ABSTRACT
Zygmunt Bauman, Francis Bacon and Milan Kundera are all concerned to pull aside the curtain of necessity in order to reveal the truth of human existence, the reality of alterity. Each does this in a different sphere of cultural activity, but each draws on inspiration from outside their own 'discipline in order to try to unlock the valves of feeling and thus return us to the humanity which the contemporary historical moment otherwise denies. For Francis Bacon then the locking of the valves of feeling has happened because of the characteristics of the present historical dimension of human existence. Existence has been shown to be meaningless and the loss of God has turned everything into a game. The point is to recover the truth and to do so by 'unlocking the valves of feeling' or - to use another metaphor - by pulling aside the curtain or veil.
