I started picrel a few days ago and I must say, it’s blowing me away. It’s wonderful and clear, it’s earnest and funny. Its intellectual honesty is surprising (at least to me). It’s what I’ve searched for a long time. I haven’t finished it yet but I’m already looking forward to reading it again.Has anyone else read this?
>>25041360I bought it a few years ago, but never got around to read it. Might start reading it. Thanks!
>>25041360he's an absolute moron
>>25042344Elaborate please.
>>25041360Does this book offer anything more than the normal talks about pessimism? I have it in my shelf somewhere, but haven't read it. Always thought that he comes to the main conclusion of anti-natalism, extinction of all life or just living with it. But never dug deeper. I have a basic understanding of pessimism (Ligotti, Horstmann, Cioran, Schoppi, etc). Does it offer a much different experience?
>>25042499I don’t think it’s comparable to the pessimists you’ve mentioned. Unamuno talks about the problem of human existence which develops from the opposing sides of living and thinking. He holds that in order to live a meaningful life one has to believe that the individual living experience continues after death and is not erased into nothing or merged with gods consciousness, which would render life meaningless. That the afterlife is not contemplative thinking like some scholastics would believe but real extension of life in terms of feelings, impressions and so on. Again the contrast between thinking and living is central. Also he is a catholic, but in a very unorthodox manner. In this book he has an essay on don quijote, who exemplifies for Unamuno the struggle of life in its tragedy.
>>25041360>A few days later he confided to Nikos Kazantzakis: "No, I have not become a right-winger. Pay no mind to what people say. No, I have not betrayed the cause of liberty. But for now, it's totally essential that order be restored. But one day I will rise up—soon—and throw myself into the fight for liberty, by myself. No, I am neither fascist nor Bolshevik. I am alone!...Like Croce in Italy, I am alone!">On 21 November, he wrote to the Italian philosopher Lorenzo Giusso, "The barbarism is unanimous. It is a regime of terror on both sides.">In one of his final letters, dated 13 December, Unamuno, in terms that were to be widely quoted, condemned the White Terror being committed by Franco's forces: "[Franco's army] is waging a campaign against liberalism, not against Bolshevism [...] They will win, but they will not convince; they will conquer, but they will not convert."
>>25043405Did post this in support of Unamunos stance against authoritarianism or against him?
