Jan's perspective

In the in-between

My father used to have a riddle that he liked to pose to children. ‘What's the difference between a dead bird?’ ‘Between a dead bird and what?’ I'd ask despairingly. ‘No, I'm asking you: what's the difference between a dead bird?’ It drove me crazy. The answer, if it were even possible, brought me still closer to my wits’ end: ‘One of his legs is the same length.’ In the joke, a word that can only function in relation to another – between – is used with no relationship in sight! It was a joke between me and my father – although I'm not at all sure how it got there, between us.

Anyway, the ‘between’ in the riddle does actually relate to something, namely all the ‘in-betweens’ found in the reality in which we live. My father's nonsense is effective because it contains some sense as well. Absurdity can exist only by the grace of reality itself. But is the opposite also true? Do the two share a reciprocal relationship? Can the truth exist without falsehood? In mathematics, in any case, it cannot. That field even speaks of reductio ad absurdum, which is Latin for ‘reduction to absurdity’. It is a type of argument, which works as follows: you want to prove a certain statement is true, so you therefore assume that statement to be false. If you can identify a contradiction within that assumption, you've done it: because denying the statement yields a contradiction, the statement must be true. Obviously, this only works in mathematics, where there are no shades of grey between true and false. In our world, by contrast, things are rarely so black and white. 

Perhaps it would be better to think of the relationship between reality and absurdity as a kind of Stockholm syndrome in which the hostage develops sympathy for the person holding them captive. But who is the hostage and who the captor? From my perspective, it's quite clear: I live in reality but with a tendency towards the absurdity which holds us all hostage. I seldom read works of non-fiction, for instance, because I often find more truth in fiction. A fantastic story that never actually happened can still touch your heart. The fact that such stories are often inspired by reality is beside the point: that is the strength of that relationship. And so I live in an in-between state, with these lines from Guillaume van der Graft as my motto:

There is no rhyme or reason to anything
except in a poem.

Jan Beuving studied at Utrecht University for nine years, completing a Bachelor's programme in Mathematics (2008) and a Master’s programme in the History and Philosophy of Science (2009). After that, he became a comedian and cabaret artist. See janbeuving.nl for his performance schedule.