The Trouble with Being Born

First things first - Cioran writes absolutely beautiful prose. I don't think any philosophical writer since Montaigne has really written this well (apart from the novelists who treat philosophical themes like Dostoevsky and Sartre). I really cannot adequately convey the beauty of some of the existential musings of Cioran properly. He's a great stylist. A cautionary note - Cioran is extremely well-educated in Western Philosophy, Christianity and Buddhism. Because of that, this is not really a book for someone who doesn't have strong grounding in philosophy (or at the least Nietzsche, Schopenhauer and Hegel) and some familiarity with religion. Additionally, the philosophy types should know that this book is not really philosophy in the Western Sense. It's written more like Eastern Philosophy. It's entirely aphorisms. That said, if you can bear with it, this is one of the best things I've ever read. The clarity of thought and sheer brilliance of the aphorisms are unmatched apart from Lao Tzu and McLuhan. Cioran is grimly pessimistic and has an extremely mordant sense of humor. He also explores the human condition and the recalcitrant nature of existence and art. If Nietzsche had a sense of humor and lived amidst French existentialism, he'd have written this book. Cioran is a bit more of an irrationalist (and a Buddhist .... and a Christian) than Nietzsche, though (and a bit less of an anti-egalitarian). Case in point: "Sometimes I wish I was a cannibal - less for the pleasure of eating someone than for the pleasure of vomiting him." For me, Cioran has always been like reading Final Exit, having sex in a graveyard, or reading Nietzsche. There's something oddly life-affirming (at least in his later books - after the turn away from Schopenhauer towards Nietzsche and Buddhist studies) in his gleefully pessimistic meditations on death, decay, nihilism, and Buddhism, unlike say Schopenhauer, who is consistenly dour about everything due to his extreme narcissism. To put it in other terms, Cioran has a sense of (self-consciously absurd) pessimistic humor that is roughly in line with the modern goth subculture. If you spent your formative years listening to the Sisters of Mercy, you'll know what I mean. By all means, not a book for everyone but highly recommended for recovering goths, literary types, artists, existentialists, and theology and philosophy types with a sense of humor, or students studying 20th century Pessimism.

Amazon - can you fix your mobile app please make it more user friendly??? Anyway, it's a great book 👍

One of my favorite books of all time. He makes sense of the world through a very sullen lens, a lens some people relate to very well. It's depressing, but helped me more than any motivational poster ever could. He talks about life, death, birth (and the tragedy of it), art, and people. If you're one to annotate books for fun, you'll be highlighting and scribbling in the margins the whole time.

E.M. Cioran is one of the peripheral (non French [technically], non German, non Anglo-American) characters of philosophy but, as any of them are, he is an interesting aside to the major ideological fights. Part of the rich history of Existentialism, Cioran is certainly not a philosopher of hope and inspiration but rather the man who could make Schopenhauer feel absolutely dreadful. Meditations and lamentations on life and it's futility, he is a tangible example of the 'moody Existentialist' stereotype many people hold in their minds. Starting his career when his mother told him she considered an abortion for him, he took himself to new highs and lows of explaining why being born was the ultimate immoral act and how death is no better. Bleak, unintentionally funny, and comically Existential, I would recommend this to people interested in characters such as Schopenhauer, Ortega y Gasset, Unamuno, Sartre, Camus, and others from the rich canon of literature relating to existence. Also, a great book of aphorisms to liven up any party!

For anyone interested in more serious philosophical pessimism, this book is a good read. While most people would deem Cioran’s views extreme, they certainly warrant further examination.

It's roughly a book full of aporephisms that you can rattle off when people have had too many drinks.

タイトルは人をひきつけるものです。そして全編、短いaphorismの集積です。これは一見したところかなりdeceivingなものです。あるものは直接訴えかけますが、あるものはかなりの知識と論理的な整理を理解に必要とします。でも少なからぬ多くの部分は感覚にも論理にも働きかけないものです。かなりの部分は読み手の予備知識の不足に起因するものでしょう。しかし、この居心地の悪さはもっと深い部分に起因するものかもしれません。そしてこの種のaphorismの集積は必然的に矛盾を含むものです。この矛盾を並存させるモティーフの発見は初心者の読解力を超えています。「生誕」の逆説をキーワードとする世界の再構成はかなりの毒をはらむものですが、ここには個人的な経験がかなり強く関わっているのかもしれません。時間と意識への鋭敏な感覚は、やはり同じような鋭敏な読み手を選ぶようです。今後も読み続けるかどうかは疑問です。それくらい難しい作品です。それともこの作品からcioranを読み始めたのが間違っていたのか？他のレヴュアーの方のお考えを伺えれば幸です。

Maravilloso. Un autor maravilloso, como por ejemplo su "Historia y Utopía". Hay autores que explican "mejor" el tremendo acto egoísta que es tener hijos, como Cabrera o el maravilloso Benatar que explica maravillosamente el porqué reproducirse es el mayor crimen que se puede cometer. Hay otros muchos más divertidos como el sublime Fernando Vallejo y su ley del Horror Exponencial, pero desde luego, esta obra es un "debe" para quien quiera entender los argumentos antinatalistas.

Cioran goes where few dare to go, has thoughts so many of us prefer to suppress. It is a beautiful, honest, raw and — yes — uplifting nihilism simply because it feels like truth, if there is such a thing. If not, then at least honesty. I love this book and read it over and over. It liberates from the everyday.

It's okay. The font is a little blurry tho. But perfectly redeable.

Masterpiece from an insomniac philosopher who spoke with a tad of dark humour,honesty and directness which is hard to find in a philosopher. Give a read if you are clouded with dark thoughts and don't know how to live with it. The book teaches you have to co exist with them without denying or trying to be a hero who creates an illusion of conquering darkness with valour. This book shows how to navigate in darkness without making any fuss about it.