyesore) but rather plays around with his writing as if it were a playbook.
If you're looking for a sequel to Schopenhauer's "The Pessimist's Handbook" or Nietzsche but with oil and water, you can grab this book and finish it with a day's excursion at your local park.