Foreplay: Hannah Arendt, the Two Adornos, and Walter Benjamin

Scene 7

(hannah lights a cigarette, but says nothing.) Well, what’s the verdict? hannah: You were right to trust your intuition. gretel (walks over and briefly embraces hannah): Thank you. (Long pause, during which she looks away, then suddenly focuses again on hannah.) And one more thing you should know. Walter did write me to return a few letters, which he felt he would incorporate into his final work. He promised to dedicate it to me. hannah (startled ): You mean our nemesis has actually seen some of Walter’s letters in the East German archives? gretel: I doubt it. I think they were in the bag he carried with him over the Pyrenees. The one that disappeared. (End of scene 6.) Scene 7 (hannah and x sit around a table in hannah’s apartment . The table is bare except for a large, virtually overflowing ashtray and a bound manuscript. hannah slowly inhales from a half-finished cigarette.) x (pointing to the manuscript): Have you read it? hannah: Yes. (Points to the ashtray.) You can see the evidence. x: All of it? hannah: No. x: How much then? hannah (again points to the ashtray): About two packs worth. x: Is that all? hannah: I am a fast reader, but a slow smoker when I read. x: Any conclusion? hannah: I read enough to see that you are a first-class writer and a provocative thinker. x (slightly mollified): I sense a caveat lurking in the background. Scene 7 67 hannah: Of course. Isn’t everything we’ve all been talking about sprinkled with them? But let me try to do it the Hippocratic way. Actually, it was Gretel Adorno’s request when she asked me to continue the conversation without her. x (sarcastic): Primum non nocere? hannah: “First do no harm.” I’m glad you checked on the Hippocratic Oath. Let’s both try it. What have we got to lose? x: First, why did Mrs. Adorno . . . (Dismissive.) . . . I beg your pardon, Dr. Adorno . . . decide not to participate? hannah: Can’t you guess? A recent widow from a long marriage that has been described as that of virtual Siamese twins. So interconnected in everything they did. x: Siamese twins can’t have sex with each other. hannah: You would think of that. But then it depends on how you define sex. (Beat.) For a change, let’s leave sex alone. She is devastated, but what keeps her going is her focus on assembling all remaining works of her husband for publication. To maintain or even elevate his reputation. I’ve had plenty of disagreements and fights with him and about him, but I respect her wishes in that regard. I wouldn’t behave differently if I were Heidegger’s executor. (Points toward the manuscript.) Why be surprised that she does not wish to have anything to do with this sordid affair?— x: You call this sordid? hannah: Not the manuscript, but everything associated with it. Not only your demands . . . and please note that I refrain from using the word blackmail . . . but what it might do to the reputation of Walter Benjamin. x: Now wait a minute, before you totally fall off your Hippocratic cliff. hannah: You are right. I am deviating from what I hope could be a rational discourse leading to a possible resolution . So back to Gretel Adorno. She does not want to get 68 Foreplay involved as a proxy for her deceased husband and you must agree that she has a point. x: But she is involved . . . whether her husband is alive or dead. I presume that in your two packs of cigarette reading you have noticed that I need to read the missing half of the Gretel-Walter correspondence . . . namely his letters to her. Or has she destroyed them? hannah: She has not . . . so far. x: Well, there you have it. I want to read them so as to be able to cite or at least paraphrase them. But following your Hippocratic path, I am prepared to make a giant concession: I shall let her censure or veto any citation. But at least their content will allow me to build the logical argument I’m after. Otherwise, it’s all supposition. hannah: Much of what we write in our work is based on suppositions. x: But this is different. What Adorno or Benjamin or Heidegger wrote is in the final analysis based on...