Selected
excerpts from
�F O R E P L A Y
(Hannah Arendt, the Two Adornos, and Walter Benjamin)
By Carl Djerassi
Foreword
Hannah Arendt (1906 � 1975),
Theodor W. Adorno (1903 � 1969), and Walter Benjamin (1892 � 1940) justifiably
are considered towering giants of the 20th century German
intellectual scene. Arendt, a famous political theorist, and Adorno, one of the
founders of the Frankfurt School of Social Theory and
internationally recognized sociologist, philosopher, and musicologist,
disliked each other intensely, but both admired, even worshipped,
Benjamin. Adorno�s life-long womanizing (openly admitted to his wife Gretel,
who even typed some of his love letters) and his intense preoccupation with his
dreams are well documented, as is the range of the deeply personal and
extensive correspondence between Benjamin and Gretel Adorno. It is also very
likely that Benjamin carried a briefcase with him on his flight from
And why do I start with these
facts in an introduction to my eighth play? Because in preparation for my last
book, Four Jews on
Four
Jews on Parnassus neither dealt with scientists nor with fiction, but
rather constituted carefully researched biography, which I chose to write in
the rarely used dialogic literary format. Why dialog? Because my life as a
scientist has imprinted me with certain tribal characteristics from which I
wished to depart, one of which is that dialog is not used nor allowed in
scientific written discourse. Yet from the time of the classic Greeks until the
17th century, dialogic writing was a respected European literary
format used by scientists (e.g. Galileo) as well as humanists (e.g. Erasmus).
Nowadays, it is virtually limited to plays, which was the original reason why I
turned to play-writing some thirteen years ago, much�though not all of it�in
the form of �science-in-theatre.�
The book, Four Jews on Parnassus, represented an interregnum in my literary
writing in that I embarked on a historically accurate biography in dialogic
format in order represent a humanizing view of my entirely non-scientific protagonists.
Once finished with that book, I started to speculate about aspects of their
personal lives and actions, which I could only do if I discarded the shackles
of a biographer and assumed the freedom of a fiction author. Accordingly, I
chose the role of a playwright focussing on the theme of jealousy�professional
and personal�that I had encountered in my biographical research for Four Jews on Parnassus.
Hence, the nature and the depth
of jealousy displayed by most of the characters, the putative contents of
Benjamin�s lost grip, and the blackmail of my fictitious Fr�ulein X are pure
invention on the part of a playwright, who also happened to be the author of a
non-fictional, biographic account of these fascinating personages.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Theodor
(�Teddie�) W. Adorno (in his sixties)
Gretel Adorno,
his wife (in her sixties)
Hannah Arendt
(in her sixties)
Walter
Benjamin (in his early forties)
Fr�ulein X, a
scholar (in her late twenties or early thirties)
TIME
Late 1960s
Scene
1. �1967. Teddie
Adorno reclining on a �Freudian� sofa and basically free-associating, looking
up to the ceiling rather than at Gretel Adorno, who sits across from him with a
notebook and pencil in her hand. A small table is by her side. She does not
write.
GRETEL
Remember your dream about the difference between equibrium and equilibrium?
TEDDIE
Vaguely. And what about the difference?
GRETEL You
said �equibrium� is the innermost equilibrium.
�
TEDDIE That was just a dream.
There is no such thing as equibrium.
GRETEL My dear husband, I beg to differ. Basically all
we talked about during the last few minutes was the retention of one�s
equibrium.
TEDDIE Whose equibrium are
you referring to?
GRETEL Mine of course. Since I was never able to
affect your equilibrium�
TEDDIE Meaning that I�m too
cocksure?
GRETEL Bravo! I couldn�t have put it more accurately.
To cope with your cocksure equilibrium, I had to maintain my own tenuous
equibrium.
TEDDIE And for that you have
now stopped taking dictation?
GRETEL (Rises
and gives him a kiss on his forehead.) I thought you�d understand. Now
let�s reverse roles. (She motions him to
get up and when he does so, reluctantly, she points to the chair by the table).
Let me lie down and dictate to you.
TEDDIE (Reluctantly
moves to the chair) Your dreams?
GRETEL Who knows? (Pause)
Ready?
TEDDIE But I have a terrible
handwriting.
GRETEL I can read it� and so can you.
TEDDIE (Shrugs
his shoulders as he picks up notebook and pencil) Go ahead.
GRETEL First a question. (Beat). A question I�ve never asked you directly.
TEDDIE Yes?
GRETEL How jealous are you?
TEDDIE In general� or of you?
GRETEL Well� both.
TEDDIE Professionally, I�m very jealous.
GRETEL We both know that. I
mean, otherwise.
TEDDIE Of you?
GRETEL Well, yes� for instance of me.
TEDDIE Never!
GRETEL Good. And of other women?
TEDDIE It depends.
GRETEL Could you elaborate?
TEDDIE I could, but I won�t. You were going to tell me
about the tenuous nature of your equibrium.
�(Adorno fades
into darkness as lights shine on Gretel and soon thereafter on Walter Benjamin
sitting on the opposite side. He is reading
some letters.)
Scene 2: Theodor Adorno in Hannah Arendt�s apartment.
ARENDT
Enough of that.
Just assume it was an innocent squint caused by my insufferable vice. (Stubs out her cigarette,
points to a chair, while lighting another cigarette). Sit down and
let me pour you a drink.
ADORNO Just
some water. With you I prefer to remain coldly sober.
����������� (Arendt
fetches a glass of water)
ARENDT Here
you are� with ice. To keep you as coldly sober as possible. I think you�ll need
it. I just got back from
ADORNO After Switzerland, my favorite country for holidays.
ARENDT This was no holiday, it was a summons.
ADORNO I
didn�t know you ever responded to summonses.
ARENDT
Generally not, but this was blackmail packaged in a summons.
ADORNO
Blackmail? This is
becoming interesting. Based on facts?
ARENDT When
is blackmail based on pure thin air? Whether this is based on real facts is
something that I want to ask you.
ADORNO Me! Am
I involved in this blackmail?
ARENDT We
both are.
ADORNO
You and I?
Impossible! Whatever transpired between us happened so long ago that the
statute of limitations would preclude any blackmail.
ARENDT Some blackmail transcends any time limits.
ADORNO
For instance?
ARENDT
Admission to
ADORNO Do you
mean mine or yours?
ARENDT (Ironic smile) What
a discreet compliment: conceding that canonization might also apply to me. But
no�it�s Walter�s canonization we need to consider. Walter Benjamin�s posthumous elevation to
ADORNO You
can�t blackmail a dead person.
ARENDT True
enough. But since the subject is canonization of a dead person, what about the
canonizers who got him up there? For instance you and me?
ADORNO Would
you care getting to the point? How can Walter�s posthumous canonization become
the subject of blackmail?
ARENDT
A stain that may make such canonization reversible or at least tainted. And since we were participants, why
not blackmail us?
ADORNO
Participants in Walter�s elevation� or in his mysterious stain?
ARENDT This is precisely why I needed to talk to you. I didn�t go
to
ADORNO How on earth did you come to find that out?
ARENDT That is quite immaterial. The point is,
you went there to search for a suitcase. Or was it two suitcases? Walter�s baggage. Is that true?
ADORNO
Yes.
ARENDT Well?
ADORNO
Well what?
ARENDT What made you go there? A quarter of a century after Walter
had last been there! The real truth.
ADORNO Why ask me? You seem to be well informed.
ARENDT The
truth is precisely what I don�t know. It�s all second- or even third-hand.
ADORNO But
you know the facts.
ARENDT Facts
are not the truth. At best, facts are only part of it. So please! The truth! A
lot is at stake for both of us.
Scene
3. Same setting
as Scene 1.
Lights
dim on Teddie and shine on Walter. He is excited as he reads.
WALTER (reading from p.172 of Kamasutra) When
the girl is possessed using an accessory properly in place and wedged into her
vagina, her eyes start vacillating under the unrush of
pleasure, and the pupils of her eyes start moving. (Looks up from book). Are yours
moving?
GRETEL
Yes.
WALTER (resumes reading) The
partner must then agitate the accessory in a violent manner and, by making her
suffer, rapidly increases her excitement. (Looks up from book). Do you wish
me to continue?
TEDDIE (from the couch in the shadow) No!
GRETEL
You can�t stop now!
WALTER (resumes reading from p. 377) Some use objects with the shape of the virile member to
satisfy their fantasies: carrots, turnips, and fruit such as bananas or
aubergines; roots like that of the sweet potato� or cucumbers. Having cleaned
the fruit, they grasp it and insert it in the organ, so as to cause a
pleasurable feeling. (Looks
up from book). Any favorites?
GRETEL Asparagus�
TEDDIE (Outraged) Gretel! Green�
thin� asparagus?
GRETEL
Thick� preferably white.
WALTER (resumes reading) The
state of mind of girls who can be possessed is of three kinds: accessible,
cooperating, or hostile. (Looks
up from book). What is yours?
TEDDIE (from the couch in the shadow) Gretel!
You are not going to answer this!
GRETEL Accessibly
cooperating.
TEDDIE (from the couch in the shadow) What?
GRETEL My
husband may well be surprised by my answer. But my very precious Walter, I have
always known that correspondence with you is infinitely configurable�as is so
much of your formal writing�yet I had not realized until now that this also
applies to erotica. Call it epistolary sex� more exciting than any direct
physical contact ever would.
ADORNO (Taken aback) Epistolary sex?
GRETEL Of
course, with words you never know who said them first. Others may argue that we
have now crossed the border into pornography, but if that is actually the case,
it is such soft porn that� (Does not
finish the sentence)
WALTER
That what?
GRETEL I
blush to finish the sentence and hence will leave the remaining words to your
imagination.
WALTER Somewhere, the Kamasutra states that when the wheel of
sexual ecstasy is in full motion, there are no words at all,
and no order.
GRETEL (interrupts) I prefer the wheel of sexual fantasy over ecstasy. In fantasy,
there are no limitations� anatomical, chronological, geographical�
WALTER (interrupts)� nor financial.
ADORNO (Sotto voce) The poor schnorrer� always worrying about
money.
GRETEL
Tell me: where do you draw the line between porn and erotica?
WALTER
That�s what I would like to explore with you if you�d permit it.
GRETEL My
dearest, dearest Walter. With you, I don�t �permit�� I only �welcome.�
Scene 4: Hannah Arendt�s apartment.
�
ADORNO Have you met her?
ARENDT Not face to face� she�s much too cautious. But
you apparently have.
ADORNO I? When? Where?
How? What�s her name?
ARENDT No idea. But you
certainly made an indelible impression on her.
ADORNO (slightly
grinning) That
I�ve heard from a few other women. Did she tell you where we met?
ARENDT Briefly. Very briefly. But if what she told me is true, then we are
in trouble� deep trouble.
ADORNO We?
ARENDT I asked that same question.
�
Light off on Adorno while light now
refocuses on Fr�ulein X holding the telephone in continued telephone
conversation with Arendt. Fr�ulein X, whose phone has a very
long extension cord, is now truly agitated and as she walks around, gesturing
with phone in hand, she occasionally gets tangled by the cord. Arendt, by
contrast, reclines and starts smoking while the conversation progresses. She is
clearly interested.
ARENDT I
presume you came voluntarily.
X As
voluntarily as most of his other women.
ARENDT And you minded that?
X Not at
first...but a few weeks later was another matter. I don�t remember ever feeling
so humiliated.
ARENDT Why
humiliated?
X Because he
didn�t remember me.
ARENDT
Well� how often did you meet?
X Once� late
at night.
ARENDT
(tries to joke). Perhaps it was too
dark for him to have recognized your face.
X What I
considered memorable was what transpired that night� not the partner�s
physiognomy.
ARENDT I see.
X I doubt
that you do. (Beat). For that, I
would�ve had to show you the marks on my body.
ARENDT Yet you went back for more?
X Not for collecting more bruises. I went back because
I thought that he was prepared to see me for what I had come for in the first
place. Verbal rather than physical intercourse about my take
on Benjamin�s last work before his suicide� not solely some unilaterally
sadomasochistic exercise. He hurt me deeply and I shall reciprocate.
ARENDT Let me offer you some advice: It is so
much simpler to be hurt than to hurt.
X How do you know that?
ARENDT Experience by someone twice your age� and at
times on both sides of the equation. (Beat).
But what has all that hurt and revenge got to do with me? Why attempt to
blackmail Adorno and me together?
X I must insist that you never use that word again.
ARENDT What would you call
it?
X Persuasion� not extortion.
ARENDT But then, why start with me? Especially in view
of what you just disclosed.
X Your mutual dislike is well known in academic
circles.
ARENDT I won�t deny that.
X I thought you�d be interested in what I�ve come upon
in my research on Benjamin. A literary treasure trove so staggering that it
will surprise even the most sophisticated Benjaminologists.
ARENDT But there are many
other admirers of Benjamin.
X True, but you and Prof. Adorno head that list� and
not just as admirers. You were crucial to his posthumous canonization. Not
unlike the relation between Franz Kafka and Max Brod. Did you know that just
before his death, the great Kafka�another product of posthumous
canonization�wrote to his friend that everything he might leave behind in
the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters, sketches, and so on was to be burned
unread?
ARENDT Rumors to that effect have been floating around
for a long time. But what has that got to do with your blackmail� excuse me�
your persuasion?
X Suppose I told you that Kafka�s letters were not
burned. That they were confiscated by the Gestapo in 1933.
ARENDT Are you now fantasizing or is that supposed to be
factual?
X For the sake of my argument,
assume that this is factual� including that there was a great deal of
pornographic material among Kafka�s unburned papers.
ARENDT I think that by now you have wasted half my time�
although I am not yet certain which half.
Scene 5.
Adorno
wearing hat and coat, hands in his pockets, paces up and down in an apparently
cold outdoor location. Suddenly Fr�ulein X approaches and heads straight for
him.
X I am
matriculated at the
ADORNO
Really? I don�t
recall�
X (Interrupts) I will refresh your failing
memory. But at this stage of my tale, your not knowing about me would not be
surprising. You had hundreds of students at your lectures, so why should you
note a woman who usually sat deliberately in one of the last rows. There was
only one thing that distinguished me from all your other students. You will
never guess.
ADORNO (trying to joke) You always brought your
pet cat with you, which is why you sat in back, knowing that I am allergic to
all felines� even of the human variety?
X (Ignoring the attempted wisecrack) I
always carried opera glasses with me and studied you throughout your lecture.
ADORNO (Impressed) You
did that, rather than taking notes?
X For well
over a year, I studied you through opera glasses while you spoke. Studied you in a manner that probably few students� female or male�
did. One of my friends, who had noticed that I always brought opera
glasses and who usually sat close by, once said� rather jealously� �all Adorno wants is to convince you how unbelievably vital,
how profound, how enthusiastic, how significant his lectures are� every one of
them, without a single exception. And all that is then left for you and those other
enthralled groupies to say is �Sock it to me again, Adorno!�
ADORNO (Grinning) I am beginning to enjoy this.
(Beat). Frankly I never thought that
I would be saying this to you.
X My friend
was a man! Just imagine how I� a woman looking at you for nearly an hour at a
time through high powered opera glasses� responded to Theodor Adorno, the
verbal eroticist.
ADORNO (Grinning) I can hardly wait.
X It was your
huge eyes. Deep, enormous black eyes, which simply dominated
the face... and eye lashes that I could count through my binoculars. And your body, which though chubbily bourgeois, was capable of
immense agility when you dealt with the young women who clustered around the
podium after you finished your lectures.
ADORNO I take
you were among them?
X I am
getting to that. After some months, I went up to you after a lecture to ask
whether I could get some advice on my thesis research. You just told me to make
an appointment.
ADORNO Sounds plausible. It�s my usual response.
X But when I
went to your office, I faced the impenetrable barrier of your wife, who was in
charge of deciding who would be allowed to see you. I, evidently, was marked by
some sexual curiosity that older women are good at discerning. So I used a more
direct approach, having heard that you were not immune to such appeals by
female students.
ADORNO (Suddenly severe) Enough!
I know what�s coming.
X Even if you
can guess, I must say it.
ADORNO
For the record?
X Precisely. In
a subsequent lecture, in your inimitable categorical way you stated that
�Curiosity is a powerful human impulse�some distance below sex and greed�but
far ahead of altruism.�
ADORNO Did I
say that? It�s an interesting idea, but I don�t recall having ever said it.
X You
certainly said it, but perhaps you were quoting someone else without citing the
source.
ADORNO That would have been quite inappropriate, which is not
typical of me.
X Is that so?
Then let me continue on the slippery slope of inappropriateness. I went up to
you after the lecture and waited for the last groupie to disappear before
volunteering to you that in my opinion, curiosity is not some distance below
sex, but rather an indispensable component of it. You virtually undressed me
with your powerful eyes and then asked me for the evidence. When I volunteered
that it was my personal experience, you suggested that this topic was worth
further examination. I came that night� figuratively and literally� assuming
that you would now surely extend to me the courtesy of also discussing my
thesis topic with you. But when I made it to the podium some weeks latter to
arrange an appointment, you didn�t even recognize me. (Beat). Do you remember now?
ADORNO I
shall have to plead temporary amnesia� even if nothing is being taped.
X In that case you leave me no other choice but to continue my demands
through Prof. Arendt.
ADORNO You are going to tell her about the correspondence you just
claimed to have unearthed?
X. Who knows?
I may just send her the tape� as some sort of foreplay. Or perhaps I shall
titillate her with some further excerpts.
Scene 6. Gretel Adorno,
dressed in black mourning clothes, and Hannah Arendt, an unlit cigarette in her
hand, face each other.
GRETEL
Working day in and day out with such a polymath, who kept nothing from me, was
deeply satisfying. You could almost call it sex in the mind. And I loved him
deeply.
HANNAH (Reflective) Ah yes� sex in the mind. It
certainly lasts longer than in the flesh.
GRETEL Since
we are suddenly moving into such personal territory, let me ask you a question
which many wondered about, including Teddie and me. Your love affair as a
19-year old student�
HANNAH
Actually barely 18.
GRETEL Whatever� but with your professor in his thirties� married
and with two children� was well known.
HANNAH How
could you� of all people� be surprised? Didn�t this happen all too often in
front of your eyes with your husband� and over decades? In a way, isn�t that
what brought us here courtesy of our thin-lipped, icy-stared, butch-haircut
Felicitas?
GRETEL That was not the question. Admittedly, Martin Heidegger was
one of the most important German philosophers of his generation�
HANNAH The
most important!
GRETEL I beg
to differ and my Teddie would have done so even more vociferously. But that is
not the point� whether he was number 1 or number 3. You, a Jewish student and
he a Catholic ex-Theologian and proto-Nazi�
HANNAH
Not proto-Nazi. At best, a pseudo Nazi manqu� and only that for a limited time.
GRETEL Good
God! Are we now going to debate the nuances of Nazidom� or Nazihood� if there are
such words? The question is simply why you defended such a person some decades
later during his de-nazification trial at the
HANNAH You�re ignoring the effect upon the students of a
professor�s willingness to commit adultery.
GRETEL
Ignoring? As you
already said, you are speaking with a life-long expert of professorial amorous
power. But I thought you were different.
HANNAH So did I� then. But years later, I found that it�s more
complicated than you think.
GRETEL (Suddenly in low tone) It always is.
Weren�t we all after felicity? Walter never experienced it� I did in so many
ways with Teddie and then with Walter. And you?
HANNAH
On occasion.
GRETEL With Heidegger?
HANNAH No, that was something else� even beyond felicity. But I did
with Heinrich� my second husband.
GRETEL
Lucky you.
�(The
doorbell rings)
GRETEL (Startled) There she is. Would you let
her in? It will give me a chance to look at her before I have to say a word.
����������� (Arendt
opens the door and then steps back as she faces Felicitas, at least 1.8 meters
tall, slender, dressed in well-cut, mannish black suit, white shirt and black
tie, large horn rimmed glasses framing large eyes, full mouth, short blond
hair, parted on the side and combed back�a startlingly arresting androgynous
beauty).
HANNAH (Taken aback) My
goodness! (Pause).
Come in.
X You seem
surprised. (Looks at
her watch). I am not
early, am I?
HANNAH
(Almost laughing). Not at all.
It�s just that I imagined you (beat)�
differently.
X For the
purpose of our meeting, I suspect that looks won�t make much difference.
GRETEL (Rising from her chair) True enough. Why
don�t you sit down over there (points to
chair or sofa) and let�s start. I want to hear what you have to say face to
face� not in letters or phone calls. By the way, what is your name?
X Felicitas.
You know that from my letter.
GRETEL I
meant your family name. We are not on a first-name basis and are unlikely to
ever reach it.
X If it�s
formality you�re after, just call me �X�� Felicitas X.
Scene 7.
Hannah and X sit around a table in
Arendt�s apartment. The table is bare except for a large,
virtually overflowing ashtray and a bound manuscript. Arendt
slowly inhales from a half-finished cigarette.
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 suppositions, but I am dealing with interpretation of a single
person�s motivation and personal thoughts. Call it psychobiographical writing.
HANNAH
The most dangerous of genres.
Still, considering that all of us� Gretel, Teddie, and I� were and in part
still are deeply involved with Walter�s life, work, and reputation,
I cannot fault you for wishing to read the missing half of the correspondence.
Once I learned of its existence� really through you� I also was hooked.
X And?
HANNAH Now
that I have read it, I regret being privy to their secrets.
X You read
it? How? Where? When?
HANNAH How?
Gretel Adorno gave them to me. Where? Here in my home. When? Yesterday.
X I can�t
believe what I�m hearing. Why would she do that?
HANNAH Because she trust me.
X You, of all
people? You, one of her husband�s greatest enemies?
HANNAH
But one of Benjamin�s greatest promoters. Besides, it was you that got Adorno and me to a
first-name basis. Frankly, I would never have dreamed that in my worst
nightmares.
X And you
have those letters here� in your apartment?
HANNAH Yes.
X Will you
show them to me?
HANNAH Yes.
X (Jumps up, utterly dumbfounded) Yes? (Beat) When?
HANNAH
Quite soon. But
first calm down and listen to me� carefully! Do you have any relatives and
friends you can trust?
X (Confused) I suppose so.
HANNAH Someone to whom you have confided about this matter?
X Not exactly.
HANNAH What does that mean.
X Well� not
everything.
HANNAH Does
the person know anything about my involvement?
X Very
little.
HANNAH I
suppose that�s better than nothing. I�m saying that because I want you to go
into the next room (points to the door)
where you will find a telephone. Call that person, tell him or her where you
are right now and that if you do not call back within (looks at her watch) say four hours, they should come here to look
for you or call the police.
X The police?
HANNAH (waves her hand dismissively, still pointing to the door) Or an ambulance� or whatever.
X But why?
HANNAH
For insurance sake.
I don�t think you trust me.
X That you
might do me some harm?
HANNAH Who
knows? (Beat) Now go ahead and phone,
because we are wasting time.