There's a point of poverty at which the spirit isn't with the body all the time. It finds the body really too unbearable. So it's almost as if you were talking to the soul itself. And a soul's not properly responsible.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that extreme poverty can damage the spirit, leading to a disconnection between the soul and the body.
In this quote, Louis-Ferdinand Celine explores the profound effects of poverty on a person's psyche. He suggests that when individuals are subjected to extreme poverty, their spirit may detach from their physical existence due to the unbearable nature of their circumstances. As a result, communication in such a state may transcend the tangible, reflecting a deeper, spiritual dialogue rather than a mere interaction with the physical self, emphasizing the struggle between bodily existence and the essence of the soul.
In practice
In a discussion about the psychological effects of poverty, this quote highlights the disconnection individuals may feel.
Not much music left inside us for life to dance to. Our youth has gone to the ends of the earth to die in the silence of the truth. And where, I ask you, can a man escape to, when he hasn't enough madness left inside him? The truth is an endless death agony. The truth is death. You have to choose: death or lies. I've never been able to kill myself.
To travel is very useful, it makes the imagination work, the rest is just delusion and pain. Our journey is entirely imaginary, which is its strength.
In the kitchens of love, after all, vice is like the pepper in a good sauce; it brings out the flavor, it’s indispensable.
Truth is a pain which will not stop. And the truth of this world is to die. You must choose: either dying or lying. Personally, I have never been able to kill myself
Reason died in 1914, November 1914 ... after that everybody began to rave.
Poor people never, or hardly ever, ask for an explanation of all they have to put up with. They hate one another, and content themselves with that.
If America has a civic religion, the First Amendment is its central article of faith.
When one group rules another, the relationship between the two is political. When such an arrangement is carried out over a long period of time it develops an ideology (feudalism, racism, etc.). All historical civilizations are patriarchies: their ideology is male supremacy.
You are certainly under the guidance of the Holy Ghost or you wouldn't have come where you now are.
Why is it that countries which we call strong are so powerful in creating wars but are so weak in bringing peace? Why is it that giving guns is so easy but giving books is so hard?
Men, forever tempted to lift the veil of the future-with the aid of computers or horoscopes or the intestines of sacrificial animals-have a worse record to show in these sciences than in almost any scientific endeavor.
Many people feel "guilty" about things they shouldn't feel guilty about, in order to shut out feelings of guilt about things they should feel guilty about.
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