In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

BEING-IN-THE-WORLDS OF 1926 413
seem to do so because they-more or less vaguely-see authenticity as
being related to a promise that essence will be revealed. This, however,
means that, in spite of all evident contrasts, opting for the authentic, as
it constitutes the center of Heidegger and Blunck's world, is also available
as an existential option in the world of Carl Van Vechten's Harlem.
In contrast to Heidegger, Blunck, and possibly even Van Vechten, do
not seem to have opted for authenticity-or for those artificial sounds
and shiny surfaces which, especially in the first part of Nigger Heaven,
clearly occupy the foreground of the imagined world. Another black
protagonist, Mary'S lover Byron Kasson, a talented young writer, fails in
his professional aspirations and loses Mary's love precisely because he
yields to the temptation of the senses. The plot of Nigger Heaven culminates
in a nightclub with the (all-too allegorical) name Black Venus,
where Byron is wrongly arrested on suspicion of murder:
It all became a jumble in Byron's mind, a jumble of meaningless phrases
accompanied by the hard, insistent, regular beating of the drum, the
groaning of the saxophone, the shrill squealing of the clarinet, the
laughter of the customers and occasionally the echo of the refrain,
"Baby, won't you come home today?" A meaningless jumble. Like life.
Like Negro life. Kicked down from above. Pulled down from below.
No cheer but dance and drink and happy dust ... and golden-browns.
Wine, women, and song, and happy dust. Gin, shebas, Blues, and snow.
However you looked at it ... Whatever you called it.125
This surface liveliness of "negro life," Van Vechten suggests, is but an
illusion of true vitality. In contrast, Mary Love's opting for authenticity
makes her appear strangely inhibited-so inhibited that she, as much as
Byron, fails to find a viable frame for their love. What makes things even
worse for Mary is her acute awareness of this lack-a lack which she is
unable to overcome. Mary knows that she herself will never feel the
intensity which she observes in the relationship between Olive and
Howard, Olive's future husband: "She saw that Howard was Olive's
man and that she was his woman. It was more than a marriage; it was
a primitive consecration. She saw that each would fight-kill if need
be-to retain the other's love. This realization made her feel her own lack
more keenly than ever. How had she, during the centuries, lost this vital
instinct?" 126 In contrast to Byron, Howard and Olive manage to partici-