Postmodernity and the routinization of novelty: Heidegger on boredom and technology

Polity

Volumn 29, Issue 4, 1997, Pages 489-516

  Thiele, Leslie Paul ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0031287665     PISSN: 00323497     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3235265     Document Type: Article

References (84)

1. 1. See Marshall Berman, All that is Solid Melts into Air (New York: Penguin, 1988).
2. 2. Martin Heidegger, The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics: World, Finitude, Solitude, trans. William McNeill and Nicholas Walker (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995).
3. 3. Heidegger, Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics, p. 79.
4. 4. James F. Ward, Heidegger's Political Thinking (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1995). p. 64.
5. 5. Lewis Mumford, The Myth of the Machine: Technics and Human Development (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1967), pp. 202, 206.
6. 6. See Patricia Meyer Spacks, Boredom: The Literary History of a State of Mind (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995). p. 208.
7. 7. Sean Healy , Boredom, Self, and Culture (Rutherford: Dickenson University Press. 1984), p. 60.
8. 8. Reinhard Kuhn, The Demon at Noontide: Ennui in Western Literature (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976), p. 93.
9. 9. Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground (New York: Penguin, 1972), p. 33.
10. 10. Mumford, Technics and Human Development, p. 202.
11. 11. Healy, Boredom, Self, and Culture, p. 15.
12. 12. Søren Kierkegaard, Either/ Or, Volume One, trans. D. Swenson and L. Swenson (Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1959), p. 285.
13. 13. Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1981), p. 24.
14. 14. Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals, trans. Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale (New York: Vintage, 1967), p. 97; and see Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Vintage Books, 1974), pp. 295-96.
15. 14. Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals, trans. Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale (New York: Vintage, 1967), p. 97; and see Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Vintage Books, 1974), pp. 295-96.
16. 15. Friedrich Nietzsche, Humans, all too Human: A Book for Free Spirits, trans. R. J. Hollingdale (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), p. 251; and see Friedrich Nietzsche, Untimely Meditations, trans. R. J. Hollingdale (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), p. 172.
17. 15. Friedrich Nietzsche, Humans, all too Human: A Book for Free Spirits, trans. R. J. Hollingdale (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), p. 251; and see Friedrich Nietzsche, Untimely Meditations, trans. R. J. Hollingdale (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), p. 172.
18. 16. These words appeared as graffiti and on banners after the closing of a youth center in Lausanne, Switzerland. They are cited in Orin Klapp, Overload and Boredom: Essays on the Quality of Life in the Information Society (New York: Greenwood Press, 1986), p. 24.
19. 17. Francis Fukuyama, "The End of History," in The National Interest, 3 (Summer, 1989): 3, 18.
20. 18. Spacks, Boredom, p. 260.
21. 19. See Spacks, Boredom, p. 22. Butler's quotation is from his "Memoir of the Author" in The Fair Haven, pseudonymously published under the name of John Pickard Owen (London: Tribner and Company, 1873), pp. 51-52.
22. 19. See Spacks, Boredom, p. 22. Butler's quotation is from his "Memoir of the Author" in The Fair Haven, pseudonymously published under the name of John Pickard Owen (London: Tribner and Company, 1873), pp. 51-52.
23. 20. Martin Heidegger , Being and Time, trans. J. Macquarrie and E. Robinson (New York: Harper and Row, 1962), p. 172.
24. 21. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Selected Writings of Emerson, ed. Donald McQuade(New York: Modern Library, 1981), p. 329.
25. 22. Heidegger, Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics, p. 283.
26. 23. Heidegger, Being and Time, pp. 173-76.
27. 24. Heidegger, Being and Time, p. 389.
28. 25. Martin Heidegger, Nietzsche, Vol. 1: The Will to Power as Art, trans. D. Krell (New York: Harper and Row, 1979), p. 99. See also Martin Heidegger, Schelling's Treatise on the Essence of Human Freedom, trans. J. Stambaugh (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1985), p. 105; and Heidegger, Being and Time, p. 175.
29. 25. Martin Heidegger, Nietzsche, Vol. 1: The Will to Power as Art, trans. D. Krell (New York: Harper and Row, 1979), p. 99. See also Martin Heidegger, Schelling's Treatise on the Essence of Human Freedom, trans. J. Stambaugh (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1985), p. 105; and Heidegger, Being and Time, p. 175.
30. 25. Martin Heidegger, Nietzsche, Vol. 1: The Will to Power as Art, trans. D. Krell (New York: Harper and Row, 1979), p. 99. See also Martin Heidegger, Schelling's Treatise on the Essence of Human Freedom, trans. J. Stambaugh (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1985), p. 105; and Heidegger, Being and Time, p. 175.
31. 26. Heidegger , Being and Time, p. 389.
32. 27. Heidegger, Being and Time, p. 175.
33. 28. Heidegger , Being and Time, p. 389.
34. 29. Heidegger, Being and Time, p. 235.
35. 30. Heidegger, Being and Time, pp. 233-34.
36. 31. Martin Heidegger, Gesamtausgabe, vol. 13 (Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1983), p. 156. See also Richard Bernstein, The New Constellation: The Ethical-Political Horizons of Modernity/Postmodernity (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991), p. 179.
37. 31. Martin Heidegger, Gesamtausgabe, vol. 13 (Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1983), p. 156. See also Richard Bernstein, The New Constellation: The Ethical-Political Horizons of Modernity/Postmodernity (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991), p. 179.
38. 32. Martin Heidegger, The Question of Being, trans. W. Kluback and J. Wilde (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1958), pp. 79, 97.
39. 33. Sean Healy makes a useful distinction between deep boredom and other depressed states of mind, observing that "the depressed feel themselves inadequate; the hyperbored experience the world as insufficient" (Healy, Boredom, Self, and Culture, p. 60).
40. 34. Martin Heidegger, Existence and Being (Washington: Regnery Gateway, 1949), p. 334.
41. 35. Martin Heidegger, An Introduction to Metaphysics, trans. R. Manheim (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987), p. 1.
42. 36. Heidegger, Existence and Being, pp. 334-35.
43. 37. Heidegger, Existence and Being, p. 354 (translation emended).
44. 38. Martin Heidegger, Nietzsche, Vol. 2: The Eternal Recurrence of the Same, trans. D. Krell (New York: Harper and Row, 1984), p. 179.
45. 39. Heidegger, Nietzsche, Vol. 2, p. 104.
46. 40. Martin Heidegger, The Way Back into the Ground of Metaphysics, trans. W. Kaufmann, in Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre, ed. W. Kaufmann (New York: Meridian Books), pp. 211-12.
47. 41. Heidegger, Being and Time, p. 222.
48. 42. Martin Heidegger, Early Greek Thinking, trans. D. Krell and F. Capuzzi (New York: Harper and Row, 1975), p. 78.
49. 43. On the historicity of moods for Heidegger, see Michael Zimmerman, Heidegger's Confrontation with Modernity: Technology, Politics, Art (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990), p. 115.
50. 44. Martin Heidegger , The End of Philosophy, trans. J. Stambaugh (New York: Harper and Row, 1973), p. 107.
51. 45. Martin Heidegger, Nietzsche, Vol. 3: The Will to Power as Knowledge and Metaphysics, trans. J. Stambaugh, D. Krell, and F. Capuzzi (New York: Harper and Row, 1987), pp. 180-81.
52. 46. Martin Heidegger, History of the Concept of Time: Prolegomena, trans. T. Kisiel (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985), pp. 213-14.
53. 47. Heidegger, History of the Concept of Time, pp. 227, 319-20.
54. 48. Heidegger , Nietzsche: Eternal Recurrence of the Same, p. 182.
55. 49. Martin Heidegger , "Messkirch's Seventh Centennial," Listening, 8 (1973): 50-51 (translation emended).
56. 50. Kierkegaard, Either/ Or, Volume One, pp. 285, 287.
57. 51. Martin Heidegger, "Homeland," Listening, 6 (1971): 237.
58. 52. Quoted in Spacks, Boredom, p. 249.
59. 53. Martin Heidegger, "The Pathway," in Heidegger: The Man and the Thinker, ed. Thomas Sheehan (Chicago: Precedent Publishing, 1981), pp. 70-71.
60. 54. Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power, trans. Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale (New York: Vintage, 1967), p. 3.
61. 55. Heidegger, Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics, p. 57.
62. 56. Heidegger, Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics, p. 171.
63. 57. Martin Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays, trans. W. Lovitt (New York: Harper and Row, 1977), p. 28.
64. 58. Heidegger , Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics, pp. 161, 351.
65. 59. Heidegger, Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics, pp. 132, 166.
66. 60. Heidegger, Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics, pp. 78, 80, 93.
67. 61. Heidegger, Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics, pp. 158-59.
68. 62. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York: Harper and Row, 1990), p. 209.
69. 63. Heidegger, Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics, p. 131.
70. 64. Heidegger, Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics, p. 160.
71. 65. Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, trans. R. J. Hollingdale (New York: Penguin, 1972), p. 138.
72. 66. Nietzsche , The Gay Science, p. 108 (emphasis added).
73. 67. Abraham Maslow, Toward a Psychology of Being, 2nd ed. (New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1968), pp. 55-58.
74. 68. Heidegger, Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics, p. 156.
75. 69. Gianni Vattimo, The End of Modernity (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985), p. 7.
76. 70. The term is Orin Klapp's. He identifies boredom as "having a defensive function as a barrier against noise" (Klapp, Overload and Boredom, p. 9).
77. 71. Parvis Emad, "Boredom as Limit and Disposition," in Heidegger Studies, 1 (1985): 64.
78. 72. From the National Catholic Reporter (September 6, 1996), excerpted as "Monks in Overdrive," Utne Reader, February 1997, p. 32.
79. 73. Heidegger , Being and Time, p. 178.
80. 74. See Leslie Paul Thiele, Timely Meditations: Martin Heidegger and Postmodern Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995).
81. 75. Haskell Bernstein, quoted in Spacks, Boredom, p. 3.
82. 76. Maurice Blanchot, "The Limits of Experience: Nihilism," in The New Nietzsche: Contemporary Styles of Interpretation, ed. David Allison (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1977), p. 121.
83. 77. Cornel West, Afterword to Post-analytic Philosophy, ed. John Rajchman and Cornel West (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985), p. 259.
84. 78. "Must love that computer," Gainesville Sun, April 16, 1995, p. 6G.