Do You Write or Think? Mr Nietzsche's Assessment of Your Dilemma.

[onebatmotherofgoditschilly]

I had forgotten this:

"The literary woman, unsatisfied, agitated, desolate in heart and entrails, listening every minute with painful curiosity to the imperative which whispers from the depths of her organism "aut liberi aut libri [either children or books]."
?Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

Ten years ago I would have turned the page with a sigh and a sneer.

Today...?

Yes, I often think Kafka would not have written as he did if he was not so obsessed with his poorly tummy.

Virginia Woolf always called her books her children didn't she?

It is difficult to do both - one requires altruism the other utter selfishness.

I'm also not entirely sure it makes anyone a better writer because they've had children. I resist that idea slightly, I don't think it's true.

In fact Virginia would have agreed with him, I think.

Interestingly, Nietzsche also said "All truly great throughts are conceived while walking" which suggests he thought brilliance did not come from labouring quietly - unlike Flaubert who thought one could not write except when seated (on ne peut penser et ecrire qu'assis). If only Nietzsche was clearer, perhaps "All truly great thoughts are conceived while.....
potty training
changing nappies
breastfeeding
cleaning the highchair"

lol swedes!
scraping vomit?

What about:

"Some great thoughts are conceived ... at the same time as your children."

(For those whose minds sometimes wander during lovemaking.)

hahahaha!
speak for yourself, I am always far too busy concentraing on shopping list.

I often think of Tristram Shandy, whose mother, at the moment of his conception, shouted to her DH 'My lord, you have forgot to wind the clock!'

How many male authors never became fathers? Neitzsche never managed it did he, so what's his point really?

I always thought his point was the iniquity but inevitability of the choice..

LL's addition completely foxes me though - is it me? is he comprehensible to everyone else?

I do love, though, the idea that feminine, fey or foolish thoughts (or all three) are internally expressed in French. Makes sense to me!

I'm not sure how you all manage these thoughts whilst lovemaking and turn the pages of Grazia?

I manage with prescription meds with a very meditative quality

swedes query grazia repl. granta surely?

onebat - Of course, I meant Granta. "People who looked at this magazine, also looked at ...
London Review of Books Magazine, The Times Literary Supplement, Skirmish Magazine, Jane Austen's Regency World, Magazine History Today Magazine and Corsets and Crotches Quarterly"

Onebat - I am mixing up my threads. I thought this was the Sense and Sensibility thread.

it was still bloody funny though!

Mixing up my threads on this thread, has a certain poignancy - doesn't it? I'm not cut out for the bounty of multi-tasking and should choose, immediately..... aut liber aut lbri?

I'm going to tell DP that I need a week at a good Spa to give this matter due consideration. To conclude while cooking risotto just doesn't feel right - it wouldn't be fair to me or the risotto.
Has anyone been to the Spa Angst in Leipzig?

haha! Esp with comedy ludicrously gutteral germanic pronunc.

Spar Arngsht. New Year, New Entrails!

I think colonic irrigation (at the Spa Angst) would be appropriate. Are there other treatments that might help my entrails?

Twiglett - Nietzsche's father died when he was very young (5 from memory) and he was raised in a household that was predominantly female (it may actually have been entirely female). He should have been good at observing women.

okay, so took the bull by the horns today. Had Aut liberi aut libri tattooed on my knuckles.

2 letters per knuckle, and a Spanish exlamation mark at the beginning and at the end. Just in case you think you've spotted a flaw in my account of my day, Swedes...

I think they offer tattoo removal at the Spa Angst. I don't know what you mean by spotted a flaw in your day, am I being very thick?

too many letters for knuckles. then if you have 2 per knuckle you have a knuckle left over, hence spanish upside down exclamation marks.

Nurse has just called me to bed, and I believe I will hear her this time..

oh-er

anyone fancy Nietzsche?

Just thought I'd bring down the tone a bit

I bet all you that like Gorden Brown would have. All that will to power