Reason died in 1914, November 1914 ... after that everybody began to rave.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that rational thinking diminished after World War I, leading to irrational behavior in society.
Louis-Ferdinand Celine reflects on the societal changes following World War I, positing that a significant loss of reason occurred during this tumultuous period. With the horrors of the war, traditional notions of logic and rationality seemed to disintegrate, giving way to irrationality and chaos in thought and behavior among people. This statement serves as a critique of the era's turmoil, highlighting how catastrophic events can influence collective human reasoning.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about the impact of war on human behavior during a history lecture.
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, itβs 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
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.
To hell with reality! I want to die in music, not in reason or in prose. People don't deserve the restraint we show by not going into delirium in front of them. To hell with them!
What you meet in another being is the projection of your own level of evolution.
When the virus of restlessness begins to take possession of a wayward man, and the road away from Here seems broad and straight and sweet, the victim must first find himself a good and sufficient reason for going.
We can know a person by observing his behaviour, understanding the reasons for his actions and ascertaining his intentions. If we do this, how can we not know him?
There's no point of having faith if you have evidence.
It was obvious that bigotry was never a one-way operation, that hatred bred hatred!
Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of.
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