In the deeper layers of the modern consciousness ... every attempt to succeed is an act of aggression, leaving one alone and guilty and defenseless among enemies: one is punished for success. This is our intolerable dilemma: that failure is a kind of death and success is evil and dangerous, is—ultimately—impossible.
ATTRIBUTION:
Robert Warshow (1917–1955), U.S. author. repr. In The Immediate Experience (1970). “The Gangster as Tragic Hero,” Partisan Review (New Brunswick, N.J., 1948).
