RSS
 

Arquivo para February 14th, 2023

On Wrath and War

14 Feb

There are those who defend that Wrath and its maximum expression, war, are necessary and in many situations unavoidable, the Roman philosopher Seneca, in addition to theorizing the issue and writing a treatise “On Wrath”, in three books, in the first theorizing, in the second it deals with advice and examples to avoid it, since for him anger is always harmful.

The work concludes with tips on how to calm yourself and other people and summarizes the work, according to the philosopher a great man should never be angry.

A must-read for today is Wrath and Time: psycho-political essays, by Peter Sloterdijk, in which he not only deals with an overview of the issue in Western thought, we add Seneca on purpose as a counterpoint, the author shows that it it is valued for being the driving force of heroes and warriors, and it is said that this force was lost with the repression of anger, but is that really so, or was it transferred to the State that monopolized it.]

Love in the Time of Cholera is a book by Gabriel Garcia Marques from 1985, where the backdrop is Latin America, the genre is fantastic realism and talks about a love triangle that lasted for more than 50 years, contrary to what it seems and suggests, there is true love behind the triangle.

During all his life Florentino Ariza loved and waited for more than fifty years Fermina Daza, the novel can remember and is a good parallel with Candido or Optimism, by Voltaire (which is from 1759) and which ironizes the provincial spirit of Candido in the eternal waiting for his beloved Cunegonde, who finally conquers her at the end of her life, in this case there is no triangle, but an impediment due to the nobility of the maiden and the vulgarity of the commoner.

The novel takes place at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, and there was both the plague of cholera and war, and this brings a very current reality, it is not an idealized love in a contradictory context (cholera and war), Fermina was married to renowned physician Dr. Juvenal Urbino, the narrative is intelligent because at the beginning of the book the doctor dies, and then the author will put the story of both and a repressed love, and what love is like in a mature phase.

This maturity and despite the fantastic realism, according to the author himself would have a lot to do with the love story of the parents themselves, and although it speaks only of human love, it brings a positive reflection on what love is, how much it can be true and mature when his whole life is tried.

In 2007 it was filmed and directed by Mike Newell, I confess that I haven’t seen it, but I believe that the little interest from the critics is a thermometer of how good it is.

 

MARQUEZ, Gabriel García. (2016). Amor no tempo do cólera (Love in the Time of Cholera). Trans. Antonio Callado. Ed. Special hard cover, Br: Editora Record.

SENECA. (2014) A Ira: sobre a tranquilidade da alma (On Wrath: On the Tranquility of the Soul), trans. José Eduardo S. Lohner, Br: Ed. Penguin-Cia.

Sloterdijk, P. (2012) Ira e Tempo: um ensaio Político-psicológico, Br: Estação Liberdade.