“It is the hours in which one is alone that amount to the difference between death and life.”
PHOTO OF ELIAS CANETTI COURTESY OF THE DUTCH NATIONAL ARCHIVES, THE HAGUE, FOTOCOLLECTIE ALGEMEEN NEDERLANDS PERSBUREAU (ANEFO). COLLAGE ILLUSTRATION BY NAJEEBAH AL-GHADBAN.
1942
There is no longer any measure by which to gauge anything once the measure of human life no longer is the measure.
—
Today I decided that I will record thoughts against death as they happen to occur to me, without any kind of structure and without submitting them to any tyrannical plan. I cannot let this war pass without hammering out a weapon within my heart that will conquer death. It will be tortuous and insidious, perfectly suited to the task. In better times I would wield it as a joke or a brazen threat. I think of the act of slaying death as a masquerade. Employing fifty disguises and numerous plots is how I’d do it.
