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Peter Wessel Zapffe (1899-1990) was a famous norwegian philosopher, multi artist and mountaineer from Tromsø in Norway. Zapffe had some of the most pessimistic ideas around, claiming human conscioussness was a tragedy. His book Om Det Tragiske (1941) is about the claim that all kinds of happiness is just defensemechanisms from seeing how horrible nature really is. He thought humanity should cease to be.
He was paradoxically also one of Norways most famous comedians of his generation, especially known all around Norway for his humorbook Vett og Uvett (1942), which has been played to full theatre audiences (your grandmother has probably laughed at it). He was a close friend of philosopher Arne Næss, was married twice and lived a long active life, but refused to ever have children.
“A coin is turned around before it is handed to the beggar, yet a child is unflinchingly tossed into cosmic bruteness.”
