Antoine Roquentin, Simone de Beauvoir, Schopenhauer as an Educator, The World as Will and Representation
Antoine Roquentin : How bored are you? Extremely so, desperate for real sleep but somehow too tired?
Simone de Beauvoir : Do you feel like you’re leading a life according to your conscience? Pretty much to a fault. I overthink everything and sometimes forget that no one will look out for me but me. But my conscience has been clear for a very long time. I’‘m not good at doing the “wrong thing”, not even to protect my own neck sometimes.
Schopenhauer as an Educator : Who was your fave teacher? Dr. Mariel Grant, British Historian at the University of Victoria. She won a Rhodes Scholarship to the U.K. after living most of her life in a bigger hick town than the one I live in now, in the middle of nowhere, Canada. She was an Accounting undergrad who went into history and as a result, had this focus on media, art, culture, and historiography that got me through my undergrad at all. I wasn’t dead set on a useless major but I figured it was better to get the damn diploma with A’s in Humanities rather than F’s in something else, and not going was never an option, even if the student loan debt is crushing. Anyway, I learned so much about history, authority, revisionism, storytelling, critical thinking, etc., from her and I owe her a great debt as a result.
The World as Will and Representation : How do you deal with your suffering? Alone time. Seeking validation. Compulsive oversharing. Oblivion seeking at weekends with drugs and booze. Sex. You know, the usual.
