IRA HAUPTMAN
429
way to express some pro bl em o r conditi on we a ll know about.
It
is the
o nl y poss ibl e express ion of a conditi on beca use that condition does no t
ex ist outside of it. The pl ay does no t throw li ght on anything tha t
troubl es o u r li ves.
It
has the es thetic in tensity and moral purity of a
tota l abandonment to di version.
As compl ex as it is, the play would have no meaning a t all if the
speeches and ac tions tha t compri sed it were no t lyrical , sensiti ve, well–
observed , striking o r wha tever in their own right.
Once when I bent down over a bouquet of carnations whil e th ere was
a great deal o f noise aro und me, I couldn 't smell anything at first.
Once I walked down a staircase and had such a des ire to let myself
fall th at I bega n to run out of fear as soon as I had reach ed the
bottom.
Once 1 ordered (or did I) that a ca ke be cut. "Where?" I was asked .
Ever sin ce th en I' ve been una bl e to imagine a cake. You try drawing a
circl e in your mind bu t you don ' t know wh ere to begin . Finall y
there's a no ise in the brain as if a boiling egg were popping. Quiet l
Shut up ! I can imagine wh at you want to say! T he circle! I become
dizzy when I'm supposed
to
imagine it ! And when I become dizzy I
become furi o us.
But whose vo ices are these, the author's or the charac ters'? Wha t
cha racters?
Tha t's the pro bl em .
If
one can fault thi s play, I think it is a long
the fo ll ow ing lin es . Emo ti on in the play, as we have seen , comes from
perceptio n , the chi ef emo tion specifi ca lly from a perception tha t
libera tes perceptio n. The characters are bri efl y happy when they think
they have found the way
to
keep th eir menta l appara tus from fa lsifying
their experiences. T he problem with thi s is no t Handke's loca ting the
source o f emo ti on in the discovery of an idea (a common enough
occurrence in a nyone, crazed or o therwise, who thinks), but whether
emo tion s ca n be experi enced by characters who are not characters. The
ques tion is, can a particl e- an ho rs d'oeuvre-feel; not what cau sed the
fee lings. Perhaps a presenta ti on of the long-term emo ti ona l ironies of
an intell ectu al awakenin g is no t rea ll y the bes t way for H andke to
d ispl ay hi s in stin cti ve di strust o f the commonest forms of experience.
In a seri es of fascinating speeches the character call ed J annings
de cribes what it' like "on a day when one feels at odds with one's
wo rk ." Perhap s a pl ay in whi ch such things are ac ted ra ther than
described wo uld be a good proj ect fo r Handke after wha t looks in
Th e
