“Boredom inspired me with fear but not with disgust, because it has something frank and essential about it. Sadism on the contrary, was repugnant to me, especially on account of its hypocrisy(the sadist always claim that he is punishing his victim whereas actually he is seeking enjoyment through the suffering he inflicts under the pretext of punishment) and also on account of excitement it brought me .”
– Alberto Moravia, Boredom
This was my first experience with Moravia. I read this book in February and after going over it once more , I decided to write a review about it. I found the copy of this book in public library and was intrigued by the “amusing” title and intriguing cover art.
Dino , our protagonist is spoiled son of a rich mother , who loathes his mother because she is rich but at the same time he takes all his expenses from his mother. He has rented a studio away from his mother’s house for painting. His profession is of painter but it’s clear from beginning that he has already became bored of that too.
As we go through the first few pages of the book , Dino explains his meaning of boredom in a very graphic sense. According to his definition , “Boredom is not the opposite of amusement and it often resembles amusement in many aspects. Boredom is a kind of insufficiency or a lack of reality which resembles alienation in some way”.
After the death of the painter in his neighbouring studio , he come in acquaintance with his young lover, Cecilia. She seems intellectually far inferior to Dino and from there starts a series of sexual affair between them. Dino gives money and various gifts in exchange and wants to have a full control of this younger female. At first he treats her as a mere object but then starts to ask Cecilia some intellectual questions about her thoughts and beliefs ,but the answers given by her was very mundane and was very superficial and unsatisfying to him . He once also acted like a sadist out of contempt of her, but then abandoned such behavior.
As this meeting between them become a regular affair, the aim of our hero Dino becomes to take complete control of her and then get rid of her , just to go again in his initial continuous state of boredom. It turned out that Cecilia was an object to him only to the point she acted like one. Once it appeared to him that she has a life and lovers, other than him, he become obsessed with her and desperate for total control. He offers to purchase her/her freedom which shows a desperate and disturbed state of his mind.
This book is another book over existentialism and bourgeois state of mind. The way in which the author describes boredom and a need of control is very much realistic. Moravia’s boredom can sometimes be exchanged for obsession, sometimes for alienation , sometimes just boredom and sometimes even amusement, which is very thoughtful to read. Also we can easily see how close boredom , amusement , alienation, obsession are related.
A thing/person which is amusing at first for some time, cease to be so , and then due to lack of connection with that thing/person arises boredom. Again through boredom one turns to some bad habits and eventually becomes an addict of things like drugs/sex/social media, which alienates the person from reality and thus imparts alienation , and this loop continues.
Contrary to the title , this book was not boring in any sense,it shows us the disease in a man’s mind and how existentialism affects one’s mind. Also the ending is not conclusive as it happens in case of most existentialism works.
I would rate this book 5/5 , as I got an unique sense of how boredom arises and how a human mind get obsessed and controlling over someone/something. I also believe from experience that this case in not that uncommon in people with severe ocd.
I would recommend everyone to give this book a try when they get bored(pun intended) .
Profound disconnection from world at large.
Was it possible for a man to escape his own destiny? And if not , what was the point of knowing what one was doing?Was it possible that there was not some difference between a destiny accepted in a state of unconsciousness & one which was lived out in a state of lucid consciousness?
Alberto Moravia , Boredom
Black as My Coffee 