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 There is nothing so degrading as the constant anxiety about one's means of livelihood. W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)
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not degrading, more so consuming
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Philip, the main character in Of Human Bondage, has just shown Monsieur Foinet a selection of his paintings, and invited him to comment on whether Philip should continue with his struggle as an artist:
Monsieur Foinet rolled himself a cigarette and lit it.
"You have very little private means?" he asked at last.
"Very little," answered Philip, with a sudden feeling of cold at his heart. "Not enough to live on."
"There is nothing so degrading as the constant anxiety about one's means of livelihood. I have nothing but contempt for the people who despise money. They are hypocrites or fools. Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five. Without an adequate income half the possibilities of life are shut off. The only thing to be careful about is that you do not pay more than a shilling for the shilling you earn. You will hear people say that poverty is the best spur to the artist. They have never felt the iron of it in their flesh. They do not know how mean it makes you. It exposes you to endless humiliation, it cuts your wings, it eats into your soul like a cancer. It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank, and independent. I pity with all my heart the artist, whether he writes or paints, who is entirely dependent for subsistence upon his art."
(http://www.classicreader.com/book/642/51/)
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Struggle is what life is about.
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GabhSigenod wrote:Struggle is what life is about. Not all orphans ready for that.
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Interesting linkage between Spinoza, Maugham, emotions, money, decency etc.
>> Maugham, who had originally planned to call his novel Beauty from Ashes, finally settled on a title taken from a section of Spinoza's Ethics.
>> The Ethics, by Benedict de Spinoza
PART IV:
Of Human Bondage, or the Strength of the Emotions
PREFACE
Human infirmity in moderating and checking the emotions I name bondage: for, when a man is a prey to his emotions, he is not his own master, but lies at the mercy of fortune: so much so, that he is often compelled, while seeing that which is better for him, to follow that which is worse.
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Daemon wrote:There is nothing so degrading as the constant anxiety about one's means of livelihood. W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) He is absolutely right! Humans (a consciousness)face what was designed by 'All that is'(God) pains, struggles, sufferation, opulency, mysteries. These were with 'All that is'(God), before creation. And all must display itself because the summation of these called mysteries make up 'All that is'(God), it shows the character of 'All that is'(God). Don't be baffled they are all parts of 'All that is'( God).
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"I pity with all my heart the artist,
whether he writes or paints, who is entirely dependent for subsistence upon his art."
I can just imagine the kind of life Edgar Alan Poe lived
when struggling to make a living on his writing alone.
It is so sad to see how money stands like a god before us.
And that there is so little that one can do without money.
Read this if you haven´t...
Money
By Philip Larkin
Quarterly, is it, money reproaches me:
‘Why do you let me lie here wastefully?
I am all you never had of goods and sex.
You could get them still by writing a few cheques.’
So I look at others, what they do with theirs:
They certainly don’t keep it upstairs.
By now they’ve a second house and car and wife:
Clearly money has something to do with life
—In fact, they’ve a lot in common, if you enquire:
You can’t put off being young until you retire,
And however you bank your screw, the money you save
Won’t in the end buy you more than a shave.
I listen to money singing. It’s like looking down
From long french windows at a provincial town,
The slums, the canal, the churches ornate and mad
In the evening sun. It is intensely sad.
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Daemon wrote:There is nothing so degrading as the constant anxiety about one's means of livelihood. W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) Degrading seems like a very cruel word, somehow adding insult to injury for something many of us can't much help. But look no further than Charles Strickland for a dichotomy between artists who live for their art and those who must live from the proceeds.
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Personally I think 'degrading' is the mot juste. And I think the lines: -" They have never felt the iron of it in their flesh. They do not know how mean it makes you. It exposes you to endless humiliation, it cuts your wings, it eats into your soul like a cancer. It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank, and independent." apply to anyone who talks about money not being important.
True poverty - not just being skint til payday, or owing a fortune on one's credit cards - is reflected back at one in the very eyes of people one comes into contact with. It makes one a non-person in the eyes of Society. It degrades the very essence who one is and who one has ever been.
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Personally I think 'degrading' is the mot juste. And I think the lines: -" They have never felt the iron of it in their flesh. They do not know how mean it makes you. It exposes you to endless humiliation, it cuts your wings, it eats into your soul like a cancer. It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank, and independent." apply to anyone who talks about money not being important.
True poverty - not just being skint til payday, or owing a fortune on one's credit cards - is reflected back at one in the very eyes of people one comes into contact with. It makes one a non-person in the eyes of Society. It degrades the very essence who one is and who one has ever been.
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Romany wrote:Personally I think 'degrading' is the mot juste. And I think the lines: -" They have never felt the iron of it in their flesh. They do not know how mean it makes you. It exposes you to endless humiliation, it cuts your wings, it eats into your soul like a cancer. It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank, and independent." apply to anyone who talks about money not being important.
True poverty - not just being skint til payday, or owing a fortune on one's credit cards - is reflected back at one in the very eyes of people one comes into contact with. It makes one a non-person in the eyes of Society. It degrades the very essence who one is and who one has ever been. It cuts into the heart like a sharp dart, upon reading.
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So does poverty.
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