“(…) a year of doing nothing changed everything (…)” (Source)
‘Doing Nothing’ in the Corona-Pandemic
Not only since the worldwide Corona pandemic has “doing nothing” been in vogue – on the contrary: in literary, artistic and cinematic works, doing nothing is often ascribed significance and even receives philosophical readings such as nihilism or fatalism (cf. Ehn/Löfgren 2010). These are two traditions of thought that question the meaningfulness of human life or refer to contingency (randomness) and fate. In addition, the pandemic was used by some to engage with themselves or become spiritual. But beware: these romanticising and glorifying narratives put the deadly virus and its losses such as lives, jobs, homes and infrastructures, etc. into perspective.
However, the practice of doing nothing can also be transferred from empirical phenomena to literary works, such as the absurd theatre, which I will now present. The aim of this article is to present ‘doing nothing’ using the example of waiting.
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Literarised ‘Doing Nothing’ – Waiting for Godot (Samuel Beckett, 1953)
The motif of doing nothing is represented by the motif of waiting in Samuel Beckett’s 1953 play Waiting for Godot. The two tramps Estragon and Vladimir are waiting for Godot, whom they only glimpse. The two characters characterise different attitudes towards doing nothing and waiting, respectively: While Estragon suffers from the wait and tries to break it off several times, Vladimir is more relaxed. However, all attempts to leave are blocked. Doing nothing and waiting remains the credo. A messenger of Godot, who brings news, supports the practice of waiting by fuelling hope.
Excitingly, despite the passivity of doing nothing and waiting, a performative, productive and active character of the actions can be discerned, for example, in the taking off of shoes, the exchanging of hats, the imitation of the arriving characters Pozzo and Lucky, insults and then reaffirmations of friendship, the search for names or even physical exercises.
The moral coding of the social and cultural practice of doing nothing
What becomes visible against the context of social developments and, since Marx’s emphasis on labour power and activity, is the moral interpretation of ‘doing nothing’ that became visible both in the literary work and in the Corona pandemic (cf. Odell/Zettel 2021). While doing nothing in the Corona Pandemic was used to stay at home to reduce the risk of infection and to avoid social contact to prevent infection, in the example of Waiting for Godot we have a different reading:
Here, there is a double structure of self-fellowship: In the endurance of a triviality, the aim is to pass time. In dealing with the urgent questions of the post-war period, it is thus a matter of driving away thinking and evading questions about the causes in order to avoid responsibility. What becomes visible in the play on the micro level is the moral refusal of a world that has to deal with its traumas and work on them. The play repeats the company of doing nothing, it is meant both descriptively and in the question of causes and responsibility. wWthout this analytical distinction, Beckett’s concepts of action and the moral critique that goes with them remain absurd.
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Sources
Beckett, Samuel: Waiting on Godot. Paris 1953.
Ehn, Billy/ Löfgren, Orvar: The secret world of doing nothing. London 2010.
Odell, Jenny/ Zettel, Annabel: Nichts tun: die Kunst, sich der Aufmerksamkeitsökonomie zu entziehen. München 2021.