CHAPTER XXXII - OUR OWN TIME
(WHAT CHARACTERIZES 'OUR OWN TIME'?)
I. HILDE WONDERS WHAT HER FATHER WAS PLANNING FOR ALBERTO AND SOPHIE TO DO IN THE FICTIONAL NARRATIVE...
A. IS HILDE HERSELF DREAMING THIS EVENT-- [FREUD? THE ROMANTICS?]
B. IS THE POINT OF CONTACT THE LOST CROSS AT THE DOCK?
C. GOING INTO THE UNCONSCIOUS OF THE MAJOR--WHY?
II. SOPHIE’S NARRATIVE CONTINUES:
A. THE TOUR OF SWEDEN WITH MORTEN, A GOOSE--[AN IRONIC GOOSE]-from LEBANON
B. SOPHIE TOOK THE TOUR OF PHILOSOPHY, SO WHAT MUST SHE NOW DO?
1. PLAN A PHILOSOPHICAL GARDEN PARTY?
2. WHAT TRICK WILL BE PLAYED ON WHOM AND HOW? (P. 453)
C. EXISTENTIALISM: (Kierkegaard, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Albee)
1.--‘EXISTENCE TAKES PRIORITY OVER ESSENCE'
2.--DO WE DEFINE OUR OWN ESSENCE?
3-- MAN MUST CREATE HIMSELF-- POEM: “WHAT IS OUR LIFE”
D. THE ALIENATION OF SARTRE:
1--THERE ARE NO ETERNAL VALUES
2.--WE MUST MAKE OUR OWN CHOICES AND ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEM
3--THE THEATER OF THE ABSURD:
a. ‘THE SANDBOX,'
b. 'SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR.'
c. Is this movie existential, "absurd," an exercise in the dialectic?
III. WE ARE ALL PRODUCTS OF PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTION, AND EACH AGE MUST REDEFINE WHAT THAT REFLECTION MEANS TO US--PHILOSOPHICAL SUBJECTIVISM--WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE 'SYSTEMS' AND WHY?
A. SCIENCE?
B. THE OCCULT?
C. ECOPHILOSOPHERS?
D. BILL GATES AND TECHNOLOGY?
E. UFO’S?--JUNG CALLED ALIENS 'TECHNOLOGICAL ANGELS." DID ALIENS LAND AT ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO IN JULY, 1947?
F. THE COMMUNICATIONS' REVOLUTION
IV. HAS THE MAJOR THOUGHT BEYOND THE GARDEN PARTY?
V. NOTICE THAT FRAGMENTS FROM THE VARIOUS PHILOSOPHERS SOPHIE HAS STUDIED COME TOGETHER IN THIS CHAPTER.
A. WHY?
B. WHAT MUST WE DO-what alarms Alberto in this chapter??
C. WHY WON'T ALBERTO ANSWER THE QUESTION ON PAGE 465?
VI. ALBERTO SHOWS SOPHIE A BOOK CALLED SOPHIE’S WORLD
SUPPLEMENTARY COMMENTS
1--HILDE WONDERS HOW MUCH HER FATHER KNOWS ABOUT SOPHIE /ALBERTO HERSELF
2--HER FLASHBACKS HELP (SARTRE / FREUD) TO EXPLORE HER LATENT DREAMS:
A-SOPHIE’ DREAM …190-191- THE GOLD CROSS
B-HILDE AND THE MIRROR…302- PROPHETIC…A LITERARY DREAM
C-WHAT IS THE CLUE ON PAGE 307?
D-WHAT DOES THE REBELLION NOW MEAN ON PAGE 356?
3-THE GOAL: HILDE WILL GO INTO THE MAJOR’S UNCONSCIOUS (FOR STAR TREK FANS, WHAT DID Q TELL PICARD IN THE FINAL EPISODE, ALL GOOD THINGS?) RECALL ALSO, BLOOM'S OPINION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HAMLET AND SHAKESPEARE: HAMLET: POEM UNLIMITED.
4--POINT OF VIEW SHIFTS TO SOPHIE…EXAMINE CAREFULLY ANOTHER EXISTENTIALIST, SARTRE: SEE EXISTENTIALISM IS A HUMANISM:
A--THE GOOSE AND THE PARTY… (449)
B--EXISTENTIALISM AND SARTRE (ABSURD) EXISTENCE AND ESSENCE
C--DOES ESSENCE PRECEDE EXISTENCE?
D--DOES EXISTENCE PRECEDE ESSENCE?
5--SEE PAGE: 464--HAS THE MAJOR MADE AN ERROR? WHY? FURTHER, WHAT MUST WE DO [PER. PAGE 470] WHEN CONVENTIONAL EXPLANATIONS NO LONGER SUFFICE? WHAT HAVE SOPHIE AND HILDE BEEN TAUGHT FROM THE BEGINNING? REMEMBER THE RABBIT?
SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS
During the 1960's, "The Theater of the Absurd" became quite popular by dramatizing the ANGST and apparent inability of the "systems" to provide answers to economic, political and military "excesses." The self was forced to define meaning personally, to take the "leap of faith"...
Edward Albee's THE SANDBOX and WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOLF? is a short absurdist play that captures the essence of this chapter.
