In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

xiv USER'S MANUAL
Worlds of 1926." Especially for readers with a professional interest,
these chapters provide a double contextualization of the book as
belonging to a specific intellectual and academic situation. "After
Learning from History," on the one hand, describes contemporary
concepts and contemporary uses of "history," and is meant to show
how both the experiment that constitutes this book and the structure
in which it is realized are reactions to the specific status of "history"
in our present. The chapter also explains why the author chose a
random year as the topic of his book-though he does not go so far
as to claim, in the end, that this year has a particular (but hitherto
hidden) importance. "Being-in-the-Worlds of 1926," on the other
hand, suggests how this book can be used for things other than
making present the worlds of 1926. The test cases are intensely
historical readings of three texts-readings performed in the context
of the "worlds of 1926" as they are presented in the fifty-one entries.
The texts of reference are Martin Heidegger's Sein und Zeit, Hans
Friedrich Blunck's Kampf der Gestirne, and Carl Van Vechten's Nigger
Heaven.
Purpose
The author never intended this book to contain anything edifying,
either morally or politically. But sometimes, as we all know, our best
intentions fail to protect us against our most embarrassing urges. The
author likewise had no strong investment in being original, being
witty, producing stylistic beauty, and so on. The book's main intention
is best captured in the phrase that was its original subtitle: "an
essay on historical simultaneity." The book asks to what extent and
at what cost it is possible to make present again, in a text, worlds
that existed before its author was born-and the author is fully
aware that such an undertaking is impossible. Although the book
shares some of the leitmotifs of what can be called "postmodern