Phil 333
James Sellers
09/26/13
Writing Assignment#01
The aesthetic life is lived
in pursuit of the interesting and the rejection of boredom. As such,
it is no simple matter to be an effective aesthete capable of
generating interest from mundane subjects. Certain mental acrobatics
must be involved. In “Crop Rotation,” the outline of a strategy
to ward off boredom is proposed, in which Author A (who is possibly
Johannes himself) prescribes a life infused with change and guided by
a method. This method is crop rotation, the rotating of one's
aesthetic crops, the varying of the soil in which amusement and
interest may grow. This method is utilized in “Diary of the
Seducer” by Johannes in his relationship with Cordelia. He
manipulates, strains and elongates the affair in order to extract as
much interest from it as possible, all in accordance with the
strategies defined in “Crop Rotation.”
There are correct and
incorrect ways to rotate crops. Traveling abroad because one's
homeland has become familiar to the point of being boring does not
solve the issue, and the boredom of country life is not effectively
combated by simply moving to the city. This change is extensive,
a changing of fields through which one hopes the soil will yield
better crops. But changing the soil in an immediate sense will
not accomplish much; reflectively varying one's methods of grain
cultivation from this soil will. Through an intensive pursuit
of change, interest can be grown in mundane soil, if one is
resourceful enough. Limiting oneself to a single field, while
restrictive, prompts resourcefulness that can give rise to interest.
“The more inventive one can be in changing the mode of cultivation,
the better; but every particular change comes under the general rule
of the relation between remembering and
forgetting. The whole
of life moves in these two currents, so it is essential to have
control over them” (233).
If
remembering and forgetting are principles by which change can be used
to combat boredom, then the interpretation of one's own life and
experiences are the key to crop rotation. Remembering the past
selectively in a poetic sense means recalling experiences strictly in
an interesting light, censuring the past to make it interesting
instead of boring; the aesthete turns her life into an entertaining
spectacle. Thus she can sow seeds in the soil of her experience and
forget unpleasantness, which is an obstruction to the generation of
interest. This art of forgetting through how one remembers is the
standpoint towards reality which is most conducive to the rotation of
crops, and thus the preferred mode of living for the reflective
aesthete. However, this stance also means that the moment must be
enjoyed with restraint, never pursued to the point of completion. The
longer and more drawn out an interesting affair is, the more
effectively boredom can be avoided. This is how Author A believes one
can have a cake and eat it too (234).
This
art of remembering through forgetfulness mentally seals the aesthete
off from influences of boredom, but only if she can avoid the
hindrances of the boring status quo. This means that anything which
could distract one from the rotation of crops must be cut out,
including friendship, marriage, and vocation. Being trapped in any of
these relationships imposes a sense of obligation, which is
restrictive and therefore boring. However, friendship, marriage and
vocation can be enjoyed as long as they are not pursued to their
fullest. For example, an acquaintance you are on good terms with can
be useful in generating new possibilities of interest. And while a
married couple have climbed so high in their relationship that they
have nowhere to go but down, an engaged couple can enjoy a degree of
eroticism before it grows stale (238), though the relationship should
ideally last no longer than six months. Just as the moment can be
suspended and enjoyed with restraint, a relationship can be drawn out
with similar effect. In this sense, relationships have utility and
represent potentially fertile soil for the growth of crops.
But
just as she varies her soil, the aesthete herself must be varied
(239). In order to extract as many possibilities of interest from her
experiences as possible, the aesthete must be in control of her mood,
able to foresee which mask will benefit her most for any given
occasion. Summoning any feeling at will is impossible, but with
practice, the aesthete can use moods to manipulate people, situations
and even herself, toward desired ends.
This
will help her to see the accidental in the arbitrary, to derive
enjoyment from normally uninteresting situations. In engaging the
arbitrary, it is possible to extract satisfying, accidental meaning.
Going to the same church every week may be arbitrary, but counting
the tiles in the stain glass windows can be entertaining and
therefore gives the whole experience an accidental value. The
aesthete should therefore always be on the lookout for the accidental
(240).
These
strategies for the preservation of interest and the avoidance of
boredom are adopted by Johannes in the “Diary of the Seducer.”
His relationship with Cordelia, as well as his entire sense of
perception, is governed by these rules. In his April 20th
entry, Johannes writes that “One has to restrict oneself, that is a
main condition of all enjoyment” (267). This restriction he speaks
of is the principle of limitation that is necessary for the intensive
pursuit of interest, as well as the restraint vital to the art of
forgetting through selective remembrance. In the previous April 14th
entry, he describes the state of his soul as a ship about to plunge
into the ocean. But despite the power of the waves, he sits above in
the crow's nest, observing the tension below as a grand spectacle.
This represents the reflective aesthetic state of mind during the
process of crop rotation, in which one's own experiences become
sources of entertainment.
Before
his engagement to Cordelia, Johannes injects himself into her life
indirectly through the presence of Edvard, a young man infatuated
with the girl. “We are firm friends now, Edvard and I” (287).
Johannes' friendship with Edvard is the kind of friendship endorsed
by the method of crop rotation; Johannes is befriending Edvard
strictly because the boy is of use to him in his manipulation of
Cordelia, and the depth of their relationship ends there. Johannes
does as crop rotation prescribes and avoids friendship as a genuine
obligation, because that would be boring. Likewise when considering
the prospect of his intended engagement with Cordelia, he dismisses
marriage upon the basis of its ethicality. “The damnable thing
with an engagement is always the ethical side. The ethical is just as
boring in life as it is in learning” (305). Johannes never intends
to marry because it is ethical, and ethics are restricting, and
anything restricting is boring. His standards for relationships, both
in terms of friendship and marriage, are those espoused in “Crop
Rotation.”
His
manipulations of Cordelia are an excellent example of controlling
moods. During the engagement, it becomes a priority to draw out the
tension of the relationship for as long as possible to yield the
maximum amount of interest. For this reason, Johannes attempts to
balance Cordelia's disposition between two extremes, her cool of
disillusionment with the relationship and her warm erotic desire for
him. “In this wrestling, her womanliness is matured. I could use
conversation to inflame and letters to cool, or conversely. The
latter alternative is in every way preferable” (322). When he fears
that she is drawing too far away, he draws her in with eroticism, and
when she is too near, he pushes her away with distant behavior. The
aim is to keep Cordelia in suspense until she breaks off the
engagement herself (which happens six months into the relationship,
in accordance with the policy on engagements in “Crop Rotation”),
all the while engendering in her a sense of her own power over him.
In keeping the relationship alive within this field of tension for as
long as possible, Johannes generates interest, rotating his crops
intensively in a single field.
Johannes is also
adept at finding the accidental within the arbitrary. Before Cordelia
breaks the engagement, there is an entry where Johannes is sitting on
a fence with a cigar, observing the movements of a fisher-girl as she
carries firewood. There is nothing that makes this scene special
except for Johannes' internal comments, which attempt to paint the
situation as more colorful than it likely is. “Maybe you are not a
real fisher-girl but an enchanted princess; you are the servant of a
troll; he is cruel enough to make you fetch firewood in the forest.
That's how it always is in fairy stories” (337). Johannes is highly
attuned to the potential interest of every moment, even when not
contemplating his larger projects. Instead of a boring fisher-girl,
an enchanted princess, and the firewood in her arms is the demand of
a cruel troll; all accidental things yielded from an arbitrary
situation, demonstrating that Johannes' state of mind is constantly
engaged in the act of crop rotation.
If “Crop
Rotation” is the proposed method of combating boredom, then “Diary
of the Seducer” is the application of that method. Everything
Johannes does is motivated by a pursuit of the interesting. He is so
dedicated in his practice of the art of remembering and forgetting
that he has lost himself within that mental framework, to the degree
that the success of his own project leaves him feeling lost and
melancholic. At the end, the only thing left to him is to reflect
(375). It is ironic that for all the work and manipulation Johannes
does to increase the longevity of interest, he cannot control moods
in a way that yields lasting interest. No matter how hard he fights
reality for every scrap of amusement, he has no underlying source of
happiness or contentment. Since Johannes' life is the life of crop
rotation in practice, the result of his project with Cordelia is a
demonstration of the aesthetic life's ultimate failure to provide the
satisfaction that it promises.
Works Cited:
Kierkegaard,
Søren. Either/Or.
Penguin ed. London: Penguin Books, 1843. Print.
