It is not often appreciated that these books were actually used to teach children -- in the War years, in the case of Sein und Zeit (Being and Time) -- and afterwards with its successors. Heidegger's texts were on the curriculum in Nazi-occupied countries to teach German language and Kultur:
Was ist das?
Das ist Sein.
Was ist Sein?
Ich weiß nicht.
Und was ist das?
Das ist Zeit.
Und was ist Zeit?
Ich weiß auch nicht.
Was ist Dasein?
Es gibt hier Dasein.
Ist Sein Dasein?
Nein, Sein ist nicht Dasein, Sein ist Sein.
Das Nichts nichtet.
Der Nazi nazit.
Das Dasein daseit.
Das Das dasst.
After the War, with Heidegger
under a cloud for the suspected hidden
political messages in his
children's books, the franchise was taken over by
Jean-Paul Sartre and a certain change of tone could be detected.
Voici Pierre. Bonjour Pierre.
Pierre is a waiter. Is Pierre a waiter?
No, Pierre is not a waiter.
Pierre is playing make-believe.
Pierre is in bad faith.
Où est Pierre? Il n'est pas ici.
Voyez-vous Pierre?
Oui, je le vois. Il n'est pas ici.
Je vois le néant de Pierre.
Stand up, Pierre.
(Pierre stands up and explodes.)
This illustrates the importance of not being seen.
The formula was tried in Britain, which however at that time was not at all ready for such Continental naughtiness. The leading purveyor of foreign smut among the unsullied gentry of Oxford and Cambridge was swinging Freddy Ayer, whose Logic Lives with Language and Truth was withdrawn after an outcry, and reissued under the more sober title of Language, Truth and Logic, by A.J. Ayer, and with substantial revisions to make the racier passages dull and incomprehensible enough to satisfy the British sexual appetite.