Life and Simplicity

Listen to what Thomas Mann has to say about simplicity, in this novella titled 'Tonio Kroger'.

"Listen to me. I love life - that is a confession. I present it to you for safe keeping; you are the first person to whom I have made it... 'Life' confronts intellect and art as their eternal opposite - but not as a vision of bloodstained greatness and savage beauty. We who are exceptions do not see life as something exceptional; on the contrary! Normality, respectability, decency - these are our heart's desire, this to us is life, life in its seductive banality! No one, my dear, has a right to call himself an artist if his profoundest craving is for the refined, the eccentric and the satanic - if his heart knows no longing for innocence, simplicity and living warmth, for a little friendship and self-surrender and familiarity and human happiness - if he is not secretly devoured, Lisaveta, by this longing for the bliss of the commonplace..."

It was nice playing settlers with the whole motley gang today. Maybe because I won with my longest road once again. I like last night too, even though we missed itchy and scratchy on the moon. I guess I'm drawn to the sense of familiarity, laughing at silly things together. I'm not really looking forward to tmr's tea session for grad students. Loathing intellectual talk quite a bit for now. Oh well... need to snap out of it soon to start preparing for a new season of essay typing.