[Juenger-list] Swift vs. Hobbes (DIE SCHERE #72: Note 2/4)

[e-ensign@thing.net (Richard Brem)]

Guenter -- first of all, thanks for your extensive remarks on #72 of "Die
Schere". Having an interest in both Juenger and Hobbes I would like to
comment on them.

> »Dabei wird Hobbes' LEVIATHAN anschaulich.«
> GULLIVER'S TRAVELS an illustration of LEVIATHAN?

No offense, Guenter, but I think your criticism of Juenger way too harsh and
I'm afraid I completely disagree with it. Here's why: Juenger wasn't the
first to notice a certain similarity of motives in Swift's "Gulliver's
Travels" and Hobbes' "Leviathan". The most detailed analysis of this
similarity was provided by John D. Seelye in his excellent essay "Hobbes'
'Leviathan' and the Giantism complex in the first book of 'Gulliver's
Travels'", published in 1961 in the "Journal of English and Germanic
Philology" (Vol. LX, pp.228-239).

I quote from pp. 229f.:

"Either because of his sympathy with Hobbes' view of mankind, or through
admiration for the other man's intricate mind and polished style, or
possibly because of a desire to know well his enemy, or perhaps for all
these reasons, Swift was very well versed in Hobbes' writings. In 'The
Sentiments' ... he was able to quote Hobbes slyly for the purpose of
demolishing his main tenet ... 'A Tale of a Tub', 'The Battle of the Books',
and 'The Mechanical Operation of the Spirit' are likewise seeded with
references to Hobbes, in particular his 'Leviathan'; it is therefore no real
surprise to learn that there were manuscript notes on Hobbes' great work
among Swift's papers in 1742. And since Swift's views on government were
consciously, even deliberately antithetical to those of Hobbes, it would
seem likely that - as in 'The Sentiments' above - the satirist would draw
upon the philosopher elsewhere for purposes of refutation, particularly in
the first book of 'Gulliver's Travels', which I have shown above to be
largely oriented about the matter of the individual and the state. That this
is true may be indicated by the device of giantism; basic to the first book,
it seems to point steadfastly in the direction of the monster, LEVIATHAN."

On p.231 Seelye juxtaposes the Hobbesian "homo magnus" with the image of
Gulliver in Lilliput:

"The most curious feature of the emblem is the fact that the visible portion
of the giant consists of a vast crowd of tiny people -- a symbolic reference
to the human composition of the Leviathan. Swift was well acquainted with
this title page: he referred to it specifically in 'The Mechanical Operation
of the Spirit', noting that 'It is the Opinion of Choice Virtuosi, that the
Brain is only a Crowd of little Animals, but with Teeth and Claws extremely
sharp, and therefore, cling together in the Contexture we behold, like the
Picture of Hobbes's Leviathan, or like Bees in perpendicular swarm upon a
Tree, or like a Carrion corrupted into Vermin, still preserving the Shape
and Figure of the Mother Animal.' Abstracted from context, this becomes a
clever satire on Hobbes' statement that the lives of warring mankind are
'nasty, brutish, and short' (III, 110-16), on his theory that the purpose of
government is to protect these man-beasts from their own animal passions
(III, 157-58), and on his allusion to the numbering of ants and bees among
'political creatures' by Aristotle (III, 156). Furthermore, this allegory in
miniature serves to connect the emblem of the Leviathan with the symbolic
presentation of Gulliver, who, when tied down by the Lilliputians, is
covered with a swarm of pygmies in much the same manner as Hobbes' giant."

And so on in great detail for eight more pages -- I can send you Seelye's
essay if you're interested. I'd also like to draw your attention to
Juenger's clever use of the word "anschaulich". I think "anschaulich werden"
means more than just "to illustrate". It's one of those ambiguous words and
expressions that Juenger was so fond of and used with such mastery.
"Anschaulich werden" could among others also mean that a point about the
meaning of a symbol gets made by playing around with it or turning it on its
head -- which is what Swift did with the Hobbesian "homo magnus" in
"Gulliver's Travels".

Btw, I also see an - albeit remote - connection between Hobbes' "Leviathan"
and Juenger's "Der Arbeiter" as both books put forth visions of cybernetic
organisms (man/machine hybrids). Hobbes in his introduction to "Leviathan":

"For by Art is created that great LEVIATHAN called a COMMON-WEALTH, or STATE
(in Latin CIVITAS) which is but an Artificiall Man ..."

Bests,
Richard Brem
- - - - - - - - - - - -
"We're the poison in the human machine"
  --  Sex Pistols "God Save the Queen"