February 19, 2010
- John Steinbeck on The Evolutionary Aspect of Morality -
It is the race, the species that must go staggering on. Mordeen, our ugly little species, weak and ugly, torn with insanities, violent and quarrelsome, sensing evil—the only species that knows evil and practices it—the only one that senses cleanness and is dirty, that knows about cruelty and is unbearably cruel.
Look down. Here he lies sleeping, to teach me. Our dear race, born without courage but very brave, born with a flickering intelligence and yet with beauty in its hands. What animal has made beauty, created it, save only we? With all our horrors and our faults, somewhere in us there is a shining. That is the most important of all facts. There is a shining.
Yeah, Steinbeck’s /good/.
Comment by speedbird — February 19, 2010 @ 2:27 pm
Heh, scrap my first (now deleted) reply. Wrong person to reply to…
I actually wasn’t a fan in highschool, but then, I grew up in Salinas, where he lived. Sort of a local hero, and at the time, I was all about getting the hell out. But I’ve since grown to appreciate him a bit more. I think I was more rebelling against the hero-worship of a guy who supposedly used to chase kids off his lawn with a shotgun. It more was the hypocrisy of being told to look up to someone who nobody gave much of a damn about while he was still alive, I suppose.
Comment by Ian — February 19, 2010 @ 3:48 pm
I don’t know any of the guy’s history; that’s really interesting.
I think he’s the kind of author who you don’t actually have to /like/ to know he’s /good/… :)
Comment by speedbird — February 20, 2010 @ 10:33 am
I thought all writers were jerks?
Comment by Ted — February 20, 2010 @ 10:40 am
Get outta here you damn kids! I’m trying to write!!
Comment by Ted — February 20, 2010 @ 10:41 am
At the time I didn’t really appreciate that, but yeah, I’d say writers can be a pretty cantankerous bunch. Comes from all that thinking, I’d imagine…
Comment by Ian — February 20, 2010 @ 12:31 pm