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Emil Cioran’s heights of despair 

Mairéad Hanrahan

Emil CioranOEUVRES

Edited by Nicholas Caaill!s "ith #$rélien %emars

&'()*pp+ ,allimard+ ()e$ros+-.* / 0. 0&/(/) )

1$blished2 /3 May /0&/

 4

he decision to mar5 the centenary of the Romanian essayist Emil Cioran in /0&& 6 also

the centenary of ,allimard itself 6 by incl$ding a ol$me of his "ritings in 7rench in the

1léiade collection is partic$larly significant+ %oing so in effect presents him as one of thegreat 7rench "riters of his day+ 4his edition' metic$lo$sly and er$ditely edited by Nicolas

Caaill!s "ith the help of #$rélien %emars' posits that the ten boo5s Cioran "rote in

7rench form a body of "or5 "ith its o"n 8nat$ral and po"erf$l $nity9' separate 6 and

separable 6 from his preio$s "ritings in Romanian+ :ritten after their a$thor settleddefinitiely in 7rance ;he neer ret$rned to Romania after &-<&=' they mar5 a radical shift

that goes beyond the obio$s differences in lang$age' time and space+ :ith 1récis dedécomposition ;# Short History of %ecay' &-<-=' the "or5 "hich "on him immediate

recognition from the 1arisian intelligentsia' Cioran p$shed his blea5 nihilism to ne"

8heights of despair9 ;the title of his first Romanian "or5 fifteen years earlier=+ One can"ell $nderstand "hy this boo5 had s$ch resonance >$st after the "ar' "ith its passionate'

forensic' often lyrical reflections on the origins of fanaticism+ 7or Cioran' the root of all

8ideologies' doctrines and bloody farces9 is the life force itself' the ital instinct "hich

leads people to beliee passionately in any one thing rather than another+ 8Signs of life2cr$elty' fanaticism' intolerance? signs of decadence2 affability' $nderstanding'

ind$lgence+9 Since 8all faith e@ercises a form of terror9' it follo"s that sceptics are the8tr$e benefactors of h$manity9+ Aet een sceptics sho" themseles to be fanatical abo$tscepticism2 8man is the s$preme dogmatic being9+ Bife is a senseless tragedy made

hideo$sly "orse by the h$man propensity to inest it "ith meaning' to find some ill$sion

to beliee in+ 4he only alternatie to the deastation ca$sed by man’s capacity to del$dehimself lies in $tter disill$sionment2

$nderstood the nonDsense of eery gest$re' eery effort + + + + "anted to defend myself

against all men' react against their madness' discoer its so$rce? listened and sa" 6and "as afraid2 afraid of acting for the same reasons or for any reason' of belieing in

the same phantoms or in any other phantom' of letting myself be into@icated in the same

"ay or in any other "ay? afraid' finally' of sharing a common deliri$m and e@piring in acro"d of ecstasies + + + + t is tro$bling to thin5 that + + + all sin5 into lying beca$se they do

not s$spect the e$ialence' in n$llity' of pleas$res and of tr$ths+

4his desolate pessimism e@plains "hy Sam$el Fec5ett is the contemporary most often

associated "ith Cioran+ #ltho$gh they did not meet $ntil &-(&' Fec5ett "as the "riter for

"hom Cioran felt the deepest affinity+ 4he section deoted to him is one of the fe"

$ne$iocally admiring pieces in E@ercices d’admiration ;&-*(=' a set of meditations on

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4emptation 4o E@ist' &-)(= "as as close as he came to a formal recantation of his earlier

antiDSemitic ie"s+ Aet een there any a$tobiographical dimension is lac5ing+ :hen he

says 89' as in the long $otation aboe' it sit$ates him as a defender of h$manity+ His 89neer e@plores the part he may hae played in attac5ing it+

4his is neither to >$dge the person nor' especially' to dismiss the "or5 "hich' as Cioranhimself repeatedly emphasied' is $ltimately "hat matters in any disc$ssion of a "riter+

Cioran’s "or5 is ind$bitably important+ His insights into the depths to "hich h$manity

co$ld descend remain as compelling today as "hen they "ere first p$blished+ Moreoer'his reflections on lang$age in general' and on poetry in partic$lar' "ere far in adance of

their time+ He conceied of poetry as a ;f$tile= e@pression of f$tility and' as s$ch' the only

nonDdestr$ctie practice of lang$age possible' beca$se it neer 8sered9 a p$rpose' had

no aspiration to tell a tr$th+ 4his is also "hat ma5es him s$ch an effectie stylist+ t is beca$se he claims no ill$sions abo$t the al$e of any meaning that he broo5s no

constraint other than those of lang$age itself on his attempts to craft "ords into ne"

forms+ His int$ition of a 8radical dis>$nction bet"een reality and the Verb9 e@plains the

interest his "or5 "o$ld hold for thin5ers s$ch as Gac$es %errida decades later+ F$t hedra"s ery different concl$sions abo$t that dis>$nction from those %errida "o$ld dra"2

4hat a reality is hidden behind appearances is' after all' possible? that lang$age co$ld

render it "o$ld be a ridic$lo$s thing to hope+ :hy then "eigh oneself do"n "ith one

opinion rather than another' "hy retreat before the banal or the inconceiable' before thed$ty to say or to "rite any old thingI

t does not follo" from the fact that lang$age fails to describe reality that all attempts to

do so fail e$ally+ Similarly' the fact that any idea can be t"isted and appropriated toshamef$l ends does not mean that all ideas are 8ne$tral9' as the opening line of # Short

History asserts' or 8interchangeable9+ Similarly too' it is one thing to recognie that it is

8"ithin the reach of all of $s to ta5e another’s life+ :e all carry a silent e@ec$tioner' an$nrealied criminal' "ithin $s9+ t is $ite another to concl$de from the capacity for eil

that forms an intrinsic part of the h$man condition that all are e$ally infamo$s+

7or Cioran' his postD"ar nihilism represented an adance on "hat preceded it+ 7or

others' the moral e$ialence it led him to establish bet"een all ideas' all beliefs' all

opinions may not constit$te so complete a r$pt$re bet"een his Romanian prehistory and

his corp$s of 7rench "or5 as he li5ed to beliee+ :hether or not that ma5es him less of a7rench "riter may be an $nans"erable $estion+ F$t he is certainly an interesting one+

#nd as s$ch it is good to see him among the stars+

Mairéad Hanrahan is 1rofessor of 7rench at Uniersity College Bondon+