The Jump of Ks

December 26, 2007

On October 1960, Klein jumped. Deliberately, consciously, rationally even, he decided to totally give up on his precious grains of life. He didn’t do it to become immortal - he jumped, so says the title, into the void of the unknown, that which is behind the common; that which disobeys the ethical.

Nevertheless, Klein had the strangest certitude at his heart - a profound belief - that he would live. Maybe, I should be more clear here: Klein believed that he’d be able to come back from the void, and consequently to conquer death.

Death - certainly not what you’ve been thinking of - that end which awaits us all; No, I think that Deleuze’s definition of death, not as a state by its own right, but rather as a void returned by the terminated function of life, the function which performs, since birth, nothing but “dying” - that’s what Klein thought to be overcoming.

By his deep desire to live, Klein gave up on his life, reversing the act of dying, creating a new state of things in which his time capsules were not popping out and collapsing but regenerating themselves - the perpetual odor of birth - with every new grain of time. A complete pleasure.

It was not until two years later, that Klein hit the ground of the void beneath. He died, ceasing to regenerate himself, five months after marrying his beloved wife, Rotraut Uecker, for whom he died two years earlier; for it is said that Rotraut Uecker was present at the moment of the jump.