All Gall is Divided
Author | Emil Cioran |
---|---|
Translator | Richard Howard |
Language | French |
Genre | Philosophy |
Published | 1952 (French) 1999 (English) |
Publisher | Arcade Publishing |
Pages | 151 |
Preceded by | A Short History of Decay |
Followed by | The Temptation to Exist |
All Gall is Divided (French: Syllogismes de l'amertume, literally "Syllogisms of Bitterness") is a French philosophical book by Emil Cioran. Originally published in 1952, it was translated into English in 1999 by Richard Howard. The book consists of aphorisms and brief remarks on subjects such as religion, suicide, and literature.
All Gall is Divided was the second book to be written in French by the Romanian-born Cioran, after 1949's A Short History of Decay, and the first to contain aphorisms. Cioran claimed he adopted the aphorism because "explaining bores me terribly".[1]
Synopsis
The text is organized into ten chapters and bracketed into small fragments, either brief passages or aphoristic remarks, some consisting of a single sentence.[a] This presentation contrasts with Cioran's previous work A Short History of Decay, which consisted of somewhat longer pieces: short reflections and small essays. In All Gall is Divided, Cioran sought to develop his proficiency with French, expressing himself in concise fragments.
The book's original French title was Syllogismes de l'amerture (literally, Syllogisms of Bitterness), translated by Richard Howard as All Gall is Divided. The original title refers both to the style of presentation and the negativity of the subject matter. The book's contents are not literal syllogisms but brief rhetorical flourishes, sometimes suggestive of an argument. Some items include one or two declarations, followed by a loosely related conclusion:
At the nadir of our failures, we suddenly grasp the essence of death; — a limit-perception, refractory to expression; a metaphysical defeat which words cannot perpetuate. This explains why, on this theme, the interjections of an illiterate old woman enlighten us more than a philospher's jargon.[2]
Howard's title translation was intended to retain the meaning of the original, while also loading other semantic meanings. According to Howard,
Unlike other of Cioran's previous works, All Gall Is Divided does not have a unifying theme, apart from its shorter aphoristic style.
I love those nations of astronomers: Chaldeans, Assyrians, pre-Columbians who, for love of the sky, went bankrupt in history.[4]
The more disabused a man's mind, the more he risks, stricken by love, reacting like a schoolgirl.[5]
The Creation was the first act of sabotage.[6]
The book contains several repetitions of ideas which Cioran had expressed in his earlier work. The above quotation about astronomers is a reworking of a similar passage found in his earlier Romanian work Tears and Saints.[7] For Cioran, ancient astronomers who pass into obscurity are preferable to well-documented historical figures, because the latter frequently achieve their notability through warfare and atrocities. In Tears and Saints, Cioran's longer version of the passage continued, acknowledging both types of society:
A nation that loves neither the sky nor earthly conquests should not be allowed to live. There are only two ways to die right: on a battlefield or under the gaze of a star.[7]
Another example of repetition is found in Cioran's disdain for the world. The conceit that the world "doesn't deserve to be known" is also found in On the Heights of Despair, his first book.[8]
Objection to scientific knowledge: this world doesn't deserve to be known.[9]
The final fragment of All Gall is Divided is also an elaboration on an idea previously introduced in Tears and Saints. In the latter, Cioran introduced the idea of ancient Egyptian hermits who dig their own graves in the desert, in order to weep in them.[7] In All Gall is Divided Cioran updated the idea, indicating that he would not react to the situation with sadness, but instead wait to die in apathy.
When I was barely adolescent, the prospect of death flung me into trances; to escape them, I rushed to the brothel, where I invoked the angels. But with age, you become used to your own terrors, you undertake nothing more in order to be disengaged from them, you become quite bourgeois in the Abyss. — And although there was a time when I envied those Egyptian monks who dug their own graves in order to shed tears within them, if I were to dig mine now, all I would drop in there would be cigarette butts.[10]
Reception
In a 1999
All Gall is Divided sold 2,000 copies within the first twenty years of its release, which Cioran called "a big success", and said it was his most read book in France.[1]
Notes
References
Source text
Citations
- ^ a b "E. M. Cioran". Itineraries of a Hummingbird. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
- ^ Cioran 1952, p. 78.
- ^ Cioran 1952, pp. xiii–xv.
- ^ Cioran 1952, p. 124.
- ^ Cioran 1952, p. 112.
- ^ Cioran 1952, p. 96.
- ^ ISBN 9780226106748.
- ISBN 9780226106717.
- ^ Cioran 1952, p. 28.
- ^ Cioran 1952, p. 151.
- ^ "Nonfiction Book Review: All Gall Is Divided". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
- JSTOR 41938834– via JSTOR.
- ^ Mobilio, Albert. "All Gall Is Divided". New York Times. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
- ^ Leuzzi, Tony (2021-02-02). "ALBERT MOBILIO with Tony Leuzzi". The Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved 2021-06-25.