in 1801, at the age of twenty-three, kleist had a crisis, brought about by reading kant, who taught that the human senses are unreliable, and so we are unable to apprehend the truth that lies beneath the surface of things, the "Thing in Itself." this was a huge blow to kleist, who was planning to gather as much truth as he could while on earth, then transmit his accumulated wisdom to future versions of himself, living "on other stars," eventually producing a perfect and complete man. the discovery that he was probably not even seeing the world correctly, let alone collecting points towards cosmic gnosis, led him into a deep depression. 

hari kunzru                                                                                                                                                      red tears