“Why don’t you write something different from your usual ravings? Something that sounds normal? Something that the vast majority of readers would like?” my brother asked me when I told him about my stories.
An embarrassing question, sure. But not for me. No! I feel embarrassed for him. Is the human condition a reality that concerns only me?
Since I was young, I have rejected conformism. Over time, I have forged a critical and provocative attitude toward everything. From sports and the world of information and entertainment to politics, education, religion, and the habits of everyday life.
“You’re strange,” my mother accused me.
I observed the people next to me. I read in their eyes the suffering that their mouths did not dare confess to and which they attributed—vaguely, according to atavistic customs—to fate and the tribulations of life.
But something was jarring. Those were not the causes of their suffering.
The search for causes of human suffering obsessed me for years until a handful of authors (Thomas Ligotti, Peter Wessel Zapffe, Emil Cioran) provided me with the tools I needed to complete my personal search for the truth.
So, I became anti-natalist, anarchist, and atheist. Or, in one word, nonconformist.
The first cause of human suffering: procreation
A triteness. Obvious. Predictable.
However, I had to write more than 200 pages to convince myself that donating death was more important than donating life.
Even Tommaso—the story’s protagonist—only partially manages to realize this simple truth. The suffering that afflicts him is too great. His suffering crucifies him. Four nails lock his extremities.
When he tries to reach out to a fellow student to help him pass an exam, the pain in his hands and feet becomes unbearable. There is little room inside him for the suffering of others.
However, Diego understood it, as he dealt with the pain of people every day while he tried to provide them with their missing serenity.
The second cause of human suffering: the government of man over man
This cause has also been difficult to identify despite the countless examples that have always presented themselves before my eyes.
Fanaticism of rules and laws, exasperation of hierarchies, and oppression of social controls cause frustration, inequalities, abuses, and infinite suffering.
On the other hand, no one has ever proven that they are indispensable to a community’s life.
In this manuscript, the truths of Elijah—an enterprising young lawyer— clash with those of Leonardo—a retired engineer—culminating in psychological warfare. Is it possible for a young man to learn something from the experience of an elder, just as the lessons of history are claimed to benefit subsequent generations?
The third cause of human suffering: the lies of religions
Freeing yourself from the yoke of religion is a test of strength.
I was raised with the desire for an afterlife. One day, I realized that my will—not that of others—was to die forever. I cannot imagine anything more atrocious and suffocating than a condition that lasts forever: eternal life.
This manuscript is divided into three sections. Three stories set in the same place—the Island of Iguanas—follow one another, with different characters and plots.
The first section functions as an appetizer. The young Mattia finds himself in an unusual social context which obliges him to reflect on the values of modern lifestyle.
The second section explores the generational conflict between two young men, Riccardo and Luca, and their respective families. The adults’ lifestyle creaks under the blows of its own contradictions. Young people no longer recognize themselves in it and decide to try a different approach.
The third section provides an interpretation of the Man-God relationship that is different from that generally gathered from the Bible. Finally, the adults’ lifestyle reveals its very nature: rotten, immoral, and inhuman, exemplifying how low the human race has fallen in its process of decay.
Conclusion
Each of the three manuscripts addresses all of the aforementioned subjects but from different perspectives and contexts. For the interested reader, it is suggested to read them in this order:
– Concerning Decay of The Human Race
– Concerning Fanaticism in The Human Race
– Concerning Intellectual Suicide in The Human Race
which corresponds to the temporal order of writing.
Now that I have finally concluded my journey, I am ready to provide my brother with my response: “In the absence of any purpose or explanation for human suffering, what is the point of writing about anything else?”
And for you, the reader, what is your truth about the human condition?
