Ladislav Klima

Life

Ladislav Klima was born in the town of Domazlice in western Bohemia. He came from a moderately wealthy family. After expulsion from the school system in 1895 for allegedly insulting the State, the Church, and — out of what he described as “historical analphabetism” — the Habsburgs, he lived alternately in Tyrol, Zurich, and Prague. As part of his philosophy he only ever took on short term work. For a time he also lived off occasional royalties from his publications and the periodic generosity of his friends. While only part of Klima’s work was published before his death, many manuscripts were edited posthumously, among which were his stories and letters. Many manuscripts he destroyed himself. Klima spent the later part of his life living in a hotel, shining shoes for a living, drinking spirits and eating vermin. Klima died of tuberculosis and is buried in Prague.

Work

Klima rejected the norms of contemporary Czech society in both the way he lived and in what he wrote. Culture, moral values and the world itself are all rejected and reality is subjected to the will of the individual. Much of Klima’s philosophy is expressed in "World as Consciousness and Nothing" ("Svet jako vedomi a nic", 1904). He took ideas from his philosophical predecessors to the extreme and tried to incorporate them into his practical life. For Berkeley, each object exists only because it is perceived, to be is to be perceived. Klima takes this a stage further and suggests that the individual creates the world with his own will. Where the highest achievement for Schopenhauer is the man who denied his will, Klima conversely suggests that the realization of one’s own will is the primary achievement. This brings Klima close to Nietzsche with his will to power liberating itself from the bounds of the bourgeois world and affirming itself. Klima's individuality lies not only in his conception of philosophy, but also in his attempt to conform to it in his personal life. His autobiographical writings illustrate his attempts to grasp his own power and to shout his "Deus sum" ("I am God"). He tested his own deity in a life without any money, and in non-conformism that rejected all conventions, including a job. All this was to lead Klima to control of self. However, Klima also had friends and patrons who supported him in difficulties. Utrpeni knizete Sternenhocha (The Sufferings of Prince Sternenhoch: Prague 1928) is his most famous novel. In a series of journal entries, the book chronicles the descent into madness of Prince Sternenhoch, who moves from the life of a nobleman to a life filled with suffering, eccentricity, bouts of madness and self-torment. Having sunk to the lowest level, he eventually attains an ultimate state of bliss and salvation.

Writings