{"id":3399,"date":"2020-01-19T14:34:28","date_gmt":"2020-01-19T14:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2020\/01\/19\/the-deep-thinker\/"},"modified":"2020-01-19T14:34:28","modified_gmt":"2020-01-19T14:34:28","slug":"the-deep-thinker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2020\/01\/19\/the-deep-thinker\/","title":{"rendered":"The Deep Thinker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elias Canetti, The Agony of Flies: Notes and Notations<\/strong> (Die Fliegenpein: Aufzeichnungen<\/em>), Noonday 1994, tr. H. F. Broch de Rothermann, bilingual ed., p. 25:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

His thoughts have fins instead of wings.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It flows better in German:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Sein Denken hat Flossen statt Fl\u00fcgel<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The title is my creation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many of Canetti's notations express insights; others, however striking, are exercises in literary self-indulgence, not that there is anything wrong with that.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are some good ones:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

No code is secret enough to allow for the expression of complete candor. (5)<\/span><\/p>\n

He will never be a thinker: he doesn't repeat himself enough. (13)<\/span><\/p>\n

He desires the existence of the people he loves, but not their presence and their preoccupations. (15)<\/span><\/p>\n

He wishes for moments that burn as long as match. (15)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I read that as a protest against time's fugacity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

He is as smart as a newspaper; he knows everything and what he knows changes from day to day. (19)<\/span><\/p>\n

Even the great philosopher benefits from exaggeration, but with him she must wear a tightly woven garment of reason. The poet, on the other hand, exposes her in all her shimmering nudity. (19)<\/span><\/p>\n

It's easy to be reasonable when you don't love anyone, including yourself. (21)<\/span><\/p>\n

On fair days he feels too sure of his own life. (23)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That resonates with me.  But it is not an aphorism if an aphorism must present a universal truth.  This is an aphorism: On fair days one feels too sure of one's own life.<\/em>  But this is the philosopher talking with his zeal to transcend the particular toward the universal. The poet is more at home, or entirely at home,  with the particular. There is an advantage to Canetti's formulation: it cannot be contradicted. He is reporting the feeling of a particular man, presumably himself.  The corresponding aphorism invites counterexamples.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

God does not like us to draw lessons from recent history. (23)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I surmise that the thought driving the aphorism is that the horrors of the 20th century make theistic belief psychologically impossible. Who can believe in God after Auschwitz?<\/span><\/p>\n

Related: Susan Sontag on the Art of the Aphorism <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Addendum. <\/strong> Contrast<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

On fair days he feels too sure of his own life<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

with <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

He whose days are fair feels too sure of his own life.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

'He' in the second sentence functions as a universal quantifier, not as a pronoun.  Pronouns have antecedents: the 'he' in the second sentence has no antecedent.  Nor does it need one. The 'he' in the first sentence, however, could be called a dangling pronoun: its antecedent is tacit, and is presumably 'Canetti.'  If this is right, the two sentences express different thoughts and are not intersubstitutable salva veritate<\/em>.  <\/span><\/p>\n

I rather doubt that Canetti would approve of this analysis. Too philosophical.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elias Canetti, The Agony of Flies: Notes and Notations (Die Fliegenpein: Aufzeichnungen), Noonday 1994, tr. H. F. Broch de Rothermann, bilingual ed., p. 25: His thoughts have fins instead of wings. It flows better in German: Sein Denken hat Flossen statt Fl\u00fcgel. The title is my creation. Many of Canetti's notations express insights; others, however … Continue reading “The Deep Thinker”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181,463,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aphorisms-by-others","category-canetti-elias","category-literary-matters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3399\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}