Re: E.J. and Albert Hoffmann

[HARDIETZ@aol.com]

John King wrote (16.10.97 11:26:44 MEZ):

<< Flight out of time ( ...)  is as much a flight out of industrialised forms
of time created by  instrumental rationality (the bug bear of all honest to
God postmodernists
 :-) and the search for alternative forms (also an attempt to escape death
 and overcome the human condition in others). Drug consumption can be seen as
 part of this, just as much as the pleasures of the text (Barthes et al.) or
 the nihilist-decadent celebration of extremes of experience. >>

I agree, but Juengers flight started before WW1, his first experience with
<<industrialised forms of time created by  instrumental rationality >>, which
he for a while accepted in "Der Arbeiter". There must be an earlier reason,
maybe the rotten authorities of his youth he describes in "Die Zwille" and
earlier (common to Juengers expressionist generation). Sometimes he looks
like a disappointed Don Quichote ("Afrikanische Spiele"). "Die platonische
Kraft der Dichtung ist staerker als die historische Realitaet. Fuer die
heroische Welt begeisterte mich nicht der gewonnene Krieg der Grossvaeter,
sondern der 'Orlando Furioso'  des Ariost" (17.12.94).

<<any one got any ideas on the relationship to Hugo Ball?>>
Not an idea, a supposition, run for cover: H. Ball once was en vedette and
sank back into the arms of tradition (catholicism), similar to Juengers
escape to romanticism since WW2 (things like second sight), Juenger with
relapses. Maybe this ambivalence keeps him prolific?

<<>Quiet list, just like the reviewers, why? 
Probably because Bertil hasn't said anything controversial for a while :-)>>
About a controversial author must be controversies: Juenger writes about "das
Suspekte, das die Norm beruehrt": "Suspicio meint sowohl 'ich verehre' wie
auch 'ich argwoehne'" (Autor und Autorschaft, p.251)

Greetings
Hartmut Dietz