Skip to main content

But I'm in love... And I am happy!

Excerpted from The First Circle by Alexander Solzhenitsyn:

(Rubin) You know the contract between Faust and Mephistopheles. Mephistopheles will receive Faust's soul only when Faust cries out, "Oh, moment, stay! You are so fair." But no matter what Mephistopheles offers Faust - the return of his youth, the love of Marguerite, easy victory over his rival, limitless wealth, knowledge of the secrets of existence - nothing can force the ultimate exclamation from Faust's breast. Years pass. Mephistopheles himself has grown weary of pursuing this insatiable being. He sees it's impossible to make a human being happy, and he wants to give up the fruitless attempt. Faust, who by now has aged a second time and grown blind, orders Mephistopheles to gather thousands of workers to dig canals and drain the swamps. In his twice-aged brain, which seems to the cynical Mephistopheles to be clouded and insane, a great idea has been kindled: to make humanity happy. At Mephistopheles' signal, the servants of hell appear - the lemurs - and begin to dig Faust's grave. Mephistopheles wants only to bury him and be rid of him, no longer hoping for his soul. Faust hears the sound of many spades digging. "What is that?" he asks. Mephistopheles remains true to his spirit of mockery. He tells Faust the swamps are being drained. Our critics love to interpret this moment in a socially optimistic sense: because he believes he has done humanity a great service and because this thought brings him his greatest happiness, Faust can now exclaim, "Oh, moment, stay! You are so fair!" But if one analyzes it, isn't Goethe laughing at the illusions that underlie human happiness? In actual fact, there wasn't any service to humanity at all. Faust pronounces the long-awaited sacramental phrase one step from the grave, utterly deceived, and perhaps truly crazy. And the lemurs immediately shove him into the pit. What is that, a hymn to happiness or a mockery of it?

(Nerzhin) Oh, Lev, my friend. I love the way you are right now, when you argue from your heart and talk intelligently and don't try to pin abusive labels on things.

(Rubin) Wretched descendant of Pyrrho! I never knew I gave you pleasure. But listen: At one of my pre-war lectures - and they were damned bold for the times - on the basis of that quotation from Faust I developed the melancholy notion that there is no such thing as happiness, that it is either unattainable or illusory. And then a student handed up a note written on a piece of graph paper torn from a tiny notebook: "But I am in love - and I am happy! How can you answer that?"

(Nerzhin) What did you answer?

(Rubin) What can you answer?

Comments

Bill Cobabe said…
Love is God's demonstration that happiness is not unattainable or illusory. We are meant to be happy. As Joseph Smith said - Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God.

I believe that with all my heart.
November 11, 2010 at 5:11 PM
Anonymous said…
Psalm 11:7
For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.

If you have never seen this movie...this is what every person deserves.

Excerpt from a letter from Noah to Allie: "The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds. And that's what you've given me. That's what I'd hoped to give you forever."

This is one of the best movies. A must see.
November 16, 2010 at 4:46 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is this thing still on?

 Does anyone even blog anymore? I remember when it first got started and everyone was having a blog. I like writing, and I do a lot of it in my professional life, but not everything makes it onto this blog, which is where a lot of my personal thoughts come out. I put more into Facebook lately, too, because it's a little easier. But there's something to be said for this long-form writing exercise, and I think I will continue here periodically. You don't mind, do you? Well, in my last post I wrote about how difficult things were for me at the time. That changed in July when I finally got a job working for the State of Utah. I was the program manager for the moderate income housing database program, and that meant I worked from home a lot but also went in to Salt Lake when needed, mostly on the train. It was a good experience, for the most part, and I'm grateful for the things I learned even in the short time I was there.  In October I started working for Weber County in t...
1 comment
Read more

The Other Art

I'm not sure we appreciate photography as much as we do other art forms. Part of this comes from the reality that surrounds and permeates a photograph - it's very, very real, and the photographer strives for clarity and crispness in the representations. Perhaps this is why black and white images continue to be relevant - they strip away extraneous information (color) and leave us with something that is at once familiar and also non-existent - for nothing exists in black and white. Nothing. I also think that pictures are becoming too common-place... Everyone has a camera in their pocket, and while that's a very democratic thing (everyone can express themselves in a picture easily and readily, and can find an audience for these images, which are casually taken and casually viewed, and perhaps just as casually forgotten) I think that we embrace that casual attitude, and it spills over to all aspects of the media, making it impotent. So I read this article this morning: h...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Romantic Encounter

Him (tears in his eyes, heartbroken): I want you to know that I love you, that I'm sorry for my weakness and frailties, and that I will try and do better. I think I am doing better than I was before, and I just want to please you and make you happy. I am very grateful for your continued patience as I try to be the kind of man I want to be. Her: You need a haircut. It's getting a little long.
15 comments
Read more