9/10 E.M. Cioran

I can almost hear him get angry with me, saying "please drop the number 1 thinker bullcrap, you are nothing to me, you hear!!"

But I do love this guy's books, what is listed here are his French books translated by Richard Howard that I have nice eBook editions of, what's missing is The Fall Into Time, which I have a hardcover for, ooooh I love that, well why not i'll include the physical books too, the whole Cioran catalog that I have, i'll have to go hunting downstairs to find On the Heights of Despair and Tears and Saints. I periodically check to see if there's any new releases of the rest of his stuff. He was a fascist in his youth and one of "those" books would be sooo interesting to read!!

1. On the Heights of Despair -- 1934
2. Tears and Saints -- 1937
3. A Short History of Decay -- 1949
4. All Gall is Divided -- 1952
5. The Temptation to Exist -- 1956
6. History and Utopia -- 1960
7. The Fall Into Time -- 1964
8. The New Gods -- 1969
9. The Trouble With Being Born -- 1973
10. Drawn and Quartered -- 1979
11. Anathemas and Admirations -- 1986

Not for everyone, his is a lyrical pessimism laden with sharp bleak humor, an antinatalist, and somewhat of a Gnostic, I love how he sees things, namely historical figures in the arts and philosophy and belles lettres, he adored the mystics like St. Teresa of Avila. A deadly sharp wit, he also from what i've seen held a grudge against Albert Camus, I love Camus and don't share Cioran's little man attitude there, he also could contradict himself, which is common with people who think with their heart as well as their minds. I'll always treasure this guy's bleak witticisms, his judgement on a lot I respect, with a kind of shiver down my spine.

If you're interested, #'s 1, 3 and 9 would be great introductory volumes, but all of them are alike, the same quality he brings in one he brings to all. My favorite would have to be #11.

"Retiring to the countryside after the death of his daughter, Tullia, Cicero, overwhelmed by grief, wrote letters of consolation to himself. A pity they have not been recovered and, still more, that such a therapeutics has not found favor! True, if it had been adopted, religions would long since have gone bankrupt." (from "Anathemas and Admirations" by "E. M. Cioran, Eugene Thacker, Richard Howard").

"Above the pre-Socratics, one is occasionally inclined to set those heresiarchs whose works were mutilated or destroyed and who survive only in a few fragments of speech, as mysterious as one could wish for." (from "Anathemas and Admirations" by "E. M. Cioran, Eugene Thacker, Richard Howard").