The Genius of Louis-Ferdinand Celine (Journey to the End of the Night)

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Two of the most important questions this novel tackles are these. First, are we motivated by hatred? As an extremely tribal or pack species, are we humans psychologically hardwired to sacrifice our lives because of hatred of the other tribe or nation? Throughout history, warfare has been one of the most constant human affairs, in which millions of people give up their lives safeguarding their tribes or conquering another tribe. This brings to the second most important question this amazing novel poses. Are men the disposable sex? The burden of fighting in a war has predominantly fallen on the shoulders of men. This has been true thousands of years ago and even today, the majority of soldiers dying in action are men.
Louis-Ferdinand Céline was one of Charles Bukowski’s favourite authors. His masterpiece, Journey to the End of the Night is an absolutely brilliant novel, perhaps one of the best of the 20th century French literature. The novel gives insight into the human nature saying that we are not motivated by kindness or altruism but by hatred. Despite being a pessimistic novel, it’s incredibly artistic, deeply psychological and profoundly philosophical about the human condition.
So today I will tell you about Celine’s life, summarise his masterpiece and discuss some of the themes in one of the most profound novels of the 20th century while trying to answer whether hatred is a great motivator in human psychology as well as whether evolution has designed men as the disposable sex.
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Опубликовано:

7 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 122

@markspano3468 Год назад

I haven’t read Celine for 50 years. I’ll go back and reread his books.

@ARVINDKUMAR-tk6wi Год назад

You deserve kudos for running this extremely worthwhile channel for people who love literature, particularly, fiction. Amazing! May God bless you!

@Fiction_Beast Год назад

Thank you! You’re kind.

@leonardgradinariu5556 Год назад

I finished this book a few hours ago and it really was amazing.

@mountainjay Год назад

As a practicing Jew, I still very much appreciated and enjoyed Journey to the end of the Night. This RU-vid channel has become a favorite of mine.

@Hot_nd_spicy 5 месяцев назад

Why would you say as a Jew? Was celine a anti-Semite?

@judiemueller2664 4 месяца назад

Milton Hindus, a Jewish professor, stayed with Celine in Denmark and wote a book called THE CRIPPLED GIANT about his experience...

@jasonsmith4114 4 месяца назад

The favorite author of your favorite author. In my opinion the most extraordinary, fussy writer of the 20th century. I suspect the english translation can't really grasp the full extent of his genius, his style being so unique, the rich french vocabulary and slang from early 1900 popular Paris... But although I believe non-french speaker will miss out, I'm also convinced it's worth reading in any language.

@ChaotikkBlue Месяц назад

I just read the book and found your piece very informative, thank you. Just one thing - while not rich his family was not poor by any means. They started as shopkeepers, but after the death of Celine's grandmother inherited pretty big sum of money and real estate. He was taught in private schools, in France, Germany and UK since 8 years old. So I wouldn't call him poor.

@supremereader7614 Год назад

Thank you very much. You introduce novels I've never heard of and even if I had and read them I couldn't summarize them as well as you do. I find a lot of things I can relate to in this author, I feel like society does consider us the 'disposable sex.' And that kind of sucks.

@Fiction_Beast Год назад

I really appreciate your comment. Thank you very much.

@StarofSolomon Год назад

@@Fiction_Beast Has anyone of you done a summary on the book called “The Manipulated Man” by Esther Vilar? Please do so if you haven’t yet 🙏🏻

@thadtuiol1717 4 месяца назад

Leon was clearly some kind of alter ego/doppelganger for Ferdinand.

@robertpoff8442 Год назад

That was incredible. This has been one of my favorite books for years and you really did it justice. Great job man!

@mcanerbayram Год назад

Just finished the Turkish translation of the book. It is obvious that was a challenging translation. Thanks to the translator 'Yiğit Bener', it took him 2 years to translate. And thank you Fiction Beast for this beautiful and inspiring video.

@Fiction_Beast Год назад

Thank you! Love Turkish literature.

@cheri238 Год назад

I love you and this channel. I have never read this novel,the genius of Celine, "Journey to the End of Night." My ears perked up when you said this was one Charles Buskowski's favorite authors. I love his novels, also Camus, Nietzche. I actually laughing out loud when you were explaining about wars, women, human nature and the twists to the plot.( The characters.) Also about what happened to Celine in his own life. Enormous body of texture of writing I am sure of it. Honest, vulgar, poetic, humorous, my kind of novel. Your critical analysis of literature is always complete, compelling, and challenge's one to read, which I have always done since I was a child. Now I have another author to read. Thank you for your love of literature. ❤️

@Fiction_Beast Год назад

Thank you! Very kind of you!

@terrylyell8608 Год назад

🎉❤

@terrylyell8608 Год назад

🎉❤

@cheri238 Год назад

@@terrylyell8608 💖

@Nick-qf7vt Год назад

Your videos are always so enlightening. I hope to use these insights you give in my own writing! So many great ideas listed here; using emotions instead of ideas, the pace of a story (not just creeping along), the superiority of emotions to "new ideas and innovation". Yet another great author that Bukowski has introduced me to!

@markwilliams3174 Год назад

Brilliant presentation. Such valuable content for Social Workers who work with Men with challenging behaviours or are troubled & vulnerable.

@FogelsChannel Год назад

I agree. Did you read "Life at the Bottom" by Dalrymple? NHS Physician describes Britain's underclass.

@shahriarazim Год назад

Thank you very much for this. I have never heard of this novel. But I now can tell it will be one of my favorite one

@Sachie465 Год назад

Thank you for making this video and thank French people for not having continued to ban Celine’s books. It is a heavy novel with stifling air, tensions and speed. I also noticed how observant and objective he is about the base and sordid sides of humanity. I love the novel more than I thought I would. By the way, I like the previous title better (sorry, just saying).

@Fiction_Beast Год назад

since you said it i will change it back :) btw, did you mean the thumbnail?

@Sachie465 Год назад

@@Fiction_Beast I don’t know what thumbnail means but yes, the caption in the illustration.

@Fiction_Beast Год назад

I changed the picture.

@alesjanosik1545 Год назад

Yet another of Your videos I cannot finish, haha. For good reasons, adding the book to my to read list.

@FogelsChannel Год назад

I bought and started reading this after listening to you. It's really good!

@gurleensodhi6527 Год назад

Thanks for the beautiful summary of the novel.💮

@Fiction_Beast Год назад

You're welcome 😊

@sharontheodore8216 Год назад

This got my head spinning for all along I was under the impression that war (in part) was mainly about expansion of power and here it is used to weed out the weaker species. Lots of original ideas. Enjoyed the way you structured the novel and made it so easy to absorb. Many thanks.

@Fiction_Beast Год назад

Thank you!

@gracefitzgerald2227 Год назад

I love looking at the comments and seeing how you make so many peoples day, including mine.

@Fiction_Beast Год назад

Thank you!

@FogelsChannel Год назад

Thanks for this recommend! Ive been listening to this for two days, it's amazing. Im in the perfect place in my life for this, Im in constant agreement with the narrator. If I would have listened to this 20 years ago it would have bored me, life was easier for me then. Not anymore, business changes allowed other rats to run right past me, my first time chasing for scraps. This & fight club are my diet now.

@Fiction_Beast Год назад

Thank you for sharing. I’m glad the video was helpful.

@michaelcannon4835 Год назад

Your channel’s pure treasure. I can’t believe you hadn’t done Celine (“Journey” specifically) yet. Obviously Henry Miller and “Tropic” will follow. Thanks for your great work. I hope u read these

@Fiction_Beast Год назад

Appreciate the kind words.

@Byezbozhnik Год назад

I read Voyage... so many years ago! Thanks for bringing back the good memories! This book caused a great impact on me in my youth. Now it would be fitting to have an analysis of Céline's 2nd book, La mort à crédit.

@almarn Год назад

Nord and Rigodon....there is book written by a french writer on his cat..Bebert...

@ntang99 Год назад

Modern wars these days like the one between Russia and Ukraine, seem to kill less soldiers with more advanced weapons like autonomous drones. However, there are a lot of invisible wars between countries in the economy, technology, and politics. A huge number of citizens suffer badly from those wars. The theme probably still holds, or even more true now, that a small group of elites rule the world, and the majority suffer and die, with no meaning for their own life.

@winniethuo9736 Год назад

What can women do? We breed and we put in the work of raising the child that then chooses without full knowledge of what the sacrifice of themselves thru war entails intensified by the hate hate of another woman's kid and the end does and will not be realised at this pace of thinking? So valid was cCelein's observation.

@FogelsChannel Год назад

Buddhists learn to not expect outcome from action. Your example is heartbreaking but proves the validity of their training

@thadtuiol1717 4 месяца назад

@@winniethuo9736 With birth rates plummeting around the world, it seems fewer women are interested in providing the next war's cannon fodder.

@amirpouyaa Год назад

Thanks for sharing your wisdom, you are a great teacher

@Fiction_Beast Год назад

You are very welcome

@user-zb4cr1ql9o 6 месяцев назад

I don't know english very well, but yours videos are beautiful for learn to english

@chancerobinson5112 Год назад

Motivated by hatred? Only after human beings have organized and those outside the organization, economic, educational, political, religious, or social, become the enemy!

@Fiction_Beast Год назад

Not just hatred, but it is a massive motivation.

@wijnandr3520 Год назад

Thank you so much for this video! Céline is one of my favorite authors. Despite of his awful writings in World War II, such as his pamphlets, I strongly believe his first two books are the best french novels in 20th century. His style is unique and inspiring for so much writers. Just look at the early work of Sartre, or look at the literature from the Netherlands just after World War II.

@Vikii2024 3 месяца назад

Yes , they are expendable . That's the entire history . But not anymore .

@maximilyen Год назад

Paintings are awesome

@mcmc5841 Год назад

I can't imagine how the english version reflects the French one, because if you don't the classical french style its impossible to compare. And most of the time Céline is reffered to the First World War, to Paris in the twenties. So, thanks to the translators and foreign amateurs for the comments.

@joejs7659 Год назад

Ralph Manheims translations are very good.

@yonathanasefaw9001 Год назад

Ugh good video my friend. A new author to read.

@cheri238 Год назад

What a gem this man is❤️

@gabrielidusogie9189 Год назад

Can you make a video on how to get into an how to analyze literature?

@cheri238 Год назад

HE IS THE BEST 👌

@courtneyvaldez7903 Год назад

....you read and think. There's no bar for "getting into" literary analysis. I mean, you can study literature at university, which is literary analysis. It'll help to also history and philosophy, as literature (talking fiction) is in constant dialogue with those other fields. I'd argue they're inextricable, in fact.

@FogelsChannel Год назад

Great question. Nabakov published his lectures "Notes on Great Literature", detailed analysis with 5 books showing how to really absorb a great work. And Mortimer Adler's "How to read a book", his Harvard Lit lectures.

@JasonKinne Год назад

Huge fan. using this video as an example, are the picture's from the book proper? curious. Thank you!

@natehardy8350 8 месяцев назад

The undeniable

@harclinze1514 Год назад

at last (i'm late lol)! though i'm a bit disappointed that you didn't insist on his style. céline was somewhat frustrated by his first novel, even though it's his most famous book - he was frustrated by it precisely because he seemed to him that his book was too "mainstream". hence why he fortified his style afterward. that's why i'm myself disappointed, because most youtubers who make video about céline always choose his first novel. i think his true innovation (his style rather than his philosophy) would be better represented by his later books. it would be nice to have a video only dedicated to his style. céline ony cared about his style. he had a real contempt regarding the "content", that is, the place of the story, in literature

@joejs7659 Год назад

Oh yea. The dancing style. Words that can swing their legs around like in a ballet, yes. Although, journey and death are fantastic, but i do agree that there could be more reviews on his later works. PS, great work on the translations.

@captainreza1 Год назад

What a beautiful presentation o the masterpiece! Thank you. I was wondering if the "analysis" section is your own writing, and if not, could you please kindly share the source? Cheers!

@Fiction_Beast Год назад

Thank you! It’s my own analysis. The novel is one of the best I have read.

@captainreza1 Год назад

@@Fiction_Beast then bravo! very well written analysis.

@vaibhavnayak5890 Год назад

Great video as always. What are your views on emile zola.

@Fiction_Beast Год назад

Haven’t read much but germinal is great!

@thecapn_uk8034 Год назад

Brilliant...beautiful...I didn't know who influenced Bukowski...cool...

@antonovplay380 Год назад

Thank you for this video and russian subtitles

@alexobed4252 Год назад

Thank you!

@lukehunnable 17 дней назад

Blimey, if Ferdinand wasn't "red pilled" even 100 years ago...

@EMlNENCJA Год назад

A society of great number of men and few women would have it harder to generate similar new generation, wheras the opposite does not face such problem.

@RobertoGutierrez-tj4gn Год назад

I came here searching for copper, and I found gold.

@Fiction_Beast Год назад

Thank you!

@kanalis7549 Год назад

Hi, can you make a movie about "the adolescent" by Dostoevsky?

@Fiction_Beast Год назад

Good suggestion!

@Caligula138 5 месяцев назад

He got canceled because he thought the same thing many people are thinking today.

@thadtuiol1717 4 месяца назад

Lol, if you know, you know... ;-)

@Christian-97 3 месяца назад

No, it was because of his shilling and bootlicking for Nazi Germany.

@MobBjj1 Год назад

You should get a voice actor, It could help you grow more.

@FogelsChannel Год назад

I like his delivery. What specifically don't you enjoy that coach would improve?

@Sachie465 Год назад

War is a culling mechanism to create the species ever smarter and less brave…Is it your original idea or am I ignorant? I ordered the book yesterday. The underlying theme of irony and cynicism intrigues me.

@Fiction_Beast Год назад

That’s me thinking out loud. Evolution doesn’t care about the individual and more concerned about the robustness of the species as a whole so war is just another competition.

@Sachie465 Год назад

@@Fiction_Beast So smart men avoid conscription at all costs. What’s interesting for me is that Ferdinand (i.e. the author) joins the army in the fervour of the moment, and he was not patriotic at all in the first place. But he was the lucky one to survive and mentally strong enough to write about it later in his life.

@JavierBonillaC Год назад

Except when the car runs out of battery

@almarn Год назад

Celine is the best french writer of the 20 th century. I have read Celine almost everything and also Marcel Proust the other...Celine is a better writer than Marcel Proust. His life and his writings are full of twists and turns. As a french speaker and native from France I do not know how you can translate Celine....his using a lot of slang...Marcel Proust I can understand it is a very classical and very sophisticated writing. I could says the same for Joyce how can you translate genius ?

@thadtuiol1717 4 месяца назад

Ralph Manheim the translator was basically a "native speaker" of both English and French, and very intelligent. That's how you make a great translation. Very few people can do it.

@captainreza1 Год назад

Just compared the first few pages of the English translation with the original french, and I have to say, the translation is not good at all. It does not reflect the French tone I am afraid. Even the audiobook sounds better in French than it is robotic English narration. I wish my french better to read in it in the original language :(

@Fiction_Beast Год назад

I think everything sounds better in French.

@4ntifreez Год назад

14:15 i need to know the autor of this painting

@wijnandr3520 Год назад

Jacques Tardi

@Fiction_Beast Год назад

Gunner F. J. Mears --WW1 battlefield at night

@4ntifreez Год назад

@@Fiction_Beast thanks a lot, his style is really haunting

@Fiction_Beast Год назад

He was a solider so he saw it firsthand

@joeshugabowski1444 Год назад

What country you from...nice accent

@Fiction_Beast Год назад

Thank you! I’m an alien beast :)

@MonkeySpecs301 Год назад

So many ads

@Fiction_Beast Год назад

Patreon

@raystargazer7468 Год назад

'Whamen'

@benjamincrowley5122 5 месяцев назад

Bit of an odd analysis here. Book produces critiques and insights into the Industrial revolution, capitalism, colonialism, alienation of working class, the rising bourgeois class, and propaganda, which is all left out. Your whole extended bit about positioning war as a system to cull 'lesser' men, is a stretch. Using Lorena to justify this idea ignores the other characters and institutions that reject the narrator for his supposed cowardice. The idolisation of the 'war hero' is critiqued for having permeated the entire zeitgeist of the time and is explored across a bunch of different contexts (not being able to find job, how he is treated at the hospital, how it effects his intimacy), of which Lorena is just a part of - having been a victim of nationalistic propaganda herself. Focusing on the Lorena example specifically and building out of it to declare 'war culling men to tighten gene pool' is a hugely misleading and simplistic view of ~war~ and sounds like a you bringing a fair bit of extra baggage to the table.

@battragon Год назад

Well, you need them to have access to women.

@Dino_Medici Год назад

Dude your video on what’s philosophy was fucking insane. I got into philosophy when I was 20 in 2010. And up until like 3 years ago when philosophy exploded on RU-vid, it was an absolute nightmare trying to learn philosophy. You’re the goat that vid was world class brother. 🏛🏛🏛🏛🏛

@Saber23 Год назад

Are men the disposable sex? Answer: no there is no “disposable” sex men were put in this earth with their own jobs to do and women with their own jobs to do, a man’s value in a society comes from what he can produce this isn’t the same as a woman’s value which she already has because of what she is, in short men have given their lives because it was their job to fight for and protect those they loved and had a duty towards their people they simply did what had to be done. Or at least that’s how I see it 🤷‍♂️

@Fiction_Beast Год назад

Between the two sexes, men are expendable. It is what it is. Evolution doesn’t care about our feeling.

@Saber23 Год назад

@@Fiction_Beast Matt I literally just explained why that isn’t true but I guess it’s depends what you mean by “expendable” you obviously need men to exist otherwise the human race goes extinct

@mountainjay Год назад

You literally just said men are not the disposable sex while immediately going on to illustrate how they are precisely the disposable sex. We'll done 😂

@mountainjay Год назад

@@Saber23 you need tires to drive your car, that doesn't mean tires aren't expendable.