Cioran on Aphorism and Aphorists

At the back of the monumental Oeuvres of E. M. Cioran (Gallimard, 1995) is a ‘Glossaire’ which gathers snippets from letters and interviews alphabetically by topic. Here follows a rough translation of some fragments on aphorism and aphorists.

Aphorisms (p. 1,736)

Aphorisms are instantaneous generalities.

I can only express results. My aphorisms aren’t really aphorisms. Each of them is the conclusion of a whole page, the end of a little bout of epilepsy.

I let everything else go and I give only the conclusion, like in a courtroom where, in the end, there’s only the verdict: condemned to death. Without thought’s unfolding: just its result. That’s my way of doing things, my formula.

Claudio Mutti, Interview with Aurel Cioran

Interview conducted 3 August 1995, Sibiu. Note that Emil Cioran had died on 20 June that year. Italian original, Origini 13 (February 1996). This translation made from the French version in Nouvelles de Synergies Européennes 22 (August–September 1996). Cioran offers interesting reflections on his brother’s relationship with religion, youth, and involvements with Nae Ionescu and the Legionary movement.

French version:

http://planetcioran.blogspot.com/2006/11/entretien-avec-aurel-cioran.html

http://www.archiveseroe.eu/histoire-c18369981/85

PDF of this translation:

https://www.academia.edu/43160665/Claudio_Mutti_Interview_with_Aurel_Cioran_1995_6_

Carlos Caballero, “Mystics and Conquerors: Cioran and the History of Spain” (1988)

Provisional translation of “Mystiques et Conquérants: Cioran et l’histoire d’Espagne,” Punto y Coma 10 (1988). The present translation was made from Nicole Bruhwiler’s French version in Orientations 13 (1991) as it appears at http://www.archiveseroe.eu/. Quotations from Cioran are my own translations, and will therefore differ from Richard Howard’s authoritative versions. I have not located every quotation, and have left Caballero’s citations untouched.

PDF of this version:

https://www.academia.edu/43108599/Carlos_Caballero_Mystics_and_Conquerors_Cioran_and_the_History_of_Spain_1988_

Original:

http://planetcioran.blogspot.com/2006/10/mystiques-et-conqurants-cioran-et.html

http://www.archiveseroe.eu/cioran-a48271323

Old posts on Nietzsche, mostly

Thematic index of posts from an ole blarg with an embarrassing name. Quotes and notes.

Posts on Nietzsche

F.N.'s story of the origin of the state is a version of the Männerbünde myth so popular with conservative revolutionaries.

http://unterrified.blogspot.com/2019/04/nietzsche-on-origin-of-state.html

F.N. was a pan-Europeanist.

http://unterrified.blogspot.com/2019/03/nietzsche-our-belief-in-virilising-of.html

On Nietzsche and Cioran

Cioran treats the Nietzschean theme of "the problem of Europe" in Écartèlement. The real pessimist, says Evola in Cavalcare, sees even will-to-power as vanitas. Cioran was a real pessimist. For him, Nietzsche's thirst for politics in the Grand Style is symptomatic; but no less so for Nietzsche is a pessimism like Cioran's.

http://unterrified.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-problem-of-europe-in-emil-cioran.html

Polish aristocrat, Piedmontese dandy, Swiss professor or aphorist alla francese, but German? Never!

http://unterrified.blogspot.com/2019/06/cioran-on-style-why-nietzsche-is-not.html

Miscellanea

How unconscious are the artists of the state?

http://unterrified.blogspot.com/2019/04/susan-sontag-on-aestheticised-politics.html

Continuity between Nietzsche, the conservative revolution and the nouvelle driote.

http://unterrified.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-nominalism-of-mohler-and-de-benoist.html

A bit of Cyril Connolly.

http://unterrified.blogspot.com/2019/03/connollys-last-comment.html

Some speculative Nordicist anthropology.

http://unterrified.blogspot.com/2019/04/grnbech-on-teutons.html