ABOUT CHUCK POLANIK'S PHRASE "ONLY BY LOSSING EVERYTHING TO THE END WE FIND FREEDOM"
Sergey E. (my former student):
I would like to know your opinion about Chuck Palahniuk’s phrase from the popular book “Fight Club”: “Only by losing everything completely do we gain freedom.”
How true does it seem to you? It is very similar to the phrase of the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu: “You will find lightness when you get rid of attachment to what you have. You will gain freedom of movement when you lose touch with the one who gave birth to you.”
Seryozha! I will disappoint you. Polanik's phrase belongs to the category of paradoxical statements that became very fashionable in the twentieth century. I have a bad attitude towards them and even wrote a book “Paradoxes and Paradoxical Thinking” with the subtitle “The Absurdity and Idiocy of Paradoxical Thinking.” It is available on my website in the “Books, manuscripts...” section.
Palahniuk's phrase reminds me of the phrase "Free, free at last!", said about the assassinated Martin Luther King, a fighter for black rights.
If it is accurately translated into Russian, then, on the one hand, it is mediocre and, on the other, absurd. For a long time now (let us remember the Cynics of Ancient Greece) some people believed that the less we have (things, knowledge, desires), the more free and happy we are. Here freedom is identified with independence. After all, the fewer things and desires we have, the more independent we are from them. On the one hand, it seems logical.
And, on the other hand, if freedom consisted only in independence, then we would be the most free, being dead. After all, dead people do not want or have anything. Yes, independence is an important characteristic of freedom, but not the only one! It is moderated and supplemented by another, positive, characteristic of freedom, which is expressed in the possibility of choice, independence, the ability to follow one’s desires, the ability to achieve one’s goals, etc.
In freedom there is a certain dialectic of independence and dependence. Only independence - the emptiness of non-existence, homelessness, death. Only dependence is slavery. It is from the combination of these polar opposite principles that freedom arises.
Other, eastern statements are also one-sided and therefore false, like the first.
This focus on understanding freedom as the absence or severance of connection with something or someone is phenomenally idiotic. There is connection and connection. There is a connection that deprives us of freedom, and there is a connection that only makes us free.
However, how many stupid sayings roam the earth! And you, young people, are caught by their shine, like moths flying to a fire.
_____________________
Maybe the translation from Chinese is not entirely accurate?! In a relative sense, Lao Tzu's statement is true. Indeed, in some cases, breaking the bond of dependence means freedom, greater freedom.
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The following question was asked on the website [email protected]:
Freedom is when you have nothing to do with the world you are in?
http://otvet.mail.ru/question/76934991/?point=2
MY ANSWER
The question is incorrect. Freedom, in short, is the POSSIBILITY of CHOICE, and not just any choice, but one that leads to a new possibility of choice. Freedom is a complex interweaving of dependence and independence, restrictions and going beyond limitations. To think that freedom is only independence (from something) is stupidity. There are such dependencies that provide greater freedom, i.e. greater choice. For example, the interdependence of husband and wife. Without this interdependence, you cannot ensure full continuation of the race, the length of life in time, and, therefore, the ability to continue the possibility of choice. Freedom, like life in general, has its own boundaries, limitations, and limits. To think that freedom is a dimensionless quantity, not limited by anything, means not to understand anything about it.
You may not know the name Chuck Palahniuk, but almost everyone has heard the titles of his books, even if they are unaware of their authorship. Quotes from some of them are extremely popular.
Why is the author so popular?
Charles Michael "Chuck" Palahniuk is a popular contemporary American writer and journalist. Born February 21, 1962 in Pesco, Washington. As a young man, in search of his own path in life, he tried himself in a variety of professions, including journalism, working in a hospice and volunteering at a homeless shelter, which later provided him with material for literary work.
He began his writing career in adulthood under the influence of Tom Spanbauer, whom he met in his writing courses. The first books of the future celebrity were not even accepted by publishers for publication, but the story “Fight Club,” which later developed into a full-fledged novel and then filmed by David Fincher, made the author not just famous, but a cult writer. The subsequent works, in particular the recognized best-selling novel “Asphyxiation,” helped consolidate the writer’s success in the literary world.
Six books by Chuck Palahniuk were nominated for various awards in the “Best Book” category, three of them: “Fight Club”, “Lone Survivor”, “Lullaby” were recognized as winners.
Interesting fact. The writer’s grandfather came from Ukraine, and his brother currently lives in this country and has the surname Palagnyuk.
Top 10 Quotes from Chuck Palahniuk's Books
Shall we honor? Only by losing everything completely do we gain freedom. (Fight club)
Beauty is power, just like money, just like a loaded gun. (Invisible)
A good way to forget about the whole is to look closely at the details. (Lullaby)
The birth of a person is a mistake that he tries to correct throughout his life. (Invisible)
Who you are at any given moment is just a fragment of history. (Invisible)
All your life you try to become God, and then you die. (Invisible)
There is nothing special in the world. No magic. Solid physics. Physiology. (Diary)
Those who can do it do it. Those who cannot, criticize. (Ghosts)
There will always be some excuse not to live your own life. (Invisible)
Everything in life is either flesh or money, and you cannot have both at once. It's like being alive and dead at the same time. (Rant: A Biography of Buster Casey)
Phrases about love
Love? According to Palahniuk... No matter how much you love someone, you still want to do it your way. (Lullaby)
The one you love and the one who loves you can never be the same person. (Invisible)
We don't want to know practically anything about those we love. (Suffocation)
Everyone has someone in their life who will never let you go, and someone who you will never let go of. (Lullaby)
People kill what they love, and the reverse is also true. (Fight club)
Get married before you get tired of sex, otherwise you'll never get married at all. (Fight club)
After some time, you realize that it is easier to just admit that you are a sexist and a brute, an intolerant, insensitive, heartless idiot. The women are right. And you're wrong. Gradually you begin to get used to this idea. And you begin to meet their expectations. (Suffocation)
Favorite phrases from the book “ Fight club"
How it all began... You wake up and be happy with it.
We are a generation of men raised by women, will another woman help solve our problems.
If you don't know what you want, you'll die in a pile of things you didn't want.
Over a sufficiently long period of time, the chance of survival for each of us approaches zero.
Someone who suffers from insomnia does not really sleep and is not really awake.
The things you own eventually start to own you.
First rule of Fight Club: don't mention Fight Club.
"Lullaby"
A novel in the style of magical realism in the setting of sudden infant death syndrome.
The noise of cars outside the window is already unpleasant. And Chopin’s piano concerto in D minor won’t make it any easier.
I don't know what I know and what I don't know. I don't know what's true and what's not true. I probably don't know anything at all.
Spells are needed to focus our intention.
When you have at least some power, even the possibility of power, you immediately want more.
"Invisible"
Three main characters traveling across North America... Fraud and revenge, fake names and a solution at the end of the book.
There is only one way to find true happiness - to take the risk of being fully revealed.
It is in this way that many parents drive their children into a dangerous trap - they entrust them with the role of their main support in life.
Somewhere in heaven we live on Internet video sites, and the Almighty visits one page or another.
You ask people about their lives just so you can tell them about yourself.
We really invent tragedy ourselves in order to somehow fill an empty life.
"Suffocation"
The book is about a young swindler whose way of life is to act out choking attacks in public places. End justifies the means?
A dark, opaque film not only protects the couch from external influences, but rather hides old stains.
I already know more than I would like to know.
Sex can cure almost everything.
Whatever you acquire... Everything turns out to be just another thing that you have to lose.
Those who remember their past still remember it differently from what it really was.
"Rant: A Biography of Buster Casey"
A semi-fictional gospel from the disciples of a punk messiah who came from the future.
You can force a lot of people to lie if they have their own selfish interest. And when everyone tells the same lie, it’s already the truth.
Young people decorate their home with mirrors. Old people - paintings.
To ride on your reputation, you are scolded during life and praised after death.
History contains only monsters and victims. And witnesses.
All it takes is one driver who doesn't follow the rules to create anarchy.
"Survivor"
A book about the only survivor of a religious community and the emergence of a new messiah.
I decided: Hell can wait.
People use things called phones because they hate being together but are very afraid of being alone.
When you're already damned forever, that's the good part - you're no longer afraid of damnation.
These people often ask: “Did I. Was I...” I don’t know. I forgot. Or it's none of your business.
"Ghosts"
Three months away from the bustle of the world. Three months of creativity. Three sections of the book. Life or reality show?
Some of us: just meat that will soon spoil.
Madness is now a new kind of sanity.
Living the American Dream: turning your life into a product that can be sold.
Absence is now a new kind of presence.
The trouble with eternal youth is that you start putting everything off until later.
"Diary"
Disappearing rooms, mysterious messages appearing...
It's hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember joy. Happiness leaves no memorable scars.
If an emotion can create a physical action, then reproducing a physical action can create an emotion.
This is typical American dream- fence yourself off from everyone with money.
The incomprehensible can be given any meaning.
Dying is boring to death.
Contrary to popular belief, Chuck Palahniuk's philosophy is far from the philosophy of the works of Friedrich Nietzsche. The works of both authors are filled with the denial of material values and public morality, however, the writer offers an alternative to Nietzsche’s ideas about the perfect superman in the form of an awareness of the meaninglessness of life and self-destruction, which, rather, makes him, with some reservations, similar to Albert Camus.
Both writers, asking the question: “Is life worth the trouble of living?”, come to the conclusion that life, being the embodiment of the absurd, is meaningless, but nevertheless they draw the opposite conclusions. According to Camus, a person himself is capable of realizing the absurdity of the world around him and finding in it a meaningless piece of the world that will bring him happiness, while Palahniuk’s heroes, having realized the world around them, gradually replace their meaning in life with nihilism, self-hatred, and only in this hatred do they find myself.
Chuck Palahniuk was one of the first to challenge post-industrial society and vividly expressed his protest on behalf of the impersonal hero-narrator in the novel “Fight Club”. He made it clear that the “American Dream” is nothing more than the result of moral decay, and he proposed to overcome it with the help of an underground organization, which gave the name to the book. The story of willpower described in the novel, which is based on the knowledge of a male alter ego, was ambiguously received by critics and the public, but, nevertheless, became a cult work of the 90s.
Interestingly, this year the world is expecting a continuation of the story - “Fight Club 2”, designed in the form of comics. The first of 10 graphic editions will be released in the United States in May 2015. The date of the Russian presentation is not yet known, but fans of the book and its film adaptation starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter - including us - are eagerly awaiting the continuation of the story.
But Chuck Palahniuk’s contribution to literature is not only “Fight Club,” but also the novels “Asphyxiation,” “Lone Survivor,” “The Invisible People,” “Lullaby,” “Diary” and a dozen other books that are read all over the world. For the writer's birthday, we have collected 15 of our favorite quotes from his works and their film adaptations, which fans know by heart.
Only by losing everything completely do we gain freedom. Fight club
This is what freedom is. When you lose all hope. Fight club
People are slaves to their things. What you have eventually has you and becomes your master. Fight club
Generations after generations of people work jobs they hate just so they can buy things they don't need. Fight Club
Most often, people leave a small town to dream of returning there. And others stay to dream of leaving there. Rant: A Biography of Buster Casey
People do this, yes: they turn things into people, and people into things. Ghosts
When we don't know who to hate, we develop self-hatred. Invisible
You tell yourself that you love a person, but in reality you are only using him. We constantly mistake something else for love. Invisible
I just want to be needed by someone. Necessary and necessary. I need someone to whom I could give all of myself - all my free time, all my attention and care. Someone dependent on me. Mutual dependence. Suffocation
It's like you have to almost die to be loved. It’s as if you have to hang on the very edge in order to escape. Suffocation
Why are we all so primitive? I mean, guys. As soon as the woman takes off her clothes, we are ready to give her our last money. Suffocation
This is how people are made. Everyone needs someone to hold their hand. For someone to comfort him. He promised that everything would be fine. Survivor
I still like to think that the world is getting better. Although I know it's not. I still want people around me to become better people, although I know that this will never happen. And I still want to think that I can do something to make people and the world a better place.. Survivor
We love tragedy. We love conflict. We need the Devil, and if there is no Devil, we create it ourselves. Ghosts
We all die. The goal is not to live forever, the goal is to create a thing that will live. Diary
Life is an unpredictable thing, you never know what to expect from it. It seems that everything has been thought out to the smallest detail, and the long-awaited fruits of the work done are about to appear, but life makes its own adjustments, which, unfortunately, are not always joyful. Everything that you have been striving for and striving for for many years can collapse overnight, leaving behind only broken dreams. Bright, joyful days have replaced gloomy gray everyday life, it seems that the whole world has lost its bright colors. This is exactly what happens to people who, due to circumstances, have lost everything.
Of course, having lost everything, it is difficult to regain composure and start from the very beginning, but try to look at what is happening from the other side. Even without realizing it, having lost everything we gain freedom, we again have a choice, we can try to start all over again or choose a completely different path.
What to do if you lost everything?
Firstly, come to terms with and get used to the current situation, try to accept it as a given, and secondly, carefully analyze and find the cause of your troubles in order to avoid similar mistakes in the future. How to survive a crisis? How to find the strength not to lose heart? You shouldn’t blame yourself for everything, there are risks in every business, and if luck doesn’t smile on you today, it means that life has prepared a different path for you. Almost everyone encounters a crisis in their life; there comes a time when there is no strength to fight, and there is a desire to let everything take its course. If you feel like you're broken, give yourself the opportunity to rest and get stronger, devote more time to your family or visit friends you haven't seen for a long time. All important issues are best resolved with cool head, so in this case time is a great doctor.
What is freedom?
If it happens that you have lost everything, find the strength in yourself to start life from scratch. You should not look for advice on how to start over until you are internally ready for something new. Try to discover a completely different side of yourself; if before you were a terrible pedant, try to treat everything a little easier. Feel like a free person and focus your attention only on your own desires. Ideally, if you decide to start everything from scratch, you can move to another city or even change the country. Perhaps you have always dreamed of living near a lake in your personal home, but your old life did not let you go, now you have this chance, and not it's worth missing out on. Believe and hope only for the best; a black streak of failure is always followed by a white one, and your life is no exception.
“Only by losing everything completely do we gain freedom”
"If you lose to yourself, you lose to everyone"
Everything that exists in the world was once a dream.
To love means to stop comparing.
You need to be a little similar to understand each other, but you need to be a little different to love each other
Even the shortcomings in a loved one are liked; even the advantages in an unloved one are annoying.
The ideal man does not drink, does not smoke, never argues and does not exist...
You can fall in love with a person after you get to know him well, and you can stop loving him after you get to know him too well.
Don't waste time on a person who doesn't want to spend it with you...
I value honesty and frankness in others.
You can know anything, but until you have proven it in practice, you know nothing!
Don't love anyone and everyone will like you. Tell the whole world to hell, and they will admire you...
“No person can become more of a stranger than someone you once loved.” (E. Remarque)
Other articles in the literary diary:
- 23.03.2011. Only by losing everything completely do we gain freedom...
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