DIE SCHERE #47: Kern's notes In this section it becomes clear to me that EJ is moving into areas where words can hardly go. The uncanny behavior of animals is not really explained by the word "instinct"; it is simply labeled. The explorations of instincts lead into tides, chemicals, magnetic fields--the very stuff of prescientific arcana (astrology, alchemy, spiritualism). The material world, as EJ points out, prompts us, gives us a Sehnsucht, a Heimweh. The interaction between matter and spirit--that's where EJ is making his exploration, but I wonder if his words can only suggest or can actually tell us. One detail is amusing: the radio transmitter "achored" in the salmon's mouth. Anyone who watches nature films on TV knows that scientists like nothing better than to attach a red collar around every wild mammal's neck--even the polar bear. You probably can't find a squirrel that is not sending out beeps from its tree. I am beginning to think that these scientists are as much a menace to the survival of endangered species as the builders, poachers and hunters. They can't even let a bear hibernate without digging up his burrow and putting a collar around his neck--or around her neck and the neck of every cub. Why don't they just leave the animals alone? I think EJ's attitude here is appropriately mocking.
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