not old Ben, I don't think, without our finding a reference,
but a reported conversation with Dr Samuel Johnson - ah, now that has the ring of 18th century common sense.
I accuse Cohen of confusing the two Js, as is so easily done.
Max
On 01/08/2013, at 10:11 PM, Bill Wootton wrote:
> Ah, Ben Jonson it seems, Max. I stand corrected.
>
> On "Speaking Cohen" one can find 3 interviews with mentions of such inflexible cheerfulness, all from 1992-1993.
>
> JONSON & JOHNSON
>
> Leonard Cohen and the Death of Cool by David Sprague
> (Your Flesh, 1992)
> When things get truly desperate, you start laughing...you experience what it really means to crack up...I remember what Ben Jonson said: "I've studied all the philosophies and all the theologies but cheerfulness keeps breaking through."(Laughs) I've read that as you approach middle age, the brain cells associated with anxiety start to die--so it doesn't matter whether you go to church every Sunday or do your yoga or whatever, you'll start to feel better about yourself.
>
>
> Bill
>
> On 01/08/2013, at 7:49 AM, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Cohen, quoting whom? -
>>
>> "As the man who wanted to be a philosopher said to Dr Johnson, 'Cheerfulness keeps breaking through.' " -
>>
>> is one I find, so maybe it's in Boswell's s Life of J?
>>
>> On 01/08/2013, at 7:30 AM, Bill Wootton wrote:
>>
>>> Leonard Cohen said it, Max.
>>>
>>> On 01/08/2013, at 6:18 AM, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> In all this, Doug, we seem to be alike.
>>>>
>>>> I think this piece was meant to sound cocky and complacent at first, uncaringly unimaginative and unsympathetic to insomniacs, then overturned by misgivings.
>>>> Others near me have been death-haunted from early youth, and they always make me feel thoughtless about what's most serious…
>>>> Who said 'cheerfulness keeps breaking in'?
>>>>
>>>> Max
>>>> On 01/08/2013, at 1:27 AM, Douglas Barbour wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I tend to fall asleep easily too, Max. But never managed anything so thoughtful when waking, those moments during the night...
>>>>>
>>>>> And still manage to avoid thinking much about the end...
>>>>>
>>>>> Hmmnnn....
>>>>>
>>>>> Doug
>>
|