The path from glory to folly, from the exceptional to the absurd, is shorter than we often imagine. As the saying goes, "there is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous." This witty expression, which has been attributed to historical figures like Napoleon Bonaparte and Thomas Paine, encapsulates a profound truth about the human condition - that our grandest undertakings, most impressive achievements, and most serious endeavors are never far from descending into silliness, triviality, or outright farce.
Sublime and Ridiculous: Two Sides of the Same Coin
At its core, the quote suggests that the sublime (that which is majestic, intellectually elevated, awe-inspiring) and the ridiculous (that which is absurd, ludicrous, laughable) are two sides of the same coin, separated by the thinnest of boundaries. Like the masks of comedy and tragedy that represent the theatre, the sublime and ridiculous are inextricably linked, each one a hair's breadth from the other.
Origins of the Phrase
The origins of this turn of phrase can be traced back to 18th-century France. The expression "Du sublime au ridicule il n'y a qu'un pas," which translates to "From the sublime to the ridiculous there is but one step," emerged as a popular saying that captured the zeitgeist of the times. It was an age of both towering achievements and dramatic reversals, of Enlightenment ideals and revolutionary upheavals, in which the ancient regime gave way to a brave new world that soon devolved into the Reign of Terror.
Napoleon Bonaparte's Use of the Phrase
One of the most famous uses of the expression came from Napoleon Bonaparte, who reportedly uttered the words after his disastrous retreat from Russia in 1812. Napoleon's invasion of Russia had begun in June of that year with over 600,000 men in the Grande Armée. By September, after the Battle of Borodino, Napoleon's forces had captured Moscow - a sublime achievement for the French Emperor. However, the Russians burned the city to deny it to the French, forcing Napoleon into a long and deadly retreat in the bitter cold of winter. By the time he crossed back into France, his army had dwindled to a mere 10,000 men. In one campaign, Napoleon had gone from the height of power to utter defeat, from the sublime to the ridiculous.
Thomas Paine's Interpretation
The American revolutionary Thomas Paine also employed the saying in his treatise The Age of Reason, published in 1794. Paine wrote: "One step above the sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again." For Paine, this encapsulated the cyclical nature of human affairs, in which the great and trivial, the serious and silly, are forever chasing each other's tails. What seems momentous and profound one day may appear trifling and absurd the next, and vice versa.
A Cautionary Tale About Hubris
So what deeper meaning can we glean from this saying? On one level, it serves as a cautionary tale about the perils of hubris and overreach. When we strive for the sublime - whether in art, politics, science or any other field of human endeavor - we must be ever mindful of the ridiculous that lurks just around the corner. The greater the ambition, the more spectacular the potential for failure and ignominy.
Iconic Moments of Sublime to Ridiculous
Consider some of the most iconic moments in history where the sublime tipped into the ridiculous:
- The launch of the "unsinkable" Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage in 1912, resulting in the loss of over 1,500 lives.
- The Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State, a marvel of modern engineering when it opened in 1940, only to collapse spectacularly due to wind-induced vibrations just four months later.
- The dot-com bubble of the late 1990s, in which internet startups with sublime promises but little substance reached stratospheric valuations before crashing back to earth.
- The Fyre Festival of 2017, billed as an ultra-luxurious music festival in the Bahamas, which collapsed into chaos as attendees arrived to find a ramshackle tent city rather than the promised paradise.
In each case, the pursuit of the extraordinary, the utopian, the larger-than-life, led to outcomes that were farcical at best and tragic at worst. The step from sublime to ridiculous turned out to be more of a pratfall.
The Positive Side: Transformation and Redemption
But the saying also has a more positive interpretation. If the sublime and ridiculous are adjacent, then the potential for transformation and redemption is always present. Just as the grand can devolve into the trivial, so too can the laughable be elevated to the level of art or profundity. Consider the many works of literature, from Cervantes' Don Quixote to Joseph Heller's Catch-22, that find deep truths in absurdist premises, or the films of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton that wring sublime pathos and social commentary from ridiculous situations.
Embracing the Duality
In the end, the quote reminds us of the fundamental paradoxes and instabilities of the human condition. We are creatures capable of both sublimity and ridiculousness, seriousness and silliness, often in quick succession or even simultaneously. Our greatest triumphs teeter on the edge of farce, while our most abject failures contain the seeds of transcendence. The boundary between the lofty and the ludicrous is porous and ever-shifting.
The Wisdom of Recognizing Our Dual Nature
Perhaps the true wisdom lies in embracing this duality, in recognizing that the sublime and ridiculous are not opposites but companions, each one essential to a full understanding of the other. As the philosopher Blaise Pascal put it, "Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed." We are at once grand and puny, noble and preposterous, always just a step away from glory or ignominy. In learning to dance between the sublime and ridiculous, we may just find the secret to a life well-lived.
The Tragicomedy of Human Experience
So the next time you witness some great endeavor or lofty ideal come crashing down to earth, or some silly trifle elevated to undue importance, remember: there is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous, and one step from the ridiculous to the sublime. In that single step lies the whole tragicomedy of the human experience.
References: [1] https://www.dictionary.com/browse/from-the-sublime-to-the-ridiculous [2] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/from-the-sublime-to-the-ridiculous [3] https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/06/24/sublime/ [4] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Titanic [5] https://www.wsdot.wa.gov/TNBhistory/Machine/machine1.htm [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot-com_bubble [7] https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/06/fyre-festival-billy-mcfarland-interview [8] https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/10-great-comedy-films-1920s [9] https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal
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