Cioran’s Providential Bicycle
E.M. Cioran’s bicycle, which represented for him a cure for the insomnia that had tormented him for approximately seven years, is the focal point of this essay. Hugh Kenner cleverly labeled the human on a bicycle the “Cartesian Centaur,” as it represents the culmination of human cognition with an exteriorized, tool-like enhancement. Inspired by Kenner’s reading of bicycles in Samuel Beckett, this speculative analysis triangulates the bicycle, Cioran, and Beckett in order to assess the symbolic, aesthetic, pragmatic, and philosophical value of this modern apparatus.
Key Words: E.M. Cioran, Samuel Beckett, René Descartes, bicycle, insomnia, Paul Fournel, Hugh Kenner
I would like to dedicate this essay to Cosana Nicolae Eram and Robert Harrison, who first introduced me to Cioran’s work, and to Florian Fuchs, the perennial cyclist. A special thanks to the readers of the first draft of this piece: Eric Burleson, Florian Fuchs, Robert Harrison, Mareike Stoll, Rava da Silveira, Cosana Nicolae Eram, and Alice Christensen. And a final thanks to Efthymia Rentzou for her help with the Greek.
1.[1] Fournel, Besoin de vélo, 136-7.
2.[1] Jobs, “Interview,” web source.
3.[1] Kenner, Samuel Beckett, 122.
4.[1] The common metaphor of the brain as a mechanism composed of cogs and wheels makes this association a natural one.
5.[1] Regier, “Cioran’s Insomnia,” 995.
6.[1] Weiss and Cioran, “Interview,” 108.
7.[1] Cioran, Œuvres, 1738.
8.[1] Bly, “Champion.”
9.[1] The feeling of self-empowerment could arise from what Fournel describes as a “doubling” that occurs when one rides a bicycle: “[Le vélo] est l’outil de la rapidité naturelle, il est le chemin le plus court vers le doublement de soi. Deux fois plus vite, deux fois moins fatigué, deux fois plus de vent sur la figure.” (Fournel 30)
10.[1] “L’Hexagone” is France’s nickname, given its resemblance to the six-sided form.
11.[1] Jakob and Cioran, “Wakefulness,” 140-1.
12.[1] Liiceanu, Itinéraires, 44.
13.[1] Kingman in Guitar, Twenty-two Famous Painters, 103.
14.[1] “[…] and it is right that there should ride about France as these words are written, subject to Mr. Beckett’s intermittent attention, a veteran racing cyclist, bald, a ‘stayer,’ recurrent placeman in town-to-town and national championships, Christian name elusive, surname Godeau, pronounced, of course, no differently from Godot. Monsieur Godeau, it is clear from our speculations, typifies Cartesian Man in excelsis, the Cartesian Centaur, body and mind in close harmony.” (Kenner 123-4) In the note to this comment, Kenner writes, “It may calm the skeptical reader to know that my knowledge of this man comes from Mr. Beckett.”
15.[1] Van Itterbeek, “Les montagnes magiques,” 65.
16.[1] Michel Tournier calls Saint Christopher, who carried the Christ child on his shoulders across a dangerous river, “porteur et sauveur d’enfant.” (Tournier, Le vent Paraclet, 125) The child becomes heavier and heavier as they traverse the swelling river.
17.[1] Ronnberg and Martin, The Book of Symbols, 440.
