Pluto The Philosopher Quotes

ROME AWOKE TO THE GREAT, collective hangover of the day after Saturnalia. All over the city hundreds of thousands of bleary eyes opened, the merciless light of morning pierced through them, and a vast groan ascended unto Olympus. Patrician and plebeian, slave and freedman, citizen and foreigner, all were afflicted and were half certain that Pluto had them by the ankle and was dragging them toward the yawning abyss; and, on the whole, they viewed the oblivion of the trans-Stygian world as not such a bad prospect after all. Even Stoic philosophers were retching into the chamberpot that morning.

All true Plutonian desires have as one of their dimensions a feeling of moral or philosophical meaningfulness. Regarding that idea, I have great certainty. But regarding my choice of words, I suffer grave doubts. “Moral” and “philosophical” are churchy terms that don’t readily connect with our bodies, our hungers, or our guts. In the last chapter, we spoke of the Shadow and defined it in part as everything that might get a person “hot” — which is to say on fire with hunger and desire, for good or ill. Once again, morals and philosophies don’t exactly leap to the top of the list. In fact, the training most of us receive typically pits our morals and philosophical principles against our hot desires. Morals don’t embrace desires; they contain them.

Regarding that idea, I have great certainty. But regarding my choice of words, I suffer grave doubts. “Moral” and “philosophical” are churchy terms that don’t readily connect with our bodies, our hungers, or our guts.

All true Plutonian desires have as one of their dimensions a feeling of moral or philosophical meaningfulness