beckett's garbage cans

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

 me thought some of you might be interested to hear this adorno saying, which  
 was quoted more than once in recent debates, in its original context.

 it's from the opening essay in the "prismen" (ffm 1955: suhrkamp) that is 
 entitled "kulturkritik und gesellschaft" (cultural criticism and society). in 
 this essay adorno integrates the idea of cultural criticsm in the larger 
 perspective of a dialectical theory of society. "der dialektische kritiker an 
 der kultur muß an dieser teilhaben und nicht teilhaben. nur dann läßt er der 
 sache und sich selbst gerechtigkeit widerfahren" (the dialectic critic of  
 culture must in this [culture] take part and not take part. only so he can be 
 just towards the thing and to himself). the last sentences of the essay contain 
 the famous quote: "noch das äußerste bewußtsein vom verhängnis droht zum  
 geschwätz zu entarten. kulturkritik findet sich der letzten stufe der  
 dialektik von kultur und barbarei gegenüber: nach auschwitz ein gedicht zu  
 schreiben, ist barbarisch, und das frißt auch die erkenntnis an, die  
 ausspricht, warum es unmöglich ward, heute gedichte zu schreiben. der absoluten 
 verdinglichung, die den fortschritt des geistes als eines ihrer elemente  
 voraussetzt und die ihn heute gänzlich aufzusaugen sich anschickt, ist der  
 kritische geist nicht gewachsen, solange er bei sich bleibt in selbstgenügsamer 
 kontemplation" (even the most ultimate consciousness of doom is endangered to  
 degenerate into silly talk. cultural criticism finds itself confronted with the 
 last level of the dialectics of culture and babarity: to write a poem after  
 auschwitz is barbarian, and this also bites off something from the recognition 
 that speaks out why it became impossible to write poems. the total reification, 
 which requires the progress of the spirit/mind ["geist"] as one of its elements 
 and which, today, tends to suck it [the progress of spirit/mind] up completely, 
 is stronger than the critical spirit/mind as long as it [spirit/mind] stays  
 with itself in self-sufficient contemplation). in the paperback reprint of 
 1973, which is text-identical with volume 10 of the "gesammelte schriften", 
 this is page 26. alles klar?

 we know that adorno, also after his return to germany in the late 40s, wrote 
 poems himself; they haven't been published yet. during the second half of the 
 50s and then in the 60s adorno made aesthetic experiences, the lyrics of paul 
 celan are most important here, that caused him to question his own saying. in 
 the "negative dialektik" [1966], posted on this already some weeks ago, the 
 hippopotamus king archibald writes on page 355: "das perennierende leiden hat 
 soviel recht auf ausdruck wie der gemarterte zu brüllen; darum mag falsch 
 gewesen sein, nach auschwitz ließe kein gedicht mehr sich schreiben" (the 
 ongoing suffering has the same right to express itself as the tortured one to 
 scream; that's why it perhaps was wrong to say that a poem cannot be writen 
 after auschwitz). the next sentence - "nicht falsch aber ist die minder 
 kulturelle frage, ob nach auschwitz noch sich leben lasse, ob vollends es 
 dürfe, wer zufällig entrann und rechtens hätte umgebracht werden müssen" - 
 makes clear that adorno's own experiences with the survivor's trauma and 
 corresponding nightmares, played an important role in formulating the thesis:  
 not wrong, however, is the less cultural question whether one can live after  
 auschwitz, the question whether this is fully allowed to the one who escaped by 
 chance, the one who, according to the law, should have been killed.        

 in his long beckett essay "versuch, das endspiel zu verstehen" [1961], which is 
 dedicated "to s.b. in memory of paris, fall 1958", twa writes on the endgame's 
 wasteland setting: "becketts mülleimer sind embleme der nach auschwitz 
 wiederaufgebauten kultur" (noten zur literatur, ffm 1974: suhrkamp, p. 311). 
 beckett's garbage cans are emblems of the culture reconstructed after 
 auschwitz.

 h a m m  (exasperated): what in god's name do you think you are doing?

 c l o v (straightening up): i'm doing my best to create a little order.

 h a m m: drop it!

 (clov drops the objects he has picked up) 

                                        --- samuel beckett: fin de partie --- 

 

 need a final pynchon quote?! alright: "orpheus puts down harp" (gr.754).



 kai frederik lorentzen