“Please don’t Pinterest or Facebook share my life wisdom quotes. I was f*cking miserable, and cruel.” ~ Ernest Hemingway
I love how this Pinteresty Facebook sharey culture has us all casually quoting random de-contextualized living-life wisdom via miserable suicidal geniuses.
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But that's just it — they were geniuses. And, I very much doubt that it would make these great thinkers any more depressed and morose knowing that their words are bringing thought and let along a possible glimmer of hope they didn't have into other's lives. Yes, I agree — context is essential. But, I feel these quotes also feed a curiosity to people's minds to look up and learn what that context is for themselves. It's never the same for any two people.
Amen. But let's remember Malcolm Gladwell's definition of genius: those who worked hard and long as what they loved. To call them geniuses is almost to take away the blood, toil, tears and sweat—and love—that they poured into what would inspire us.
I think this is a great (and funny) point. However, I will still be prone to "quote the truth where I find it." (Richard Bach)
I will quote the truth…where I find it has been lived.
If we buy snake oil, it's easy to find many who will sell it. If we want inspiration, many self-help authors will sell us happy words. I will listen to Hemingway when he tells me how to hunt, or write live life fully.
I will listen to those who enjoyed life when seeking wisdom in quotes about enjoying life.
Nice.
Ernest Hemingway suffered from depression – along with a great many great artists, writers, musicians – people that experience incredible "highs" and often, unfortunately, "lows." Often people that suffer from depression act like 'assholes" and do "asshole" things out of pain. They may also drink or do drugs or otherwise seek an escape from the "Black Dog". While I feel for anyone that suffers from depression (and today – there are many approaches to alleviate suffering as well as a lessened stigma for the condition) there is no reason we shouldn't be touched / or moved / or motivated by their moments of crystalline vision or insight while in an illuminated state. In fact, one of the most touching and visceral accounts of depression was written by the American writer, William Styron (who also suffered) and wrote a memorable account of his "Descent Into Darkness." The title of the work comes from John Milton's description of Hell in Paradise Lost: (wikpedia)
"No light; but rather darkness visible
Served only to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to all, but torture without end
Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed
With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed."
Good god, no one's saying we can't take inspiration from human beings—we allll suffer from, and wake out of (hopefully, sooner than later) depression. But if you've read Hemingway, know his life story, you'll know he was miserable, aggressive, kicked his friends when down…but if all we "read" is Pinterest and Facebook, you'd think from such quotes that we was Rumi/Hafiz/Lincol/Dalai Lama…
…hell, online these quotes are all used interchangeably—that's precisely the point of this little post.
What happened to "it's the brokenness that lets the light in?" I think often these geniuses are suicidal because they see more about the world than is bearable. Living the truth is practically impossible. If we were to attempt it, society would put us in an insane assylum and lock us away from what little freedom they will allow.
Perhaps these people were ahead of their time, and under impossible circumstances to live the world they believed in.
Perspective is everything. One individual can't fight society alone… we all do what we can to survive with some sense of "normalcy" in the events of our surroundings. That doesn't mean we can't see a much better way of doing things.