In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

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ing. This fact in itself proves what immense progress our era has made.
More and more, humankind appears divided into two groups. But those
who do not participate will disappear in gray anonymity" (von Wedderkop,
253). [see Present vs. Past] The world of the new Reality is
breaking apart into an infinite number of everyday worlds, each of which
has to be discovered, occupied, and cultivated. Such worlds are worlds
constituted by different forms of praxis; they are modes of life, as is the
world of Judaism in Siegfried Kracauer's description: "What we are
talking about is a form of practical life . .. neither a theoretical state of
consciousness nor an exclusively religious activity. Like the liturgical
movement, for example" (Kracauer, 174). Even isolated occasions of
celebration and joy are now seen as independent worlds, which exist
through their isolation from, rather than their integration with, everydayness:
"The things that happened could only have happened during a
fiesta. Everything became quite unreal finally and it seemed as though
nothing could have any consequences. It seemed out of place to think of
consequences during the fiesta. All during the fiesta you had the feeling,
even when it was quiet, that you had to shout any remark to make it
heard. It was the same feeling about any action. It was a fiesta and it
went on for seven days" (Hemingway, 159). The strangest and most
striking new experience, however, is that of particular Realities being
created with specific intentions and conscious strategies. In B. Traven's
novel Das Totenschiff (The Death Ship), the hero and narrator ends up
on a ship that is deliberately sunk-and he thus becomes the victim of a
plot that, he discovers, is the conventional Reality of insurance fraud.
Yet despite all the lies and fictions on which this fraud is based, it is as
real-and lethal-as any institutional or natural Reality could possibly
be: "Hundreds of death ships [sail] the seven seas ... All nations have
their death ships. Never have there been so many dead, since the time
the Great War was won in the name of true freedom and actual democracy"
(Traven, 138). Initially, people seem to underestimate those Realities
that reveal themselves to be based on conventions or strategies. But
long before professional philosophers get used to an epistemological
situation in which the truth-criterion is disintegrating, a tacit acknowledgment
of the multiple nature of everyday reality has become part of
daily life. This is the topic of Arthur Schnitzler's Traumnovelle (Dream
Story). A wealthy young doctor and his beautiful wife are vexed by
the-correct-impression that the daily obligations of his medical pro-