Zorba The Greek

[Tarmander]

I think it is no coincidence that Ray is so well read, and reading great works could be a part of good health. I have found that my mind needs to stretch to become healthier. I cannot have a healthy body without a mind consistent with the inner impulse of the heart.

Zorba the Greek is a book by Nikos Kazantzakis and his character Zorba exemplifies a type of bodily health in movement. Roughly speaking, I think there is a play of chaos and order, whereby inner bodily order that is consistent with mindset can be expressed in a chaotic life. Inner chaos may be expressed through an outward superficial order. Raskolnikov would be an opposite example from Crime and Punishment, with outer order (he does nothing) and inner chaos.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the Carl Wildman Translation. Especially the last one which matches my experience with sugar:

•"Tell me what you do with what you eat and I will tell you who you are! Some turn their food into fat and manure, some into work and good humor, and others, I'm told, into God. So there must be three sorts of men. I'm not one of the worst, boss, nor yet one of the best. I'm somewhere between the two. What I eat I turn into work and good humor. That's not too bad, after all!"

•"You're young and pretty tough, eating well, drinking well, breathing exhilarating sea air, and storing up energy-but what are you doing with it all? You sleep alone, and it's just too bad for the energy! [...] Boss, everything's simple in this world. How many times must I tell you? So don't go and complicate things!"

•"The belly is the firm foundation; bread, wine and meat are the first essentials; it is only with bread, wine and meat that one can create God"

•"For I realize today that it is a mortal sin to violate the great laws of nature. We should not hurry, we should not be impatient, but we should confidently obey the eternal rhythm."

•"'When I have a longing for something myself,' he said, 'do you know what I do? I cram myself chockful of it, and so I get rid of it and don't think about it any longer. Or, if I do, it makes me retch. Once when I was a kid-this'll show you-I was mad on cherries. I had no money, so I couldn't buy many at a time, and when I'd eaten all I could buy I still wanted more. Day and night I thought of nothing but cherries. I foamed at the mouth; it was torture! But one day I got mad, or ashamed, I don't know which. Anyway, I just felt cherries were doing what they liked with me and it was ludicrous. So what did I do? I got up one night, searched my father's pockets and found a silver mejidie and pinched it. I was up early the next morning, went to a market gardener and bought a basket o' cherries. I settled down in a ditch and began eating. I stuffed and stuffed till I was all swollen out. My stomach began to ache and I was sick. Yes, boss, I was thoroughly sick, and from that day to this I've never wanted a cherry. I couldn't bear the sight of them. I was saved. I could say to any cherry: I don't need you any more. And I did the same thing later with wine and tobacco. I still drink and smoke, but any second, If I want to, whoop! I can cut it out. I'm not ruled by passion. It's the same with my country. I thought too much about it, so I stuffed myself up to the neck with it, spewed it up, and it's never troubled me since.'
'What about women?' I asked.
'Their turn will come, damn them! It'll come! When I'm about seventy!" He thought for a moment, and it seemed too imminent. 'Eighty,' he said, correcting himself. "That makes you laugh, boss, I can see, but you needn't. That's how men free themselves! Listen to me there's no other way except by stuffing themselves til they burst. Not by turning ascetic. How do you expect to get the better of a devil, boss, if you don't turn into a devil-and-a-half yourself?'

 

[Integra]

Those are my two favorite books. Here's my favorite part of Zorba. I think it matches the thread topic perfectly. :)

"He [Zorba] lit a cigarette and sat on the bench beneath the blossoming orange tree.

'When I have a longing for something myself/ he said, 'do you know what I do? I cram
myself chockful of it, and so I get rid of it and don't think about it any longer. Or, if I do,
it makes me retch. Once when I was a kid - this'll show you - I was mad on cherries. I
had no money, so I couldn't buy many at a time, and when I'd eaten all I could buy I
still wanted more. Day and night I thought of nothing but cherries. I foamed at the
mouth; it was torture! But one day I got mad, or ashamed, I don't know which.

Anyway, I just felt cherries were doing what they liked with me and it was ludicrous.
So what did I do? I got up one night, searched my father's pockets and found a silver
mejidie and pinched it. I was up early the next morning, went to a market-gardener
and bought a basket o' cherries. I settled down in a ditch and began eating. I stuffed
and stuffed till I was all swollen out. My stomach began to ache and I was sick. Yes,
boss, I was thoroughly sick, and from that day to this I've never wanted a cherry. I
couldn't bear the sight of them. I was saved. I could say to any cherry: I don't need
you any more. And I did the same thing later with wine and tobacco. I still drink and smoke, but at any
second, if I want to, whoop! I can cut it out. I'm not ruled by passion. It's the same with
my country. I thought too much about it, so I stuffed myself up to the neck with it,
spewed it up, and it's never troubled me since.'

'What about women?' I asked.

'Their turn will come, damn them! It'll come! When I'm about seventy!'"​

 

[Tenacity]

Order and chaos as a theme seem to be everywhere - it is like a pervading principle of the universe.

 

[Xisca]

"For I realize today that it is a mortal sin to violate the great laws of nature. We should not hurry, we should not be impatient, but we should confidently obey the eternal rhythm."

Having bad health violates the great laws of nature, for we hurry to our death.
Less is more, let's slow down!

 

[x-ray peat]

I loved Zorba the Greek as well. To me it was always an ironic book to love as the main lesson was that you couldn't learn all that life had to teach from books but had to go out and live it.

 

[Integra]

Oops, I double-quoted the same paragraph, @Tarmander! I guess it really is one of the best parts of Zorba. :)

If anybody wants to read more books that punch you in the soul like the two above, here are a couple of literary classics that either showed me sides of myself I didn't know I had, or took me to the depths of hell and brought back a new, slightly scarier, person.

1.The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka

If there's ever been a man's man book, this is it. Be warned though, as you'll want a shower as soon as you finish this quick read. You'll want a shower because you'll be sticky with the protagonist's obligations, you'll feel dirtied by his own self-rejection, and you'll want to wash off the sweat from watching him crawl up the walls of his own room in this supernatural tale that feels incredibly real because of the characters' reactions. I promise you won't question anything that happens in it. It made me want to scream in anger at the unacknowledged way we treat men in modern society. It made me grasp the quiet wounds of masculinity, despite all this talk of female emancipation, that we don't dare to talk about yet. Kafka's Metamorphosis is the kind of story that will make you look deep into yourself as an individual, a citizen, a family member, and question whom you really owe what.

It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing -- though absurdly comic -- meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction.

2.The Trial - Franz Kafka

I'll never forget the image of Josef K. running down government hallways. I would run breathless in my dreams. If you ever wanted to know what it's like to have grown up in a post-communist or continental Europe socialist country, this is it. It captures the feeling of emptiness so well that, once you're done, you'll want to kiss a dollar bill. As the story progresses, you'll just get more frustrated and entangled in a problem that has no beginning and no end. It's one of those books you'll want to read only once in your life but never forget about it. It holds you by the shoulders and laughs at you. "Go on," the book says, "try to escape if you can." And the worst part is you'll stop trying after a while. If you decide to abandon this book halfway, I really don't blame you. Maybe this was Kafka's secret intention, just like to abandon some of Europe's political madness and life-negating ways of living. But if you do force yourself to push through the book to its end, you will understand how it feels to be gripped by learned helplessness that Peat talks about.

The Trial is the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianism, The Trial has resonated with chilling truth for generations of readers.

3.The Stranger - Albert Camus

Like Zorba, who chomped down kilos of cherries to cure himself of his desire, this book can be taken as bitter medicine for undying cravings for cosmic justice and some kind of a revenge. I will say no more. Meursault is simply a French, slightly darker version of Raskolnikov. This book has more intrigue and it muddles the borders of villainy even further, but it's a good read.

The title character is Meursault, an indifferent French Algerian described as "a citizen of France domiciled in North Africa, a man of the Mediterranean, an homme du midi yet one who hardly partakes of the traditional Mediterranean culture". [...]He attends his mother's funeral. A few days later, he kills an Arab man in French Algiers, who was involved in a conflict with a friend. Meursault is tried and sentenced to death.

4. Play: Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett

If Raskolnikov were more relaxed, allowed himself to end up homeless, and made a friend, this is likely what would have happened. Though a drama, this book talks to you in images that, if you're like me, might reemerge many times in your dreams, peeling off layers of its own nonsense and showing you your own delusions. It was one of the most anti-inspiring reads I've ever read. At the same time, this book offers a glimmer of hope within its meaninglessness. It will make you laugh like a god, impersonally, enjoying a sense of humor that doesn't belong to any side.

The story line revolves around two seemingly homeless men waiting for someone or something named Godot. Vladimir and Estragon wait near a tree on a barren stretch of road, inhabiting a drama spun from their own consciousness. The result is a comical wordplay of poetry, dreamscapes, and nonsense, which has been interpreted as a somber summation of mankind's inexhaustible search for meaning.

5. Non-fiction: On Becoming A Person - Carl R. Rogers

Though this is not a work of fiction, Carl Rogers presents his patients' stories weaved into his personal reflections on working with people and their troubles, gently opening the door to show you the dark corners of their inner lives in a way that will make you empathize with the worst of all mankind... You will emotionally, physiologically, experientially understand the deep, painful origins of evil. The narratives become so real that the characters, even though you know very little about them except their problems, suck you in.

This book made me wake up several nights, sweating, shaking. Once I sat up in bed woken up by something about the book I couldn't remember and out loud said, "Okay," without even knowing what I was agreeing to. It was a response to something I couldn't remember but the information was clearly in my body. It made me learn something purely physiologically for the first time in my life, it was a truth I couldn't elaborate, and it made me re-establish a contract with the world. God bless this book. God bless the people in it.

If you ever wondered if there is such a thing as a human soul, read this and you might just discover it. I am not by any means religious, but this book pushed me into the transcendental. I listed it here because of its dreamlike qualities and the aliveness with which Carl Rogers writes in a style that can easily stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the best works of literary fiction, in my humble opinion.

6. (Honorable mention) We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver

This is not a literary classic, and it's not the best book I ever read. But it does enter into the mind of someone who fetishizes a psychotic mind. The most interesting part of the book is its narrator, the seemingly innocent and repentant mother... Kevin, the main character, is certainly what you'd call a "monster," but the book is more about the mother's quiet, more insidious form of monstrosity that gives rise to unbridled evil...

Eva never really wanted to be a mother - and certainly not the mother of the unlovable boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and a much-adored teacher who tried to befriend him, all two days before his sixteenth birthday. [...] Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood from the start, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so nihilistically off the rails.

 

[Tarmander]

Oops, I double-quoted the same paragraph, @Tarmander! I guess it really is one of the best parts of Zorba. :)

If anybody wants to read more books that punch you in the soul like the two above, here are a couple of literary classics that either showed me sides of myself I didn't know I had, or took me to the depths of hell and brought back a new, slightly scarier, person.

1.The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka

If there's ever been a man's man book, this is it. Be warned though, as you'll want a shower as soon as you finish this quick read. You'll want a shower because you'll be sticky with the protagonist's obligations, you'll feel dirtied by his own self-rejection, and you'll want to wash off the sweat from watching him crawl up the walls of his own room in this supernatural tale that feels incredibly real because of the characters' reactions. I promise you won't question anything that happens in it. It made me want to scream in anger at the unacknowledged way we treat men in modern society. It made me grasp the quiet wounds of masculinity, despite all this talk of female emancipation, that we don't dare to talk about yet. Kafka's Metamorphosis is the kind of story that will make you look deep into yourself as an individual, a citizen, a family member, and question whom you really owe what.


2.The Trial - Franz Kafka

I'll never forget the image of Josef K. running down government hallways. I would run breathless in my dreams. If you ever wanted to know what it's like to have grown up in a post-communist or continental Europe socialist country, this is it. It captures the feeling of emptiness so well that, once you're done, you'll want to kiss a dollar bill. As the story progresses, you'll just get more frustrated and entangled in a problem that has no beginning and no end. It's one of those books you'll want to read only once in your life but never forget about it. It holds you by the shoulders and laughs at you. "Go on," the book says, "try to escape if you can." And the worst part is you'll stop trying after a while. If you decide to abandon this book halfway, I really don't blame you. Maybe this was Kafka's secret intention, just like to abandon some of Europe's political madness and life-negating ways of living. But if you do force yourself to push through the book to its end, you will understand how it feels to be gripped by learned helplessness that Peat talks about.


3.The Stranger - Albert Camus

Like Zorba, who chomped down kilos of cherries to cure himself of his desire, this book can be taken as bitter medicine for undying cravings for cosmic justice and some kind of a revenge. I will say no more. Meursault is simply a French, slightly darker version of Raskolnikov. This book has more intrigue and it muddles the borders of villainy even further, but it's a good read.


4. Play: Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett

If Raskolnikov were more relaxed, allowed himself to end up homeless, and made a friend, this is likely what would have happened. Though a drama, this book talks to you in images that, if you're like me, might reemerge many times in your dreams, peeling off layers of its own nonsense and showing you your own delusions. It was one of the most anti-inspiring reads I've ever read. At the same time, this book offers a glimmer of hope within its meaninglessness. It will make you laugh like a god, impersonally, enjoying a sense of humor that doesn't belong to any side.


5. Non-fiction: On Becoming A Person - Carl R. Rogers

Though this is not a work of fiction, Carl Rogers presents his patients' stories weaved into his personal reflections on working with people and their troubles, gently opening the door to show you the dark corners of their inner lives in a way that will make you empathize with the worst of all mankind... You will emotionally, physiologically, experientially understand the deep, painful origins of evil. The narratives become so real that the characters, even though you know very little about them except their problems, suck you in.

This book made me wake up several nights, sweating, shaking. Once I sat up in bed woken up by something about the book I couldn't remember and out loud said, "Okay," without even knowing what I was agreeing to. It was a response to something I couldn't remember but the information was clearly in my body. It made me learn something purely physiologically for the first time in my life, it was a truth I couldn't elaborate, and it made me re-establish a contract with the world. God bless this book. God bless the people in it.

If you ever wondered if there is such a thing as a human soul, read this and you might just discover it. I am not by any means religious, but this book pushed me into the transcendental. I listed it here because of its dreamlike qualities and the aliveness with which Carl Rogers writes in a style that can easily stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the best works of literary fiction, in my humble opinion.

6. (Honorable mention) We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver

This is not a literary classic, and it's not the best book I ever read. But it does enter into the mind of someone who fetishizes a psychotic mind. The most interesting part of the book is its narrator, the seemingly innocent and repentant mother... Kevin, the main character, is certainly what you'd call a "monster," but the book is more about the mother's quiet, more insidious form of monstrosity that gives rise to unbridled evil...

Awesome post! I remember in school metamorphosis being one of those books that stuck with me despite disliking it. I will have to try a couple of these others you have mentioned. Awesome contribution!