In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

354 CODES COLLAPSED
It must be the ubiquitous use of the word "Tragedy" that encourages
proto-philosophical efforts to redefine it. The larger discursive field in
which these definitions take place associates the goal-orientedness of
Action with the spiritual side of human life, whereas the materiality of
life (that is, its biological basis) is supposed to explain the limitations and
possible failures of Action. In his poetico-scientific treatise on termites,
Maurice Maeterlinck transforms this conceptual configuration into a
picture of what he calls the "tragic situation" of human existence: "The
situation of man is tragic. His principal and perhaps his only enemy (all
religions realize this and here are in agreement, for they have always
dealt with it, under the name of "evil" or "sin") is matter. On the other
hand, in himself all is matter, beginning with the part of himself that
disdains, condemns, and would like at all costs to evade matter"
(Maeterlinck, 209-210). For thirteen years, the countless readers of
Miguel de Unamuno's philosophical bestseller Del sentimiento tragico de
la vida (The Tragic Sense of Life) have been impressed with a similar
contrast between spiritual and physical life. Referring to the recently
published German translation of Unamuno's book, Ernst Robert Curtius
presents this very polarity as its decisive component: "Unamuno's most
important philosophical work is his book about the tragic sense of life.
But it is somewhat problematic to call the book philosophical. For by
"philosophy" Unamuno means not working with concepts but, rather,
developing a world view out of a feeling of life. Life and reason are
opposites for him. Whatever is vital is antirational; whatever is rational
is antivital" (Curtius, 236). No other nation becomes as closely associated
as Spain with the tragic side of human life that has to do with its
biological basis [see Bullfighting, Authenticity vs. Artificiality]-a fact
that may, at least among intellectuals, be partly due to Unamuno's international
popularity. In Kasimir Edschmid's analysis of Spanish culture,
this association is emblematized by cockfights because they stage a ferocious
ritual of killing which is free from any abstract idea: "These
movements of the battle between animals whose only feeling is that of
annihilation make the most horrible impression which any battle under
the shadow of death can make. These gestures remind us of the tragedy
of Oedipus, who, blindfolded, turns toward the face of the gods. But the
tragedy of these birds is even more intense because it does not imply any
ideas. It just shows how monstrous killing is in its most maddening
form" (Edschmid, 12). [see Immanence = Transcendence (Death)] Once