"You've become cynical," said Nemur. "That's all this opportunity has meant to you. Your genius has destroyed your faith in the world and in your fellow men."
"That's not completely true," I said softly. "But I've learned that intelligence alone doesn't mean a damned thing. Here in your university, intelligence, education, knowledge, have all become great idols. But I know now there's one thing you've all overlooked: intelligence and education that hasn't been tempered by human affection isn't worth a damn."
I helped myself to another martini from the nearby sideboard and continued my sermon.
"Don't misunderstand me," I said. "Intelligence is one of the greatest human gifts. But all too often a search for knowledge drives out the search for love. This is something else I've discovered for myself very recently. I present it to you as a hypothesis: Intelligence without the ability to give and receive affection leads to mental and moral breakdown, to neurosis, and possibly even psychosis. And I say that the mind absorbed in and involved in itself as a self-centered end, to the exclusion of human relationships, can only lead to violence and pain.
--- --- ---
When I first read this book way back as a primary school student curious over his elder brother's textbook in a strange, arcane subject you learnt in Secondary School called "Literature", I was awestruck. Not only did it discuss a quirky pathological childhood fear of mine, but at the age of 11 I could understand the simple yet tragic irony behind a man whose quest for intelligence and knowledge takes a dark turn. Now so many years later, It appears apt that I should read this at the close of my undergraduate life.
And of course it resounds with me on some other different levels. It reminds me of another life, one I had at the start of university, simple and alone. How ironic after a long journey it ends the way it began. With progris riports of my own as well, over here.
