Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Updating Kazantzakis

I saw this quote in a friend's email signature...

"What a strange machine man is! You fill him with bread, wine, fish, and radishes, and out comes sighs, laughter, and dreams."
-- Nikos Kazantzakis (1885-1957), Greek novelist.


To which my immediate mental response was:

OK, fine -- but it's what happens when you feed him with hallucinogenic mushrooms, amphetamines, ginger beer, Viagra and stir-fried snails that really fascinates me!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can't really remember what came out, but I can tell you the end result 30 years down the road from that strange confluence

Anonymous said...

Since you are referring to a Greek writer and I happen to be Greek, there goes the answer. Kazantzakis view of man had nothing to do with euforia such as brought by the hippy movement, but of the strugle between spirit and body. Should a person thrive under the influence of the body or should he suffer under the obligations of the spirit. Nietzsche, Odyssey and Buddhism were of a great influence to his work.
But his days and the days of moral beliefs as you well quote
OK, fine -- but it's what happens when you feed him with hallucinogenic mushrooms, amphetamines, ginger beer, Viagra and stir-fried snails that really fascinates me!!

Anonymous said...

what a coincidence!

http://www.ketameme.com

seems someone is involved in similar experiments

:)