There could be three types of mood related to our way of perceiving time. The first has a taciturn gaze on the past and lives with the certainty that the present is something crusted. The second considers the past as a traceless whim and celebrates the present as an indeterminate spring. both despise the future. The third would be an intermediate state, melancholic and happy at the same time. This vital attitude is aware of loss, but at the same time celebrates the past as an impulse for the present and the future.
The book has something of this spirit The last days of Roger Federer and other endings of Geoff Dyer, published by Random House. Nietzsche, along with singers, artists, athletes and the author himself are the characters who share something in common: the approach to the end of what gave meaning to their lives.
“When the meaning of the world collapses, and one can no longer believe in the old promises, one comes across the absurdity of life governed by strange rules.“
The work has something of the style of Nietzsche: division of the text into short and numbered passages that, read with narrow perspective, seem upstart and disconnected, however, a general look reveals an immense mosaic where the meaning is left strictly to the reader . However, Dyer does not have the poetic and aphoristic character of Nietzsche..
The rally in tennis is the moment before the match when the players warm up, the rules become obscured and what prevails is to hit the ball so that the other returns it, without the pretense of winning points. The rally is a moment of peace, with oneself and with others, we find something of this atmosphere throughout the book, where staying active, writing, was the way to conquer the present, without the debts of the past and without the pressure of future claims.
“Especially beautiful are the passages dedicated to William Turnerwhere his painting during his last years is only committed to his blindness and the dissolution of form“
Nietzsche’s style was motivated by a conviction: the great ideals had died, the debt with the past must fade and the language must return to its metaphorical character, it is necessary to name again without relying on the inheritance of concepts. Philosophy can no longer be a company that erects universal truths, the purpose acquires its commitment only with the present. In addition, there is another determining personal reason, Nietzsche wrote under the inclement conditions of blindness and illness, he had to hurry, because the end was just around the corner. Nietzsche’s work is analogous to a constant rally, he invented the future. When the meaning of the world collapses, and one can no longer believe in the old promises, one comes across how absurd life had been governed by strange rules. The retired tennis players had to feel something like this, when the possibility of victory vanished and the rally was no longer the moment before the game, but a way of staying alive.
Written at the time of confinement, Dyer was over sixty and is aware that the years of splendor are over, but he is not alone, he is supported by those who also approached the abyss of the end of their creative or sports life. Federer’s hand grabbing Nadal’s. Especially beautiful are the passages dedicated to William Turnerwhere his painting during his last years is only committed to his blindness and the dissolution of the form. Dyer is not preparing for the game, he is preparing for the death of what made life possible: writing.
“It’s not that easy to just rally around. The game can only be enjoyed under the pretense of winning by complying with the rules of the game“
This is a book that is an exercise in resistance against the end, Dyer writes to forget that one day he won’t be able to do it, he doesn’t want to die prematurely like athletes who retire. Such is the coherence of this book about endings, our in-between mood, that joyous melancholy. Sad because the past will not return, happy because it can still be celebrated. Hit the ball as you want, you do not owe yourself to the rules, reasoning or other people’s purposes.
Nietzsche wrote that human beings need to be lied to, because that is the only way they forget that life is an invention and that the only possible meaning is the one that one creates. This book is an attempt not to fall into the decadence and parody of oneself that the absurdity of existence entails, as happened to so many retired athletes who lost their sense of what made them feel alive: play.
It’s not that easy to just rally around. The game can only be enjoyed under the pretense of winning by complying with the rules of the game. When the shadow of the end approaches, the objective of a victory becomes absurd, one has exiled oneself from the purpose and from what made the match possible. We learned during the time of confinement that the present makes sense if it is escorted by past and future. The ironic, yet tragic aspect is that rallying is only fun when you know you’re getting ready to play.
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Author: Geoff Dyer. Translator: Damian Alou Ramis. Title: The last days of Roger Federer and other endings. Editorial: Literatura Random House. Sale: all your books, Amazon, Fnac y House of the book.
