Thomas Bernhard

Upon his death in 1989, Thomas Bernhard’s final act of defiance was written into his will: he prohibited any further production of his plays or publication of his works within the borders of his native Austria for the duration of his copyright. This radical "literary emigration" was the logical conclusion for a writer who transformed the **suada**—a relentless, flowing stream of speech—into a weapon against what he perceived as the terminal hypocrisy of post-war society. ## The Übertreibungskünstler: Master of Exaggeration Thomas Bernhard is often classified as an *Übertreibungskünstler*, or an "artist of exaggeration." For Bernhard, the truth could only be approached by pushing a thought to its most absurd and logical extreme. His prose is characterized by massive, unbroken paragraphs and a recursive, musical rhythm that mirrors the obsessive mental loops of his protagonists. In his 1983 novel [The Loser](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Loser_(novel)) (*Der Untergeher*), Bernhard explores the devastating proximity of genius. The narrator and his friend Wertheimer are crushed by the realization that they will never achieve the perfection of their contemporary, the pianist Glenn Gould. Here, the "art of sinking" becomes a philosophical stance—a recognition that to live is to fail, and to fail brilliantly is the only noble pursuit. > "Everything is ridiculous when one thinks of death." > — Thomas Bernhard, [Speech upon receiving the Austrian State Prize](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bernhard#Prizes_and_honors), 1968. ## The Musicality of Misanthropy Bernhard’s background in music and his battle with chronic lung disease deeply informed his syntax. His sentences do not merely convey information; they breathe. They inhale a premise and exhale a rhythmic, often hilarious, denunciation. This technique, known as **musicalization**, allows his vitriol to transcend mere complaining, turning it into a formal aesthetic experience. In *Woodcutters* (*Holzfällen*), this method is used to dissect the Viennese "artistic" elite during a "supper party." The narrator, trapped in an armchair, subjects his hosts to a mental evisceration that lasts the length of the novel. This focus on the "monologic" self—the solitary intellectual trapped in a spiral of their own making—aligns Bernhard with thinkers like [Samuel Beckett](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/beckett/) and Emil Cioran. ## Questions for Further Exploration 1. **The Ethics of Resentment**: How does Bernhard’s use of "exaggeration" challenge our standard definitions of truth and historical memory, particularly in the context of Austria’s post-WWII "victim myth"? 2. **Prose as Performance**: If Bernhard’s novels function like musical scores, what happens to the reader’s agency when they are swept up in his relentless, unbroken paragraphs? 3. **The Philosophy of Failure**: In *The Loser*, is the "perfection" of the artist Gould portrayed as a liberating ideal or a destructive force that necessitates the annihilation of the "lesser" artist?

Imagine a philosopher who argues that the greatest tragedy of your life has already occurred: you were born. While most thinkers seek to provide a roadmap for "the good life," Emil Cioran (1911–1995) dedicated his career to dismantling the very scaffolding of human hope. Often called the "prophet of the void," Cioran represents the absolute frontier of [philosophical pessimism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pessimism), transforming despair into a high literary art form. ## The Burden of Consciousness For Cioran, human consciousness is not an evolutionary triumph but a biological error. He suggests that we are the only animals "divorced" from nature, cursed with the ability to contemplate our own insignificance. In his first major work, *On the Heights of Despair* (1934), written during bouts of debilitating insomnia, he argues that the "wakeful" mind is forced to confront the raw, unbuffered reality of time—a process he describes as a slow, agonizing realization of nothingness. Cioran’s style is defined by the **aphorism**—short, biting, and paradoxical statements. He avoided systematic philosophy, believing that logic is merely a facade used to hide the chaotic absurdity of existence. ## The "Relief" of Suicide and Antinatalism Cioran is perhaps most famous for his radical stance on [Antinatalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antinatalism) and suicide. However, his perspective contains a surprising twist. He did not necessarily advocate for the act of suicide; rather, he advocated for the **idea** of it. To Cioran, the knowledge that we *can* leave life at any moment is the only thing that makes staying bearable. It is the ultimate insurance policy against the tyranny of existence. > "It is not worth the bother of killing oneself, since one always kills oneself too late." > — Emil Cioran, *The Trouble with Being Born* In his view, birth is an "intrusion" into the peace of non-existence. This perspective places him in dialogue with Arthur Schopenhauer, yet Cioran lacks Schopenhauer’s interest in ascetic redemption. Cioran offers no "way out" through art or morality; he offers only the cold comfort of total honesty. ## Perspectives and Disagreements Scholars often debate Cioran’s transition from a radical Romanian nationalist in his youth to a detached, French-speaking hermit in his later years. This shift is crucial for understanding his philosophy: - **Existentialists** like Jean-Paul Sartre viewed existence as a project to be built through action. Cioran disagreed, viewing action as a "hallucination" and preferring a state of "sublime stagnation." - **Nihilists** often struggle with the "why" of living. Cioran’s answer was aesthetic: we live to bear witness to the disaster. ## Questions for Further Exploration If Cioran is correct and birth is a "catastrophe," what remains of human ethics? Can a society function on a foundation of total skepticism? Cioran’s work invites us to consider whether the pursuit of happiness is actually a form of denial, and if, paradoxically, we might find a more profound peace by finally giving up on hope.