12 December 2024

Happy Birthday, Flaubert

Giraurd, Gustave Flaubert, 1856


What stops me from taking myself seriously, even though I am essentially a serious person, is that I find myself extremely ridiculous, not in the sense of the small-scale ridiculousness of slap-stick comedy, but rather in the sense of ridiculousness that seems intrinsic to human life and that manifests itself in the simplest actions and the most extraordinary gestures.

Gustave Flaubert, born on this day in 1821

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