Heidegger’s lecture style captivated students through dramatic obscurity rather than clarity

Evidence

According to Gadamer, Heidegger’s trademark style was to raise up a ‘breathtaking swirl of questions’ which would billow forth until, finally, he would roll them up into ‘deep dark clouds of sentences from which the lightning flashed’, leaving the students stunned. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 190

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Heidegger carried on an intimate affair with his student Hannah Arendt — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 187; Heidegger staged his lectures as controlled theatre and derided spontaneous discussion — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 191; Heidegger’s 1929 lecture could induce near-ecstatic states in listeners. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 249 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Heidegger staged his lectures as controlled theatre and derided spontaneous discussion #expands (0.85) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 191
• Heidegger’s 1929 lecture could induce near-ecstatic states in listeners. #exemplifies (0.80) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 249
• Heidegger’s obscure style reflects an aim to overturn all of metaphysics #expands (0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 210
• Heidegger accepted awkward prose as the price of overturning the history of philosophy #corroborates (0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 204