“Loss” by Andreas Reckwitz: On the back of progress

The Berlin sociologist and celebrated contemporary diagnostician Andreas Reckwitz believes that the West must finally learn to come to terms with experiences of loss.

There are so many stories of losing that the Catholic Church has a special saint who takes care of what has been lost. The church dedicated to him is in Padua; his grave is full of notes reporting his loss and thanking him for his happy rediscovery. And what doesn’t Voltaire’s Candide lose, his freedom, his lover and his wealth? And what does Mephistopheles say to Faust when he wants to capture his last moment? Everything and everyone is lost. “It’s as good as if it hadn’t happened,” says the demon, praising the “eternal emptiness” instead. There are literary stories of betrayed love, of the big city or of cheerfulness. A literary history of loss, however, has never been written. It would probably have coincided with the history of literature.