In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

ACTION VS. IMPOTENCE 259
such words?" (279). [see Silence vs. Noise] After three more pages of
pessimism comes a modest consolation: if an incompatibility separates
words from Actions, words may perhaps have an impact on future
Actions. "Even when the writer himself does not act, he serves as the
conscience for those who do. But in that case, shouldn't he act? Maybe
in the name of future agents? Books of today are Taten of tomorrow,
because the writer carries with him an image of future generations"
(282). Literature and philosophy are thus caught in a paradoxical position
regarding the myth of direct Action. With a considerable investment
of words and thoughts, many authors commit themselves to the world
of Taten-and thereby contribute to the increasing devaluation of their
own intellectual world.
Because of-rather than in spite of-the anxiety and fear it implies,
actionism becomes a way of life for some people. Antonin Artaud, in the
prospectus for his Theatre Alfred Jarry, promises spectators emotional
stress that is every bit as real as that found in the world outside the
theater: "Such is the human anguish which the spectator will feel as a
result of the performance. He will be shaken and unsettled by the internal
dynamism of the show taking place before his eyes. And this dynamism
will be in direct relation to the anguish and preoccupations of his
whole life . . . The spectator who comes to us will know that he is
coming to subject himself to a real operation in which not only his spirit
but his senses and flesh are at stake. If we weren't sure we would wound
him as seriously as possible, we would feel inadequate to our most
essential task. He must be entirely certain that we are capable of making
him cry out" (Artaud, 19). Such actionism makes possible the enjoyment
of one's own pain no less than the pain inflicted on others. This explains
why Taten often appear as painful obligations that fate imposes on those
who act. They often give individuals the proud-and masochistic-feeling
that they bear an excess load of responsibility for the sake of mankind
or, at least, for the sake of their own nation. [see Individuality vs.
Collectivity] The journal Die Tat seems to specialize in assigning such
existential burdens: "This is German guilt, which can be atoned for only
through German Tat . .. Today fate is summoning the German man, not
the German people or the German state, to act decisively" (Bittner,
517-518). Whoever uses the discourse, the mythology, and the emotional
tone of direct Action-Hemingway and Hitler, Artaud and
Thomas Mann, Heinrich Mann and Montherlant-helps transform the