3. Being and Time (1927) “ But are we nowadays even perplexed at our inability to understand the expression ‘Being? Not at all. So first of all we must reawaken an understanding for the meaning of this question. Our aim in the following treatise is to work out the question of the meaning of Being and to do so concretely.” Being and Time , p1
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Editor's Notes
#1 ~ ONE OF THE STANDARD ITEMS in any description of Percy, no matter how brief, is that he spent a fair amount of time reading th e existentialists,. ~ Heidegger’s philosophy on The Moviegoer . ~ briefly summarizing the aim of his major work ~ selected passages ~ I’ll read the quotations by Heidegger, ~ STYLE includes difficult terminology. ~ assume your familiarity with passages from the Moviegoer
#2 [2] ~ IN THIS QUOTATION FROM AN INTERVIEW, PERCY NAMEs his favorite existentialists, THEN states that it was by reading them that he better understood what it means to be alive in a world transformed by Science. ~ He then makes it clear that his goal was to render the co ncreteness of existential philosophy in the form of the novel.
#3 [4] AS FOR BEING AND TIME itself ~ Percy was able to read HEIDEGGER’S Sein und Zeit in the original German, long before it became popular in America. ~ Heidegger presents his aims from the very beginning. OUR AIM IN THE FOLLOWING TREATISE IS TO WORK OUT THE QUESTION OF THE MEANING OF BEING AND TO DO SO CONCRETELY.
#4 [6] HEIDEGGER IDENTIFIED THREE MODES OF BEING IN THE UNIVERSE: (1) READINESS-TO-HAND; HAMMER / EQUIPMENT (2) PRESENCE-AT-HAND; THE PROVERBIAL TREE FALLING IN FOREST SCIENCE OR THEORY (3) DASEIN - HUMAN EXISTENCE
#5 [7] the basic meaning of the German: DA is there; SEIN is to be. These are just a few of many statements about DAZEIN: The second says that FOR DAZEIN, BEING IS AN ISSUE FOR IT – THIS STATEMENT, OR SOME VERSION OF IT RECURS THROUGHOUT THE 400 PAGES OF BEING AND TIME. IN OTHER WORDS: A HAMMER DOESN’T HAVE ITS BEING IS AN ISSUE FOR IT Being a DAZEIN is an issue for DAZEIN.
#6 [8] PERCY CONTRIBUTED HIS OWN VERSION IN AN ESSAY WRITTEN AROUND THE SAME TIME HE WAS WRITING THE MOVIEGOER: THAT BEING IN THE WORLD WHOSE CALLING IT IS TO FIND A NAME FOR BEING, TO GIVE TESTIMONY TO IT, AND TO PROVIDE FOR IT A CLEARING. ~ The word CLEARING is a complex term in Being and Time, Which we’ll come back to later.
#7 [9] My theory is that Binx is one such typical DA-zine, And he tells us at the beginning of the novel How the typical Da-zine lives Consumer Wears deodorant Pays attention to physical and mental health Rides the bus All requirements that Binx is happy to fulfill to be an ORDINARY, well-adjusted DA-ZEIN.
#8 [10] WHAT DOES HEIDEGGER SAY ABOUT DA-ZEIN? THE SELF OF EVERYDAY DASEIN IS THE THEY-SELF, WHICH WE DISTINGUISH FROM THE AUTHENTIC SELF—THAT IS, FROM THE SELF WHICH HAS BEEN TAKEN HOLD OF IN ITS OWN WAY. This is a clarifying statement about DAZEIN, the problem and the potential. The potential is that DAZEIN can be authentic; The problem is that AS THEY-SELF, THE INDIVIDUAL DASEIN HAS BEEN DISPERSED INTO THE THEY, AND MUST FIRST FIND ITSELF. the THEY-SELF is comfortable listening to advertisements or riding the bus, but what does it mean for Dasein to find itself?
#9 [11] IN THE MOVIEGOER, Binx’s) idea of the search is even better than “ fi nding itself ” , which I think was probably something of a clich e even 50 years ago.
#10 [12] Another concept important to Heidegger is THROWNNESS DA-ZEIN IS SOMETHING THAT HAS BEEN THROWN; IT HAS BEEN BROUGHT INTO ITS “THERE”, BUT NOT OF ITS OWN ACCORD. ~ Thrown “here” - we always find ourselves “DA” or “here,” and never entirely on our own terms. .. ~ If we go back far enough, none of us asked to be born. GEWORFENHEIT/CASTAWAY
#11 [13] ~ HERE IS AN IMPORTANT MOMENT FOR BINX, AS HE RECALLS his experience in Korea. ~ When I first read this, I’d imagined he’d been knocked out by a bomb ~ He SEES THE DUNG BEETLE, but more to the point, this is where he has his first insight that he is a CASTAWAY confronted by Being. ~ In Heidegger’s ONTOLOGICAL terms, I think he is confronted by that mode of BEING in nature that is present-at-hand, and this awakens a curiosity, and then th e search. Being has become an issue for Binx, to put it in Heidegger’s terms.
#12 [14] DA-ZEIN IS a CASTAWAY into the world, but never without some degree of understanding. THAT WHICH IS UNDERSTOOD IS ALREADY ACCESSIBLE IN SUCH A WAY THAT ITS AS WHICH CAN BE MADE TO STAND OUT WHEN WE MERELY STARE AT SOMETHING, OUR JUST-HAVING-IT-BEFORE-US LIES BEFORE US AS A FAILURE TO UNDERSTAND IT ANY MORE. ~ Heidegger’s point here is that it takes a certain amount of effort to see things w/o the benefit of experience. ~ SCIENCE DEPENDS ON THIS SORT OF APPREHENSION
#13 [15] Here Binx is practicing the same sort of DEFAMILIARIZATION Heidegger described in the previous quotation. ~ What are the simple facts of existence, of his Being here? ~ Binx discovered he was a CASTAWAY in the Korean War ~ Now the question is, how has he become a CASTAWAY in Gentilly?
#14 [16] ACCORDING TO HEIDEGGER, BEING A CASTAWAY ABSORBED INTO THE THEY-SELF IS CONNECTED TO A PHENOMENON HE CALLED “FALLING” WHICH HAS SPECIAL MEANING IN BEING AND TIME. HE WRITES <<THERE IS REVEALED A BASIC KIND OF BEING WHICH BELONGS TO EVERYDAYNESS; WE CALL THIS THE FALLING OF DA-ZEIN.>> AND THEN HEIDEGGER EMPHASIZES THAT THIS IS NOT CONNECTED TO THE IDEA OF ORIGINAL SIN.
#15 [17] HERE IS A SCENE AT HIS MOTHER’S HOUSE, IN WHICH BINX LITERALLY FALLS, MORE IMPORTANTLY, HE DECIDES TO FIGHT AGAINST EVERYDAYNESS - HIS INAUTHENIC MANNER OF BEING Which he then rails against at some length.
#16 [18] ~ The most obvious symptom of FALLING is what Heidegger calls IDLE TALK. << DISCOURSE … HAS THE POSSIBILITY OF BECOMING IDLE TALK. AND WHEN IT DOES SO, IT SERVES NOT SO MUCH TO KEEP BEING-IN-THE-WORLD OPEN FOR US AS RATHER TO CLOSE IT OFF>>
#17 [19] ~ THE MOVIEGOER IS FULL OF EXAMPLES OF IDLE TALK. ~ Here Binx refers to it generally; ~ Followed by his conversation with Nell Lovell on the Library Steps, where he tries hard not to pass gas
#18 [20] One way that Dasein is alerted to FALLING is through anxiety. HEIDEGGER WRITES WHEN ANXIETY HAS SUBSIDED, THEN IN OUR EVERYDAY WAY OF TALKING WE ARE ACCUSTOMED TO SAY THAT “IT WAS REALLY NOTHING”.
#19 [21] BINX, HAVING A KIND OF PANIC ATTACK <<WHAT THEN? WHAT IS THIS THAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN? CLEARLY NOTHING. ~ FOR BOTH HEIDEGGER AND PERCY: IT MAY BE NOTHING, BUT IF IT REALLY IS NOTHING, WHY THE ANXIETY? ANXIETY ITSELF IS SOMETHING RATHER THAN NOTHING.
#20 [22] ANOTHER WAY THAT DAZEIN IS ABLE TO UNDERSTAND ITSELF IS ITS EXISTENCE IN TIME. A COMPLEX SUBJECT IN HEIDEGGER, BUT ONE METHOD THE INDIVIDUAL CAN USE TO ORIENTATE HIS OR HERSELF IN TIME IS REPETITION. <<AS SUCH IT IS AT THE SAME TIME A DISAVOWAL OF THAT WHICH IN THE “TODAY” IS WORKING ITSELF OUT AS THE “PAST”>>
#21 [23] ~ The language is different, but I think the concept is the same. HERE BINX IS ISOLATING THE TIME THAT HAS LAPSED SO THAT IT CAN BE SAVORED OF ITSELF, THEN HE USES THE METAPHOR OF PEANUT BRITTLE. ~ IN HEIDEGGER’S WORDS, A DISVOWAL OF EVENTS THAT MAKE UP “TODAY” AS WELL AS THE PAST ~ IN BINX’S TERMS, HE IS MORE CONCERNED WITH THE BRITTLE THAN THE PEANUTS - THE EVENTS THAT CLOG UP TIME.
#22 [26] REMEMBER Percy’s definition of DAZEIN, and his call TO PROVIDE FOR IT a clearing. And compare it to what Heidegger says in BEING AND TIME. <<TO SAY THAT IT IS ILLUMINATED MEANS THAT AS BEING-IN-THE-WORLD IT IS CLEARED IN ITSELF, NOT THROUGH ANY OTHER ENTITY, BUT IN SUCH A WAY THAT IT IS ITSELF THE CLEARING. BY ITS VERY NATURE, DAZEIN BRINGS ITS “TH ERE ” ALONG WITH IT. >>
#23 [27 ] ~ BINX SEEMS ABOUT TO CLEAR THINGS UP IN THE EPILOGUE WHEN He states that he is an ordinary fellow. ~ OFFERS A Summary of the Search, but then he BEGS OFF. ~ THEN HE REFERS TO THIS RETICENCE, IN A DIRECT ADDRESS TO THE READER: <<RETICENCE, THEREFORE, HARDLY HAVING A PLACE IN A DOCUMENT OF THIS KIND, IT SEEMS AS GOOD A TIME AS ANY TO MAKE AN END.>>
#24 [28] RETICENCE WAS A CHARACTERISTIC IMPORTANT to HEIDEGGER <<IN TALKING WITH ONE ANOTHER, THE PERSON WHO KEEPS SILENT CAN “MAKE ONE UNDERSTAND … … IN SO PRIMORDIAL A MANNER THAT IT GIVES RISE TO A POTENTIALITY FOR HEARING WHICH IS GENUINE, AND TO A BEING-WITH-ONE-ANOTHER THAT IS TRANSPARENT>> THIS MAY OR MAY NOT BE TRUE WITH BINX OR KATE. CLEARLY KATE HAS A GREAT DEAL OF ANXIETY. For PERCY, the real CLEARING here is the space between the AUTHOR and the READER. SO THAT A NEW UNDERSTANDING can develop in the silence of the COMPLETED novel. IT’S TRUE FOR THE MOVIEGOER, and IT’S TRUE FOR HIS OTHER WORKS - ESPECIALLY THE LAST TWO BOOKS, WHICH I’D ENCOURAGE YOU TO READ IN LIGHT OF THIS LAST QUOTATION FROM HEIDEGGER. AND THIS IS A GOOD PLACE FOR ME TO MAKE AN END OF IT.
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