DIE SCHERE #47: Rebing's notes

[Rebing@t-online.de (Rebing)]

DIE SCHERE #47: Rebing's Notes

[1] While living in Ravensburg and Wilflingen in Upper Swabia for exactly half a 
century [1948-1998], EJ often noted in his diaries the peculiarities and the 
wisdom of Swabian dialect expressions. In this particular case, "schmecken" in 
the upper German dialects has the meaning of both "taste" and "smell". I quote 
from Grimms DEUTSCHES WÖRTERBUCH, vol. 15, s.v. "schmecken", col. 962-963:

das verbum bezieht sich in älterer sprache sowol auf die geruchs- als die 
geschmacksempfindungen. die entwickelte nhd. schriftsprache hat die erste der 
beiden gebrauchsweisen aufgegeben, dagegen ist diese bewahrt in den oberdeutschen 
mundarten, zum theil sogar unter ausschlieszung der zweiten. […] Frisch 
[bezeichnet "schmecken" = "riechen"] als besonders für das alemannische 
charakteristisch und erwähnt den scherz, dasz man in solchen gegenden nur vier 
sinne habe […] L. Sandrub […] erzählt von einem [Prediger], der bei der predigt 
stecken blieb und sich durch den ruf rettete: o ich schmeck fewr, es brinnt, es 
brinnt, worauf alles zur kirche hinaus lief. 

Since under water you cannot smell but can taste I think EJ is quite right and 
even witty here to understand the "smell theory" in the Swabian sense.
 
[2] Alfred Brehm, 1829-1884, explorer of exotic fauna, director of the Hamburg 
zoo and founder of the Berlin aquarium. Published in 1864-69 his immensely 
popular ILLUSTRIRTES THIERLEBEN in six volumes, re-edited several times during 
the next sixty years, in which he showed himself a superb prose writer, 
storyteller and observer of animal life. As late as 1972 MEYERS ENZYKLOPÄDISCHES 
LEXIKON praises his achievement, and I fully concur, "[…] gilt noch heute wegen 
der fesselnden Naturbeobachtungen als Standardwerk für biologisch Interessierte." 

[3] Brehm does not, as the phrase "wie es der Lachs treibt" would suggest to a 
modern German reader, refer to the sexual life of salmon; on the contrary, the 
context of the passage in "Tierleben" shows that Brehm means the normal life of 
salmon outside the period of their sexual life which was well-known in his time: 
without bothering about food, they leave the salt water and swim up the rivers, 
overcoming the most difficult obstacles, in order to spawn far upstream, and only 
then they return, starving and exhausted, to the ocean.

[4] Having discussed at length occult phenomena in the vita of an early saint EJ 
now pursues the same topic in the field of fish behaviour. This must be more 
familiar turf for him. From 1924 to 1925 he studied philosophy and zoology at the 
university of Leipzig and at its marine biology research station in Naples.

More significant for the text at hand seems to me the fact that in Leipzig one of 
his academic teachers was professor Hans Driesch, who had started his career as a 
zoologist at Naples and later turned to philosophy. Driesch wrote books on 
parapsychology, metaphysics of nature and similar topics in which he tried to 
correct the one-sidedness of the purely materialistic science of his day. Driesch 
would have shared EJs critique of positivist science that limits itself to the 
collection of measurable data. 

EJ quotes here Goethe's Faust: 

Geheimnisvoll am lichten Tag
Lässt sich Natur des Schleiers nicht berauben,
Und was sie deinem Geist nicht offenbaren mag, 
Das zwingst du ihr nicht ab mit Hebeln und mit Schrauben. 
[FAUST 672-675]

To be sure, EJ is aware of the powerful formative role positivist science has 
played in his education, and that the spirit of exact science still permeates his 
metaphysical thinking and writing: [SCHERE #43, note 3]. He does not condemn it 
altogether though sometimes coming close, he rather points out its severe 
limitations:

Dort war auch ein Professor, der als bedeutender Kenner der Zuckerkrankheit gilt. 
Immer mehr verwundert mich der Ernst, mit dem man heute noch Sätze wie etwa den 
folgenden vortragen hört:
"Bis jetzt sind bereits zweiundzwanzig Hormone festgestellt, die die 
Hypophysendrüse absondert."
Wie sehr dieser Geist auch fortschreite, es bleibt immer ein Fortschritt im 
Raffinement. Er schraubt sich in der Erkenntnis spiralig in die Höhe wie auf der 
Außenseite eines Zylinder, während die Wahrheit das Innere erfüllt. Da müssen 
natürlich die Krankheiten zunehmen. Das wichtigste Hormon ist jenes, das sich 
nicht feststellen läßt. [STRAHLUNGEN 1 May 1943]

[5] "In diesem Rahmen" means the new frame of reference that EJ has introduced 
when he permits himself to explain the behaviour of salmon with the help of a 
leap in time, a phenomenon "das sich nicht feststellen läßt". By analogy, 
explaining magnetism as a form of eros ventures far out and away from measurable 
data. 

[6] "Zuspruch" seems to have more than one meaning here; usually, it means "good 
reception", as well as "encouragement", but moreover it can mean, in the literal 
sense of the word, "words spoken to somebody". To my mind, EJ says here that 
magnetism might be a way of matter ["Materie"] speaking to man, sending a message 
of encouragement and sympathy.

[7] About Mesmer I shall post a separate biographical note taken from 
ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA ONLINE. There is a vivid though highly critical account 
of Mesmer's life and therapy in Charles MacKay's "Extraordinary Popular Delusions 
& the Madness of Crowds", recently re-issued as a paperback.
 
EJ sees Mesmer's achievement in having tried to find an occult force, "animal 
magnetism" or "Fluidum", permeating both the human body and the universe, thus 
aiming at satisfying man's metaphysical longing for feeling his soul at one with 
and not isolated and alienated from the physical world.