“There is a point when grief exceeds the human capacity to emote, and as a result one is strangely composed”

— Abraham Verghese , book Cutting for Stone

Source: Cutting for Stone

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Abraham Verghese 20

Physician, teacher, novelist 1955

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““A splendidly inept thing,” Sylveste said, nodding despite himself.
“What?”
“The human capacity for grief. It just isn’t capable of providing an adequate emotional response once the dead exceed a few dozen in number. And it doesn’t just level off—it just gives up, resets itself to zero. Admit it. None of us feel a damn about these people.””

Alastair Reynolds book Revelation Space

Source: Revelation Space (2000), Chapter 15 (p. 323).

“Human beings suffer agonies, and their sad fates become legends; poets write verses about them and playwrights compose dramas, and the remembrance of past grief becomes a source of present pleasure - such is the strange alchemy of the spirit.”

Upton Sinclair book Dragon's Teeth

Source: Dragon's Teeth

“The human brain cannot release enough neurotransmitters to feel emotion a thousand times as strong as the grief of one funeral.”

Eliezer Yudkowsky (1979) American blogger, writer, and artificial intelligence researcher

Cognitive Biases Potentially Affecting Judgment of Global Risks http://singularity.org/files/CognitiveBiases.pdf, a chapter of Global Catastrophic Risks, edited by Nick Bostrom and Milan M. Cirkovic (2008)
Context: The human brain cannot release enough neurotransmitters to feel emotion a thousand times as strong as the grief of one funeral. A prospective risk going from 10,000,000 deaths to 100,000,000 deaths does not multiply by ten the strength of our determination to stop it. It adds one more zero on paper for our eyes to glaze over.

“The metaphysical forms which compose our futurist pictures are the result of realities conceived and realities created entirely by the artist. These last are inspired by the emotion or intuition and dependent on atmosphere-ambience.”

Gino Severini (1883–1966) Italian painter

Quote of Severine 1913, from the opening paragraphs of his text 'Art du fantastique dans le sacre', as cited in Gino Severini Ecrits sur l'art, (1913-1962), with a preface by Serge Fauchereau, (Paris: Editions Cercle d'Art, 1987), p. 47
Severini opens 'Art du fantastique' with a theoretical explanation of the concept, form and content of a Futurist work

“Therefore, why not plastic forms in motion? Not a simple translatory or rotary motion but several motions of different types, speeds and amplitudes composing to make a resultant whole. Just as one can compose colors, or forms, so one can compose motions.”

Alexander Calder (1898–1976) American artist

1930s, Statement from Modern Painting and Sculpture (1933)

“The ancients, persuaded that there is no body without a moving force, regarded the substance of bodies as composed of two primitive attributes. It was held that, through one of these attributes, this substance has the capacity for moving and, through the other, the capacity for being moved.”

Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709–1751) French physician and philosopher

Source: The Natural History of the Soul (1745), Ch. V Concerning the Moving Force of Matter, p.156

“One would never have guessed that the world had such a capacity for genuine grief. The most we can do is exploit our memories of his excellence.”

John Cheever (1912–1982) American novelist and short story writer

On the assassination of John F. Kennedy
The Sixties, 1963 entry.
The Journals of John Cheever (1991)

“The contrast between man's ideological capacity to move at random through material and metaphysical spaces and his physical limitations, is Uneven lengths and uneven angle-degrees of the point-rudder result in a deviating course. the origin of all human tragedy. It is this contrast between power and prostration that implies the duality of human existence. Half winged-half imprisoned, this is man!”

Paul Klee (1879–1940) German Swiss painter

IIII.37, The Arrow. p. 54
1921 - 1930, Pedagogical Sketch Book, (1925)

“When the rate of change increases to the point that real time required to assimilate change exceeds the time in with change must be manifest, the enterprise is going to find itself in deep yogurt.”

John Zachman (1934) American computer scientist

Zachman (1994) cited in: Ronald G. Ross (2003) Principles of the Business Rule Approach. p. 35

“Psychic illnesses are the result of a disturbance of the natural capacity for love.”

Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957) Austrian-American psychoanalyst

General Survey
The Function of the Orgasm (1927)
Context: Psychic health depends on orgastic potency, i. e., upon the degree to which one can surrender to and experience the climax of excitation in the natural sexual act. It is founded upon the healthy character attitude of the individual's capacity for love. Psychic illnesses are the result of a disturbance of the natural capacity for love.

“There is a point when grief exceeds the human capacity to emote, and as a result one is strangely composed”

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