Why Heraclitus, Still?
This is a two-ply question, as to why I am still on about Heraclitus after all these years and why Heraclitus can still be upheld in answer to our times.
My book Heraclitean Pride1 came out twelve years ago, in 2010, and that itself was at least ten years after my initial entry into all the fragments; yet, as you might’ve noticed Tuesday, even now I return to that book and to Heraclitus anew. Of course, you can’t step into the same river twice, and my own way to/for Heraclitus today isn’t the same as it once was - nor will it be tomorrow. Heraclitus himself is new each day.
That’s part of it: constant flux, Strife as the universal flux, churn and Change, his fiery affirmation of the All discovering unity within endless mutation.
All things are an exchange for fire and fire an exchange for all things, in the way goods for gold and gold for goods. World, the same for all, no god or human created, but it always was, is, and will be an ever-living fire, kindled in measures and extinquished in measures.
For me, more than ever, Heraclitus’ passionate affirmation of change as constant of the universe - unchanging change! - is a teaching towards life and enlightenment, especially in this era of drastic millennial upheaval and violence, breakdown, lies, carelessness, environmental degradation, pandemic, existential threats, grievous loss… change for the worse, it seems.
Yet, affirmation, despite everything. “World, the same for all…” Common to all, the ever-living fire! Existence, forever, like gold; and all things, as goods, the Good.
What’s more, within the churning of Change, there is time. Time, beyond the times. It isn’t only in what Heraclitus is saying about the world, but it’s how through himself and his presence - beyond past-present-future - there is proof of transcendence. He’s not the only one - not the only lasting one - but for sure his words and image are ablaze still; his countenance (as I posted the other day) is imprinted above history - he faces the ages and his face emerges through the ages, intense and vivid after these thousands of years.
Thus, Heraclitus is a present example of the Timeless, of his Logos, of Logos in (for me) Kairos: he touches every age; such is the goal of all literature, and of poetry and its echoing of all ages, to be somehow eternal and yet of and from the times, of the eternal in the present. What is the eternal present? Despite all passing - and whatever lack of understanding I might have for the great words he wields, his ancient Greek Logos and Tropos and Physis - Heraclitus lives and, in doing so, demonstrates that human being - on certain levels and planes of being - has the capacity to transcend time and circumstance.
What lasts is essential. He upheld proud dignity much of his life, magnanimity, Aristos (perhaps culpable arrogance in response to the pettiness of civic haggling); yet, at a crucial moment, he lapsed in his self-control, he lost it enough to bury himself in cowshit - some kind of ill-advised remedy it is said for edema, heart failure - humiliation in age and death and desperation; and anyways, his aloneness was always palpable (part of his repute as “the weeping philosopher”). Nevertheless, he’s brilliant and Alive absolutely, his personality is vibrant even now, still.
Today, timelessly, Heraclitus teaches us that the times aren’t all there is.
If we can release ourselves from stuckness in the present, that’s an opening for going forward. Please allow me to recommend a fine wine and cheese pairing of fiction and nonfiction, surprisingly complementary:
The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson & Winners Take All: the Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas
These don’t have the qualities of greatness and genius Heraclitus has for showing through what’s eternally passing, although the former offers multiple ingenious ideas for saving the earth just in the nick of disaster. Together, they’re heady with realism.
For true genius determination on behalf of the future, I’ll have to return to another pairing: Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower & Parable of the Talents.
Available through Small Press Distribution: Heraclitean Pride, a creative re-creation/ recreation (with all the fragments and ancient testimony in play) of the ancient Greek philosopher’s lost book.
Also available now, “The Countenance of Heraclitus” broadside derived from the book as mentioned in my previous P,T,WM entry (below) - limited edition, collectible, suitable for framing (26 prints lettered A-Z) Click for it at: Furniture Press Books Ephemera
