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Prince Leonce:<br>
The things people do from boredom! They study from boredom, they
pray from boredom; they fall in love, marry, and multiply from
boredom, and finally they die of boredom. And the funny thing is
that they do it with the gravest of faces, without knowing why. God
knows what’s in their heads. All your heroes, geniuses, dunderheads,
your saints and sinners and fathers of families, are at bottom
nothing but sophisticated idlers. (I.i. Leonce and Lena, Georg
Büchner, 1836)<br>
<br>
Martin Heidegger, in <i>What is Metaphysics? </i>(1929), "boredom
reveals being as a whole":<br>
As surely as we can never comprehend absolutely the<br>
ensemble of beings in themselves we certainly do find ourselves<br>
stationed in the midst of beings that are revealed somehow as a<br>
whole. In the end an essential distinction prevails between<br>
comprehending the ensemble of beings in themselves and<br>
finding oneself in the midst of beings as a whole. The former is<br>
impossible in principle. The latter happens all the time in our<br>
existence. It does seem as though we cling to this or that<br>
particular being, precisely in our everyday preoccupations, as<br>
though we were completely abandoned to this or that region of<br>
beings. No matter how fragmented our everyday existence may<br>
appear to be, however, it always deals with beings in a unity of<br>
the “whole,” if only in a shadowy way. Even and precisely then<br>
when we are not actually busy with things or ourselves this “as a<br>
whole” overcomes us — for example in genuine boredom.<br>
Boredom is still distant when it is only this book or that play,
that<br>
business or this idleness, that drags on. It irrupts when “one is<br>
bored.” Profound boredom, drifting here and there in the abysses<br>
of our existence like a muffling fog, removes all things and men<br>
and oneself along with it into a remarkable indifference. This<br>
boredom reveals being as a whole.<br>
<br>
Best,<br>
Simon Taylor<br>
<br>
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