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The Trouble with Being Born

by Emil Cioran, Richard Howard (Translator)

4.29 of 5 stars 4.29 · rating details · 560 ratings · 22 reviews

In this volume, which reaffirms the uncompromising brilliance of his mind, Cioran strips the human condition down to its most basic components, birth and death, suggesting that disaster lies not in the prospect of death but in the fact of birth, "that laughable accident." In the lucid, aphoristic style that characterizes his work, Cioran writes of time and death, God and r...more

Paperback, 224 pages

Published September 15th 1998 by Arcade Publishing (first published 1973)

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Oct 18, 2008 M. D. Hudson rated it 5 of 5 stars

I do not read philosophy generally, because it confuses me almost immediately given that I have no capacity whatsoever for abstractions. But I can do E. M. Cioran. Cioran was born in Romania in 1911, spent most of his working life in France, mulling over suicide and death while living to a ripe old age. Much of Cioran’s work is in the form of aphorisms or maxims, and are therefore accessible (I re-read this book recently; I return to his work every few years or so). He is the most relentlessly p...more I do not read philosophy generally, because it confuses me almost immediately given that I have no capacity whatsoever for abstractions. But I can do E. M. Cioran. Cioran was born in Romania in 1911, spent most of his working life in France, mulling over suicide and death while living to a ripe old age. Much of Cioran’s work is in the form of aphorisms or maxims, and are therefore accessible (I re-read this book recently; I return to his work every few years or so). He is the most relentlessly pessimistic human being that has ever lived, which you might have guessed from the title, and this makes for some really, really fun reading. Sometimes he makes a lot of sense. Below are a few of my favorites. Several mention poetry, which is not one of his chief preoccupations, and yet he says interesting things about it:

 Every misanthrope, however sincere, at times reminds me of that old poet, bedridden and utterly forgotten, who in a rage with his contemporaries declared he would receive none of them. His wife, out of charity, would ring at the door from time to time…

 As art sinks into paralysis, artists multiply. This anomaly ceases to be one if we realize that art, on its way to exhaustion, has become both impossible and easy.

 All these poems where it is merely the Poem that is in question – a whole poetry with no other substance than itself! What would we say of a prayer whose object was religion?

 When I torment myself a little too much for not working, I tell myself that I might just as well be dead and that then I would be working still less…

 Only one thing matters: learning to be the loser.

 A writer has left his mark on us not because we have read him a great deal but because we have thought of him more than is warranted. I have not frequented Baudelaire or Pascal particularly, but I have not stopped thinking of their miseries, which have accompanied me everywhere as faithfully as my own.

 Only what proceeds from emotion or from cynicism is real. All the rest is “talent.”

 Sometimes I wish I were a cannibal – less for the pleasure of eating someone than for the pleasure of vomiting him.

That last one about the cannibal cracked me up so much in the middle of the night that my laughter scared the cats off the bed. By this I mean that pessimism does get to a point where it is hilarious. And yet, Cioran is not a clown. Nope.

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May 30, 2008 Josh rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: pessimists

"When every man has realized that his birth is a defeat, existence, endurable at last, will seem like the day after a surrender, like the relief and the repose of the conquered."

The Trouble With Being Born is a collection of aphorisms mostly about (but not limited to) the horrors unleashed on us by birth. Cioran argues that perhaps existence is exile and oblivion itself is salvation.

However, Cioran's wit and (dare I say) charm prevent this book from becoming what would otherwise be an overwhelmi...more

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Jul 31, 2007 Angela rated it 5 of 5 stars

"Putem suporta orice adevar, oricat de zdrobitor, cu conditia sa inlocuiasca totul, sa contina tot atata vitalitate cat speranta careia i s-a substituit.

Nu fac nimic, se intelege. Dar vad cum trec orele - si asta e preferabil incercarii de a le umple.

Stiu ca nasterea mea e o intamplare, un accident ridicol, si totusi, cum uit de mine, ma port ca si cum ea ar fi un eveniment capital, indispensabil mersului si echilibrului lumii.

Ceea ce nu ne mai poate induiosa nu mai conteaza si nu mai exista. Ne...more

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Apr 14, 2013 James rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: philosophy

Cioran’s message is one of total opposition. He senses the currents of being and our native tendencies of thought, and then purposefully backs out of them. He pulls in his sail the moment a rush of ideological wind appears and chooses instead to wallow in inertia. There he seems to court contingency and the unlooked for ingredients of defiance which our ordinary selves fail to notice.

I see this collection of aphorisms as a momentous rebellion against existence, against its growing tired by solv...more

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Oct 18, 2007 Count Duckula rated it 5 of 5 stars

'Avoir commis tous les crimes, hormis celui d'etre pere' - having strggled through the simple French, this is my favourite book by the great aphorist.

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Jun 19, 2012 Erwin Maack rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"A minha curiosidade e repulsa, o meu terror também perante o seu olhar de azeite e de metal, perante sua afabilidade, a sua astúcia sem verniz, a sua hipocrisia estranhamente não ocultada, as suas óbvias e contínuas dissimulações, perante essa mistura de canalha e de louco. Impostura e infâmia às claras. A insinceridade dele é perceptível em todos os seus gestos, em todas as suas palavras. O termo não é exacto, pois ser insincero é esconder a verdade, é conhecê-la, e nele não existe qualquer ve...more

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Nov 07, 2012 Marco Tamborrino rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Un'opera è terminata quando non la si può più migliorare, benché si sappia che è insufficiente e incompleta. Ne siamo talmente esasperati che non abbiamo più il coraggio di aggiungere una sola virgola, foss'anche indispensabile. Ciò che determina il grado di compiutezza di un'opera non è affatto una esigenza di arte o di verità, è la stanchezza e, più ancora, il disgusto.

Libro di aforismi che spesso vogliono stupire ma non ci riescono. Qualche spunto interessante, qualche verità universale espr...more

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Nov 27, 2012 Esra'a rated it 4 of 5 stars

Perilous!
Cioran essentially tells you to find joy and merit in death. He sees birth as the complete contrary of joy. "The idea of suicide can help people keep on living" he believes. I couldn't fathom this idea at the beginning but i got a grasp of it later on.

THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR EVERYONE! Some people might get into Cioran's paradox of life/death and not manage to fathom it! He is an extreme pessimist and could kill your spirit. Do not get me wrong, I still LOVE his aphorisms. They speak an il...more

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Jan 15, 2013 Vittorio Ducoli rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Angustamente racchiuso nella sua sofferenza

L'inconveniente di essere nati è il primo libro di Cioran che leggo, e forse è il più noto di questo autore, quello dal quale vengono tratte la maggior parte delle sue massime fulminati.
Si tratta infatti di un libro di aforismi, brevi pensieri, spesso spiazzanti, attraverso i quali Cioran ci espone la sua visione della vita. Come dice il titolo, per Cioran la nascita è il male primigenio, perché ci ha privati della beata incoscienza di noi stessi che ca...more Angustamente racchiuso nella sua sofferenza

L'inconveniente di essere nati è il primo libro di Cioran che leggo, e forse è il più noto di questo autore, quello dal quale vengono tratte la maggior parte delle sue massime fulminati.
Si tratta infatti di un libro di aforismi, brevi pensieri, spesso spiazzanti, attraverso i quali Cioran ci espone la sua visione della vita. Come dice il titolo, per Cioran la nascita è il male primigenio, perché ci ha privati della beata incoscienza di noi stessi che caratterizza lo stato prenatale ed anche perché ci preannuncia inesorabilmente la morte. Per Cioran la vita rappresenta inevitabilmente un progressivo degrado delle nostre capacità, ed è quindi inutile e controproducente affannarsi per avere amici, relazioni sociali, successo, per comunicare con gli altri. Dobbiamo invece perseguire il fallimento ed accarezzare la sofferenza, come mezzi per prepararci all'ineluttabile finale. Neppure il suicidio è una possibilità, perché sarebbe comunque tardivo: è comunque importante, per poter sopportare la vita, coltivarne l'idea.
Da questi assunti di base derivano una serie di corollari, primo fra tutti quello dell'inutilità della comunicazione, della parola e dell'arte. La solitudine e la sofferenza sono elevati a stati nobili dell'essere, i soli in grado di farci sopportare la certezza della fine. Affiorano anche sentimenti “ecologisti” e sfumature leopardiane: il “progresso” sta distruggendo la natura, e questa non tarderà ad espellere l'uomo dalla schiera dei viventi.
Molte altre sono le sfaccettature del libro, e ogni aforisma delle 187 pagine del libro merita una attenta riflessione. A volte le asserzioni sono contraddittorie, ma credo che Cioran ne fosse pienamente consapevole e non mirasse a costruire un “sistema” (dice di occuparsi delle “cose” e non dei “problemi”) ma ad esporre stati d'animo, anche variabili. La contraddizione più evidente è rappresentata secondo me dalla stessa scrittura e dalla pubblicazione del libro, che se l'autore fosse stato coerente con le sue asserzioni non avrebbe dovuto mai essere scritto e divulgato. Tuttavia ad un amico e sodale di Ionesco sono sicuramente concesse contraddizioni e financo assurdità.
Senza pretendere di chiosare Cioran, mi permetto comunque di dire che il mio giudizio sul libro è ambivalente: presi uno ad uno gli aforismi sono sicuramente fonte di profonda rilessione e scandagliano gli abissi dell'animo, ci portano in regioni di noi stessi che abbiamo sempre scansato o non abbiamo mai osato raggiungere. Presi nell'insieme secondo me assegnano ad una dimensione individuale e cosmica le cause del malessere esistenziale, ignorando completamente possibili cause sociali. Si capisce quindi il motivo della polemica tra Cioran e Sartre, che nella Parigi esistenzialista del secondo dopoguerra rappresentava posizioni di tutt'altro tipo, a mio avviso molto più condivisibili.(less)

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Oct 09, 2011 Charles rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wow! He is quite the philosopher. Through a series of aphorisms he looks at the illusions we all share about life. While most of what he writes looks like a negative spin on living, the principle theme seems to be that there is truth beyond the illusions if only we dare to penetrate it. I especially liked his idea that "joy" represented the "one true victory over the world." Read it if you dare.

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Feb 17, 2013 Natasha11 rated it 4 of 5 stars

As much as I love Cioran, and he is one of my top favorite philosophers, I do not care for aphorisms. Perhaps I am bias, but 'History of Decay' is a superior work to this.

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Apr 25, 2010 Riley rated it 5 of 5 stars

Totally awesome. Cioran endlessly delivers golden aphorisms. Lots of Buddhism mixed in. Great stuff.

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Mar 22, 2011 AC rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: philosophy-history-of

Think I"m done w/ Cioran for a while...

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Jun 09, 2010 Bria rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who think life is terrible, people under the mistaken impression that life is not terrible

I'm keeping this around to read whenever I feel like life is horrible and consciousness is the greatest tragedy ever to befall man, since then at least I can feel terrible eloquently.

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Jul 23, 2012 Shane rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the best things I've ever read. Outstanding.

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May 06, 2008 Liz rated it 3 of 5 stars

"More than once, I have managed to leave my room, for if I had stayed there I could not be sure of being able to resist some sudden resolution. The street is more reassuring,k you think less about yourself there, there everything weakens and wilts, beginning with your own confusion."

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May 13, 2010 Jacob marked it as on-hold

I bought this to read on an airplane, but I must admit that my little brother's wife is expecting, and I fully intend for this to come with me if I'm invited to the maternity ward vigil.

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Mar 31, 2013 Bogdan Liviu rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Să existam ar fi o întreprindere cu totul irealizabilă dacă am înceta să dăm importanţă la ceea ce nu are.

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Sep 06, 2008 Susan marked it as to-read

i bought these books mainly for the titles. cioran had great titles for books.

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Apr 28, 2008 Jeff rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Jeff by: Ian

Shelves: aphorisms

When he makes contact he is in a world of his own creation. If you only read one...

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Aug 23, 2007 Eric rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people with ADD and a love of aphorisms

Shelves: favorites

That cynicism truly is hopeful optimism dashed on some rocks.

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Dec 23, 2012 Gnome Books rated it 5 of 5 stars

EMC nails your ass again.

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May 24, 2013 Biblioteca added it · review of another edition

Shelves: saggi, abandoned

May 23, 2013 Doug marked it as to-read

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May 21, 2013 Azia Keever marked it as to-read · review of another edition

May 21, 2013 Catfat is currently reading it

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May 21, 2013 Roger Delaney rated it 4 of 5 stars

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About Emil Cioran

Born in 1911 in Rasinari, a small village in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania, raised under the rule of a father who was a Romanian Orthodox priest and a mother who was prone to depression, Emil Cioran wrote his first five books in Romanian. Some of these are collections of brief essays (one or two pages, on average); others are collections of aphorisms. Suffering from insomnia since his adoles...more Born in 1911 in Rasinari, a small village in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania, raised under the rule of a father who was a Romanian Orthodox priest and a mother who was prone to depression, Emil Cioran wrote his first five books in Romanian. Some of these are collections of brief essays (one or two pages, on average); others are collections of aphorisms. Suffering from insomnia since his adolescent years in Sibiu, the young Cioran studied philosophy in the “little Paris” of Bucarest. A prolific publicist, he became a well-known figure, along with Mircea Eliade, Constantin Noïca, and his future close friend Eugene Ionesco (with whom he shared the Royal Foundation’s Young Writers Prize in 1934 for his first book, On the Heights of Despair).

Influenced by the German romantics, by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and the Lebensphilosophie of Schelling and Bergson, by certain Russian writers, including Chestov, Rozanov, and Dostoyevsky, and by the Romanian poet Eminescu, Cioran wrote lyrical and expansive meditations that were often metaphysical in nature and whose recurrent themes were death, despair, solitude, history, music, saintliness and the mystics (cf. Tears and Saints, 1937) – all of which are themes that one finds again in his French writings. In his highly controversial book, The Transfiguration of Romania (1937), Cioran, who was at that time close to the Romanian fascists, violently criticized his country and his compatriots on the basis of a contrast between such “little nations” as Romania, which were contemptible from the perspective of universal history and great nations, such as France or Germany, which took their destiny into their own hands.

After spending two years in Germany, Cioran arrived in Paris in 1936. He continued to write in Romanian until the early 1940s (he wrote his last article in Romanian in 1943, which is also the year in which he began writing in French). The break with Romanian became definitive in 1946, when, in the course of translating Mallarmé, he suddenly decided to give up his native tongue since no one spoke it in Paris. He then began writing in French a book that, thanks to numerous intensive revisions, would eventually become the impressive A Short History of Decay (1949) -- the first of a series of ten books in which Cioran would continue to explore his perennial obsessions, with a growing detachment that allies him equally with the Greek sophists, the French moralists, and the oriental sages. He wrote existential vituperations and other destructive reflections in a classical French style that he felt was diametrically opposed to the looseness of his native Romanian; he described it as being like a “straight-jacket” that required him to control his temperamental excesses and his lyrical flights. The books in which he expressed his radical disillusionment appeared, with decreasing frequency, over a period of more than three decades, during which time he shared his solitude with his companion Simone Boué in a miniscule garret in the center of Paris, where he lived as a spectator more and more turned in on himself and maintaining an ever greater distance from a world that he rejected as much on the historical level (History and Utopia, 1960) as on the ontological (The Fall into Time, 1964), raising his misanthropy to heights of subtlety (The Trouble with being Born, 1973), while also allowing to appear from time to time a humanism composed of irony, bitterness, and preciosity (Exercices d’admiration, 1986, and the posthumously published Notebooks).

Denied the right to return to Romania during the years of the communist regime, and attracting international attention only late in his career, Cioran died in Paris in 1995.

Nicolas Cavaillès
Translated by Thomas Cousineau(less)

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