What has struck me most about or discussions over Sartre has been the phrase "l'appel du vide" which literally translates from French to English as "the call of the void." I'm sure that I am not alone in my thoughts in relation to the void. When I'm driving and I think about the fact that I could simply drive my car into oncoming traffic, or experience the vertigo of being up too high I become overwhelmed with the void's call but I do not succumb. I'm not one to be afraid of heights so I have to agree with Sartre that vertigo is not the fear of falling, it's the fear of jumping. We as human beings have so much freedom and at times we can become crippled by the weight of that freedom. Everyday that we live we are doing more than just living, we are deciding not to die. I think that Shakespeare's Hamlet understood "the call" best when he stated his famous line "to be or not to be." To me this statement really is the overarching question. Hamlet had to decide whether to live or to die, and on some level so must we. I go through life day by day and I never stop to think that I survived this day based on sheer will alone.
Although everyday the void may call, I will not answer it.————————————————————————————————————————
On a completely unrelated note, I found this while searching for an image for “To be or not to be.”
Meghan,
ReplyDeleteThe way you explained what we talked about in class is touching. Every day I drive, I do experience l'appel du vide. It's quite frightening; for me I do have to make a conscious act of remind myself that I the one in control. And that the void cannot control me. I have the freedom to buy caffeine powder and consume an unsafe amount but because of my freedom I also have the choice to not do that and keep persevering in life. In my opinion, after learning about this concept, I can say that it is something I deal with on a daily basis.
So I will try to choose to be something.
Meghan,
ReplyDeleteThe way you explained what we talked about in class is touching. Every day I drive, I do experience l'appel du vide. It's quite frightening; for me I do have to make a conscious act of remind myself that I the one in control. And that the void cannot control me. I have the freedom to buy caffeine powder and consume an unsafe amount but because of my freedom I also have the choice to not do that and keep persevering in life. In my opinion, after learning about this concept, I can say that it is something I deal with on a daily basis.
So I will try to choose to be something.