Wednesday, 26 September 2007

On the ultimate question thrown by Heidegger's Angst

I'll be laughing out loud
I'll be laughing with everyone I see
Can't believe how strange it is to be anything at all.

- Neutral Milk Hotel, In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

1 comment:

tryptych said...

I'm going to break my own rules here and leave some context. I find this song very Heideggerian. From it's opening bringing into light of mortality and the briefness of being, to the reference of death as the final being-towards or even being-for-the-sake-of. Yet the ultimate response to the inquiry into Being that angst throws up is here met with humour - Being is a cosmic joke, an unexplainable for which there will be (at its completion "on a cloud") no response but to laugh at it. Which I think is a nice counterpoint to Heidegger's somewhat dour discussion.

So one could have pleasure and humour whilst alive - authentic Dasein via the example of the Trickster archetype, from Loki to Harlequin* perhaps?

*Geek reference to the Laughing God in the Games Workshop universe. Sigh.