A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I was reading Edward St Aubyn's Patrick Melrose novels, and I suggested that the grim view of life epigrammatically advanced in these books reminded me of the philosopher Schopenhauer. I'm now into the fifth and last installment, At Last, and, lo, Schopenhauer gets a call out. Mary, Patrick's ex, is waiting for the funeral service for Patrick's mother, which she has planned, to begin. She sees a man, a scholar named Erasmus, with whom she'd slept while her marriage was shrivelling, and--
Why was she drawn to these gloomy men? As a philosopher, at least Erasmus, like Schopenhauer, could make his pessimism into a world view. He cheered up at the mention of the German philosopher.
"My favorite remark of his was the advice he gave to a dying friend: 'You are ceasing to be something you would have done better never to become.'"
"That must have helped," said Mary.
A few pages later we learn about how Patrick discovered the affair. He saw a copy of Erasmus's book, None the Wiser: Developments in the Philosophy of Consciousness, on Mary's night table.
"You couldn't be reading that book unless you were having an affair with the author," he guessed through half-closed eyes.
And Mary had replied, "'Believe me, it's virtually impossible even then.'"
