I have need of angels. Enough hell has swallowed me for too many years. But finally understand this--I have burned up one hundred thousand human lives already, from the strength of my pain.
Antonin ArtaudRead
It is thus that the few rare lucid well-disposed people who have had to struggle on the earth find themselves at certain hours of the day or night in the depth of certain authentic and waking nightmare states, surrounded by the formidable suction, the formidable oppression of a kind of civic magic which will soon be seen appearing openly in social behavior.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the struggle and unique experiences of those who perceive the darker aspects of society.
In this quote, Antonin Artaud expresses the idea that there are individuals who are deeply aware of the unsettling truths of human nature and society. Despite being few in number, these 'lucid' individuals often find themselves overwhelmed by the pervasive and unrecognized forces that shape social behavior, leading to feelings of existential dread and disillusionment.
Themes
StruggleAwarenessSocietyNightmareMagicOppression
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the impact of societal pressures on personal mental health.
More from Antonin Artaud
All quotes →Cruelty in the theatre is unrelenting decisiveness, diligence, strictness.
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I myself spent nine years in an insane asylum and I never had the obsession of suicide, but I know that each conversation with a psychiatrist, every morning at the time of his visit, made me want to hang myself, realizing that I would not be able to cut his throat.
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If our life lacks a constant magic it is because we choose to observe our acts and lose ourselves in consideration of their imagined form and meaning, instead of being impelled by their force.
Antonin ArtaudRead
A real theatrical experience shakes the calm of the senses, liberates the compressed unconscious and drives towards a kind of potential revolt . . .
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In consciousness dwells the wondrous, with it man attains the realm beyond the material, and the Peyote tells us, where to find it.
Antonin ArtaudRead
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