Life

"World of the Mad."

Poul Anderson quotes and matches Shakespeare (Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5) on the apparent pointlessness of a brief lifespan. Anderson's text, including the quotation, is as follows:

"He thought of Sol, Sirius, Antares, the great suns and planets of the Galaxy, and could not keep from shuddering. Drabness, deadness, colorlessness, meaninglessness! Life was a brief blind spasm of accident and catastrophe, walled in by its own shortness and the barren environment of a death-doomed cosmos. Too small to achieve any purpose, too limited even to imagine a goal, it flickered and went out into an utter dark.

"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

"Creeps in this petty place from day to day

"To the last syllable of recorded time,

"And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

"The way to dusty death..."

Life:

"...a brief blind spasm..." (Anderson);

"...a walking shadow, a poor player..." (Shakespeare)

Death-doomed cosmos? But how many cosmoses are there? We do imagine some goals and achieve some purposes. 

"...flickered and went out into an utter dark..." sounds Shakespearean. 

But there is another side to life. It is surely better to be alive than never to have existed?

I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression, and violence, and enjoy it to the full.

February 27, 1940 Coyoacan

L. Trotsky