Letter 1.41

…Heidegger, I find, is superb, particularly in his analysis of what is involved in living authentically; in most that he discusses he is, I find, even better than Kierkegaard in his thought - but ohi! his language, It is as abstract as his thought is lucid, and extremely difficult, therefore, to follow. In his case translation can't help. Here's a random sample: 'Palling is not only existentially determinative for Being-in-the-world. At the same time turbulence makes manifest that the throwness which can obtrude itself upon Dasein in its state-of-mind, has the characteristic of throwing and of movement. Dasein's facticity is such that as long as it is what it is, Dasein remains in the throw, and is sucked into the turbulence of the 'they's' inauthenticity.' (I think in one of Guenter Grass' novels there's a parody of this - though it seems done already.) Kierkegaard, it seems, is much more quotable. I notice Heidegger quotes Schopenhauer, who once said that 'Life is a business that does not cover its costs.' H, it seems, does not agree. He says (roughly) that it may very well cover its costs, but that even so, it's still a business…