[Juenger-list] EJ & Burroughs (no angry old men)

[martin krueger" <thingyding@mail.omnitel.it (martin krueger)]

> You don't have cats, do you?
Regards, RBR

That's right, I have a pair of bullfinchs now. Living in a country where a
Singdrossel is considered a good meal (and it is!). Once I have had a cat,
but when I had to move I left her in the garden of the place I lived then. I
continue to believe that cat's - unlike dogs - hang her heart more to the
environment than to persons, at least when they are young. When people
during the war had to leave, the dogs followed them spontaneously, the cats
remained with the burning houses, as my father has told me.
So dogs do not precede us in heaven, they prefere us to Eden.

Apart from this reflexions on domestic nature concerning aging (!)
adomesticated cats and men, the book of J's I love most is Subtile Jagden.
Wonderful is also Er redete mit dem Vieh, den Voegeln und den Fischen by K.
Lorenz and I would like to underline that I was particularly pleased to read
J's observations on animals in Siebzig verweht V. It's so rare to read
something about animals written with such unsentimental warmth. With love.

Interesting in this context are Weizsaecker's reflexions on the Spaetstil of
artists which you can find in Der Garten des Menschlichen in the chapter Der
Tod (page 157). W. considers Spaetstil the stile of an artist which blossoms
when death is coming near, indepently from age. "Das Empfinden draengt sich
auf, dass der Stil eines Kuenstlers oft Jahre, ja viele Jahre zuvor mehr von
der Naehe des Todes als vom verflossenen Alter seit der Geburt gepraegt
wird."

Die Quartette des 55-jaehrigen Beethoven sind so sehr Altersstil wie die
Bilder des 60-jaehrigen Rembrandt, des 90-jaehrigen Tizian, wie der Prospero
im Sturm des 55-jaehrigen Shakespeare, ja wie die letzte Musik des nicht
30-jaehrigen Schubert, des 35-jaehrigen Mozart.
...ein Wegsinken der Pflicht und des Ehrgeizes, klassisch zu sein, die
unglaubliche Dichte distanzierter Direktheit - "als ich 70 war, konnte ich
meines Herzens Regungen folgen" sagt Konfuzius.

Befor I read Siebzig verweht V, reading Juenger I always thought that his
writing didn't fit with W.'s observation, because in J continued to preveal
the freshness which we consider characteristic of youth. Nevertheless now I
don't know whether I shall consider Spaetstil his last book or all the rest.
The unangry young man's last triumph.

> ------------------------------
> Ernst Juenger "Siebzig verweht V":
>
> Wilflingen, 8 September 1992
>
> In the morning I buried Idris who died yesterday evening. He lived with us
> for eleven years. Red-points are a noble breed. Idris was friendly. His
> sister Aisha, with whom he produced children like a Pharaoh, wanted little
> to do with us; she was timid. When she was near us she always stood so
that
> she had the door behind her, and when she made herself comfortable on our
> lap she put her paw not under but on top of our arm. In that way she could
> jump off at any moment. Her departure too had nobility; when it came to
the
> end she disappeared and died so alone that we could not find her even
though
> we searched through the house and the neighbourhood.
>      Idris on the other hand grew daily more tender during his long
> sickness. For months he grew thinner and thinner. The late hours when the
> lady of the house sat reading by the tiled stove - that was his favourite
> time. Step by step he withdrew from his appearance: he still took the sun
in
> the garden, but we had to lift him on to the bannisters on which he used
to
> sharpen his claws, and at the last onto our lap. There he could no longer
> even purr, though he could still turn his head.
>      I buried him under the hazel. He would go and lie there in the shade
> when the sun became too warm for him. He received zinnias and a gravestone
> from the Swabian Highlands. Monika Miller, who stood next to me, approved
of
> the display. I said:
>                         'Idris will enter Heaven before us.'
>                         'How come?'
>                         'No detour via Original Sin.'
>
> translated by John Whaley for The Curfew Press
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Juenger-list mailing list
> Juenger-list@juenger.org
> http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/juenger-list