Cologne, 18 March 1998
Brendan Harkin schrieb:
> I am interested in what happens when we realize something.
> You know, when something clicks, suddenly makes sense, when an
> understanding is rearranged in our heads.
The following may be akin to what you are looking for, Brendan. It comes from
Heidegger?s lecture ?Das Wort? in _Unterwegs zur Sprache_ in which he meditates
on Stefan George?s poem ?Das Wort?, and especially its final stanza:
So lernt ich traurig den verzicht:
Kein ding sei wo das wort gebricht.
Thus sadly I learnt renunciation:
No thing is where the word shatters.
With regard to the ?learning? of renunciation, Heidegger writes:
?Dieses Lernen war eine jaehe Erfahrung in dem Augenblick, da ihn das ganz
andere Walten des Wortes anblickte und die Selbstsicherheit seines vormaligen
Sagens erschuetterte. Unerahntes, Schreckhaftes blickte ihn an, dies, dass erst
das Wort ein Ding als Ding sein laesst.? (UzS:229)
Roughly:
?This learning was a sudden experience in the moment in which the completely
different holding-sway of the word gazed at him and shook the self-assurance of
his former saying. Something un-inkled, frightening gazed at him, namely, that
only the word allows a thing to be as thing.?
This is George?s experience with language which Heidegger wants to bring close
to us (uns nahelegen). There is a sudden experience, an ?unerahnter schreck? (an
un-inkled fright) that shatters the self-assurance of the eloquent poet. (The
poem appears in George?s last published volume of poetry.)
Another experience of ?when something clicks? is the un-inkled fright that
overcomes us when coming to, that moment (perhaps: split second) of transition
from sleep to coming-to in which (some-times) an awful feeling gives way to
being ?there?. The awe-fulness of the abyss gives way to a re-collection into
being Da as one-self. The reconstitution of the self happens with a ?click? in
coming to. This click could perhaps be understood as coming to being, the moment
in which being (again) lays claim on us by calling us back to the Da of Da-sein.
It is as if we were continually slipping away and being re-called in coming to.
Being?s claim on us is ineluctable, the re-collection of the _logos_ that
gathers us inevitable. With an un-inkled fright, we awaken to ourselves in our
world once again.
Regards,
Michael
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- artefact text and translation _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- made by art _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
http://www.webcom.com/artefact/ _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ artefact@xxxxxxxxxxx-_-_
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ Dr Michael Eldred -_-_-_
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
Brendan Harkin schrieb:
> I am interested in what happens when we realize something.
> You know, when something clicks, suddenly makes sense, when an
> understanding is rearranged in our heads.
The following may be akin to what you are looking for, Brendan. It comes from
Heidegger?s lecture ?Das Wort? in _Unterwegs zur Sprache_ in which he meditates
on Stefan George?s poem ?Das Wort?, and especially its final stanza:
So lernt ich traurig den verzicht:
Kein ding sei wo das wort gebricht.
Thus sadly I learnt renunciation:
No thing is where the word shatters.
With regard to the ?learning? of renunciation, Heidegger writes:
?Dieses Lernen war eine jaehe Erfahrung in dem Augenblick, da ihn das ganz
andere Walten des Wortes anblickte und die Selbstsicherheit seines vormaligen
Sagens erschuetterte. Unerahntes, Schreckhaftes blickte ihn an, dies, dass erst
das Wort ein Ding als Ding sein laesst.? (UzS:229)
Roughly:
?This learning was a sudden experience in the moment in which the completely
different holding-sway of the word gazed at him and shook the self-assurance of
his former saying. Something un-inkled, frightening gazed at him, namely, that
only the word allows a thing to be as thing.?
This is George?s experience with language which Heidegger wants to bring close
to us (uns nahelegen). There is a sudden experience, an ?unerahnter schreck? (an
un-inkled fright) that shatters the self-assurance of the eloquent poet. (The
poem appears in George?s last published volume of poetry.)
Another experience of ?when something clicks? is the un-inkled fright that
overcomes us when coming to, that moment (perhaps: split second) of transition
from sleep to coming-to in which (some-times) an awful feeling gives way to
being ?there?. The awe-fulness of the abyss gives way to a re-collection into
being Da as one-self. The reconstitution of the self happens with a ?click? in
coming to. This click could perhaps be understood as coming to being, the moment
in which being (again) lays claim on us by calling us back to the Da of Da-sein.
It is as if we were continually slipping away and being re-called in coming to.
Being?s claim on us is ineluctable, the re-collection of the _logos_ that
gathers us inevitable. With an un-inkled fright, we awaken to ourselves in our
world once again.
Regards,
Michael
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- artefact text and translation _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- made by art _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
http://www.webcom.com/artefact/ _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ artefact@xxxxxxxxxxx-_-_
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ Dr Michael Eldred -_-_-_
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---