Face Mask

Heidegger’s play with veiling and unveiling, of truth as a-letheia can seem pointless, but John Caputo offers this helpful description in Radical Hermeneutics: Repetition, Deconstruction, and the Hermeneutic Project (Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy) (273-4):

“What better example of the play of concealment and un-concealment, of closure and dis-closure, than the play of the face? It conceals what we want to hide and un-conceals what we were trying to keep under wraps. And that is because the face is the setting for language, the place where Heidegger’s famous Sprache or legein makes its home . . . . Language is lingua , tongue, but also lips, mouth, eyes, the whole ensemble of facial accompaniments, orchestration, and expression . . . . The cold look with which the words are calmly delivered discloses an even greater anger than angry words. The look of hurt says more than the words which say it does not matter. The look of love which says nothing at all says more than any words; routine words of love betrayed by eyes which show that love has gone dead. A smile, a slightly arched eyebrow can give away everything; one’s whole being-in-the-world gets out from under one’s conscious control – for better or for worse. The look of fear betrays the brave words; the look of eagerness mocks the cool words; the look of love tells the truth on the words of indifference. Despite the polite greeting, we suspect we are not welcome at all. In short, the body and the face lend discourse a spontaneous support that it is hard to produce consciously, even as they betray us when we are out to keep our feelings hidden.”