The Education of the Stoic
by Fernando Pessoa, Barão de Teive
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In 1999, translator Richard Zenith made a new find in the Pessoa archive in Lisbon: a group of prose writings by a previously unknown heteronym, the Baron of Teive.' The Portuguese volume of these writings has been received by scholars as a crucial piece of the puzzle that is Pessoa's oeuvre. The Education of the Stoic is the unique work left by the Baron of Teive, who, after destroying all his previous literary attempts and before destroying himself, explains 'the impossibility of producing show more superior art.' It is the dark companion piece to The Book of Disquiet.' show lessTags
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I tried to read Disquiet, and failed, which doesn't happen too often. I partially blame Pessoa himself, or perhaps just me, since I have a really, really hard time getting into pessimistic writings that don't seem to be ironic, or funny, and have nothing solid to fall back on: Auschwitz, say, or Communism, or slavery. I partially blame his translator and acolyte, Richard Zenith, not just because I refuse to believe that a man exists whose parents gave him the name Dick Zenith, but also because I just don't like the way he writes, whether that be his editorial materials (which tend to the endless plot summary, quite a trick given that these works have no plot; and also towards the hagiographic, whether the hagio is Pessoa's works, and show more they can do no wrong), or his translations. Of course, I know jack Portugese, so maybe that's how Pessoa writes: over-wrought, under-thought.
A friend suggested I start with the Baron of Teive, instead, and I'm very glad I did. It helps that this text is short, I won't lie; it also helps that there's so much more self-reflection about the pessimism; and it helps that the pessimism leads somewhere, i.e., suicide. That's grim praise, but nonetheless.
The Education comprises fragments, of course, but Dick Zenith has put them in a good order: a little bit of literary criticism of previous pessimists (Chateaubriand, Roussea, Quental, Leopardi), some 'biography' of the Baron, some general reflections. But it's the overall structure that helped me enjoy this so much: the Baron is writing his "definition" (not, he stresses, confession), which will end with his suicide. Why is he killing himself? Well, for the usual modern reasons: anomie, enforced atheism, Hamlet syndrome.
If it was just that, I wouldn't have enjoyed this any more than the few bits I read of Disquiet. However, Stoic goes on step further, at least implicitly: the Baron kills himself, not because of those things, but because the doctrine on which he relied--i.e., pessimism--turns out to be as empty and shallow as any other doctrine. He returns again and again to the excellent point that the pessimists who don't have any social complaints to make are just being ridiculous: "I am shy with women: therefore there is no God" is a highly unconvincing metaphysics, as Pessoa wrote in a fragment on Leopardi. As the Baron writes, "There's something vile--and all the more vile because ridiculous--in the tendency of feeble men to make universal tragedies out of the sad comedies of their private woes."
The blurbs and afterwords ask us to think that this book is far more grim than Pessoa's other work, because it ends in suicide. That's inaccurate. It's pretty grim for the Baron, but for the rest of us, it's a fascinating piece of self-criticism, in which the dregs of romanticism and pessimism are shown up for the sillinesses that they are, and the suicide of an individual is shown to be entirely personal. Nobody kills themselves because of cosmic indifference, and to profess otherwise is vile. The implication, of course, is that life is worth living, most of the time. Not something the pessimist wants to hear. show less
A friend suggested I start with the Baron of Teive, instead, and I'm very glad I did. It helps that this text is short, I won't lie; it also helps that there's so much more self-reflection about the pessimism; and it helps that the pessimism leads somewhere, i.e., suicide. That's grim praise, but nonetheless.
The Education comprises fragments, of course, but Dick Zenith has put them in a good order: a little bit of literary criticism of previous pessimists (Chateaubriand, Roussea, Quental, Leopardi), some 'biography' of the Baron, some general reflections. But it's the overall structure that helped me enjoy this so much: the Baron is writing his "definition" (not, he stresses, confession), which will end with his suicide. Why is he killing himself? Well, for the usual modern reasons: anomie, enforced atheism, Hamlet syndrome.
If it was just that, I wouldn't have enjoyed this any more than the few bits I read of Disquiet. However, Stoic goes on step further, at least implicitly: the Baron kills himself, not because of those things, but because the doctrine on which he relied--i.e., pessimism--turns out to be as empty and shallow as any other doctrine. He returns again and again to the excellent point that the pessimists who don't have any social complaints to make are just being ridiculous: "I am shy with women: therefore there is no God" is a highly unconvincing metaphysics, as Pessoa wrote in a fragment on Leopardi. As the Baron writes, "There's something vile--and all the more vile because ridiculous--in the tendency of feeble men to make universal tragedies out of the sad comedies of their private woes."
The blurbs and afterwords ask us to think that this book is far more grim than Pessoa's other work, because it ends in suicide. That's inaccurate. It's pretty grim for the Baron, but for the rest of us, it's a fascinating piece of self-criticism, in which the dregs of romanticism and pessimism are shown up for the sillinesses that they are, and the suicide of an individual is shown to be entirely personal. Nobody kills themselves because of cosmic indifference, and to profess otherwise is vile. The implication, of course, is that life is worth living, most of the time. Not something the pessimist wants to hear. show less
This short work is a collection of observations and reflections of life by the Baron of Tieve, the fictional "quasi-author" who contributed to Pessoa's famous novel The Book of Disquiet. The baron was a sensitive and tortured soul, who spent much of his life in solitude and ultimately committed suicide due to his immense unhappiness and inability to find love with a woman. Although this book has a high rating on LT I could not connect with it, as I found the baron's comments to be obtuse, morbid and banal. Your mileage may vary with this one.
Another heteronym, a disparate vantage, a discarded entrée. Pessoa was myriad, his entrances were random and multiple. The titular character here is a stub, a runt, an admixture of about two ideas with a dangling quote to afford it a macabre sheen. I devoted all of two minutes to see if there was a decent biography in English. I couldn't find one. Is that suitable preamble for suicide? As I age the weighty issues are not Death and Peace, nor Sex and the Sublime. Matters these days require more of a technical manual. The heterodoxy on display in this Pessoa is foreign but hardly enticing.
Ash finished Infinite Jest and I feel as if he and I are speaking into soup cans--though these remain unlinked and thus boringly autistic. Much as show more this text ponders the poets of pessimism, Pessoa and DFW didn't allow the Void to temper their prolix output.
Where to go from here? Casanova is admittedly appetizing at the moment. show less
Ash finished Infinite Jest and I feel as if he and I are speaking into soup cans--though these remain unlinked and thus boringly autistic. Much as show more this text ponders the poets of pessimism, Pessoa and DFW didn't allow the Void to temper their prolix output.
Where to go from here? Casanova is admittedly appetizing at the moment. show less
Ο ΑΛΒΑΡΟ ΚΟΕΛΙΟ ΝΤΕ ΑΤΑΪΝΤΕ, 14ος Βαρόνος ντε Τέιβε, είναι ένας ακόμη ετερώνυμος του Φερνάντο Πεσσόα. Ευπατρίδης, διανοούμενος "άκαμπτος και συγκρατημένος", αποτυχημένος εραστής και τελειομανής δημιουργός, πέρασε το μεγαλύτερο μέρος της φανταστικής ζωής του σε μια αγροικία στα περίχωρα της Λισαβόνας, αφιερώνοντας τον καιρό του στη σύνταξη σημειώσεων και αποσπασμάτων, καταλείποντας ένα "συνονθύλευμα show more πραγμάτων" ενός έργου που τελικά δεν είχε γράψει.
Έχοντας κατακτήσει "τη χρήση της λογικής στην πληρότητά της" ή έχοντας φτάσει "στον κορεσμό του τίποτα, στην πληρότητα του κανενός πράγματος", οδηγείται στην αυτοκτονία. Πριν από το μοιραίο διάβημα, ο Τέιβε καίει όλα του τα κείμενα εκτός από το έσχατο και μοναδικό χειρόγραφό του, ένα "πνευματικό υπόμνημα" της στωικής του παιδείας και μια απολογία για την απόφασή του να δώσει τέλος στη ζωή του. (Από την παρουσίαση στο οπισθόφυλλο του βιβλίου) show less
Έχοντας κατακτήσει "τη χρήση της λογικής στην πληρότητά της" ή έχοντας φτάσει "στον κορεσμό του τίποτα, στην πληρότητα του κανενός πράγματος", οδηγείται στην αυτοκτονία. Πριν από το μοιραίο διάβημα, ο Τέιβε καίει όλα του τα κείμενα εκτός από το έσχατο και μοναδικό χειρόγραφό του, ένα "πνευματικό υπόμνημα" της στωικής του παιδείας και μια απολογία για την απόφασή του να δώσει τέλος στη ζωή του. (Από την παρουσίαση στο οπισθόφυλλο του βιβλίου) show less
Jan 18, 2025Greek
Zeer vreemd boekje. Met de baron de Teive aan het woord, een van de vele alterego's van Pessoa, maar duidelijk zijn meest mysantropische
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Fernando Pessoa, 1888 - 1935 Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa was born in Lisbon. His father died when he was young and his mother married the Portuguese consul in Durban in South Africa where they lived from 1896 to 1951. During this time, Pessoa became fluent in English and was educated in Cape Town and Lisbon. Pessoa was employed as a business show more correspondent and also as a commercial translator. The bulk of his work was published in literary magazines, especially in his own Athena. His first book, "Antinous," appeared in 1918 and was followed by two other collection of poems, all written in English. In 1933, he published "Mensagem" his first book in Portuguese. "Livro Do Dessossogego (The Book of Disquiet)" the "factless autobiography" was written under the name of Bernardo Soares and appeared for the first time in 1982, almost fifty years after his death. After the republican revolution, in 1910, and consequent patriotic atmosphera, Pessoa created an alter ego, a heteronym, named Álvaro de Campos, supposedly a Portuguese naval engineer, born in Tavira and graduated in Glasgow. Translator Richard Zenith notes that Pessoa eventually established at least seventy-two heteronyms. According to Pessoa himself, there were three main heteronyms: Alberto Caeiro, Álvaro de Campos and Ricardo Reis. The heteronyms possess distinct biographies, temperaments, philosophies, appearances and writing styles. Pessoa died on November 30, 1935 in Lisbon. Other writings that were published posthumously and translated into several languages include "Poesias de Fernando Pessoa" (1942), Poesias de Alvaro de Campos" (1944), Poemas de Alberto Caeiro" (1946), and "Odes de Ricardo Reis" (1946). (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Canonical title
- The Education of the Stoic
- Original title
- A Educação do estóico
- People/Characters
- The Baron of Teive
- Quotations*
- Den impuls som fører meg til selvmordet, er den samme som får en til å gå tidlig til sengs.
Det finnes ingen større tragedie enn når den intellektuelle og den moralske følelse opptrer med like stor intensitet i en og samme sjel, eller i ett og samme menneske. For at en mann skal være absolutt og i alle deler mor... (show all)alsk, må han være en smule enfoldig. For at en mann skal være absolutt intellektuell, må han være en smule umoralsk. Jeg vet ikke hvilken tingenes lek eller ironi det er som dømmer mennesket til denne umulige dualitet, som beklageligvis finnes i meg. Det var ikke det at jeg hadde for mye av én egenskap som gjorde meg uegnet for livet, men at jeg hadde for mye av begge.
Jeg setter strek for et liv jeg trodde kunne romme alle storheter, men som viste seg å romme en manglende evne til å ønske dem. Om jeg har vært sikker i min sak, tenker jeg alltid på at de gale har vært sikrere.
Da jeg så andre gjøre det jeg selv oppfattet som banalt og som jeg av ulyst unnlot å ta del i, så jeg ikke annet enn verdens vulgaritet.
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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