Quotes for Requiem - Ralph Waldo Emerson
When I was about 14, I came across a book of the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and I've always felt they contained a special wisdom for me.
Then, a few years ago, I found Project Gutenberg , and I fell in love with it as well. In the interim, I've read quite a bit of Emerson's writings. As I was re-reading his essay on "Experience", I came across some passages that seemed to be written for Requiem, so I thought I'd share them (along with my commentary on some of them....I am, after all, of Welsh descent).
Enjoy!
Grim
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""There are moods in which we court suffering, in the hope that here at least we shall find reality, sharp peaks and edges of truth. But it turns out to be scene-painting and counterfeit. The only thing grief has taught me is to know how shallow it is. That, like all the rest, plays about the surface, and never introduces me into the reality, for contact with which we would even pay the costly price of sons and lovers."
"In the death of my son, now more than two years ago, I seem to have lost a beautiful estate,--no more. I cannot get it nearer to me. If to-morrow I should be informed of the bankruptcy of my principal debtors, the loss of my property would be a great inconvenience to me, perhaps, for many years; but it would leave me as it found me,--neither better nor worse. So is it with this calamity: it does not touch me; something which I fancied was a part of me, which could not be torn away without tearing me nor enlarged without enriching me, falls off from me and leaves no scar. It was caducous. I grieve that grief can teach me nothing, nor carry me one step into real nature. The Indian who was laid under a curse that the wind should not blow on him, nor water flow to him, nor fire burn him, is a type of us all."
These passages seems particularly good at illustrating the emotional problems of kindred, described on pg. 6 of MET Requiem, where it says:
"While a vampire might believe that he feels an emotion, what he actually feels is the echo of mortal emotions that the remnants of his soul apply to his current experience."
This is something which, IMHO, doesn't get played enough.
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"Nothing is left us now but death. We look to that with a grim satisfaction, saying There at least is reality that will not dodge us."
This couple sentences really makes me think of the Sotoha (a ventrue bloodline out of the Invictus book), who are focused on impermanence and death, but it could apply to many other kindred as well.
---
"Of what use to make heroic vows of amendment, if the same old law-breaker is to keep them?"
Then, a few years ago, I found Project Gutenberg , and I fell in love with it as well. In the interim, I've read quite a bit of Emerson's writings. As I was re-reading his essay on "Experience", I came across some passages that seemed to be written for Requiem, so I thought I'd share them (along with my commentary on some of them....I am, after all, of Welsh descent).
Enjoy!
Grim
---
""There are moods in which we court suffering, in the hope that here at least we shall find reality, sharp peaks and edges of truth. But it turns out to be scene-painting and counterfeit. The only thing grief has taught me is to know how shallow it is. That, like all the rest, plays about the surface, and never introduces me into the reality, for contact with which we would even pay the costly price of sons and lovers."
"In the death of my son, now more than two years ago, I seem to have lost a beautiful estate,--no more. I cannot get it nearer to me. If to-morrow I should be informed of the bankruptcy of my principal debtors, the loss of my property would be a great inconvenience to me, perhaps, for many years; but it would leave me as it found me,--neither better nor worse. So is it with this calamity: it does not touch me; something which I fancied was a part of me, which could not be torn away without tearing me nor enlarged without enriching me, falls off from me and leaves no scar. It was caducous. I grieve that grief can teach me nothing, nor carry me one step into real nature. The Indian who was laid under a curse that the wind should not blow on him, nor water flow to him, nor fire burn him, is a type of us all."
These passages seems particularly good at illustrating the emotional problems of kindred, described on pg. 6 of MET Requiem, where it says:
"While a vampire might believe that he feels an emotion, what he actually feels is the echo of mortal emotions that the remnants of his soul apply to his current experience."
This is something which, IMHO, doesn't get played enough.
---
"Nothing is left us now but death. We look to that with a grim satisfaction, saying There at least is reality that will not dodge us."
This couple sentences really makes me think of the Sotoha (a ventrue bloodline out of the Invictus book), who are focused on impermanence and death, but it could apply to many other kindred as well.
---
"Of what use to make heroic vows of amendment, if the same old law-breaker is to keep them?"