-----Original Message----- From: Bertil Haggman [SMTP:bertil.haggman@helsingborg.se] Sent: Sunday, March 15, 1998 2:26 PM To: ernst-juenger-l@maillist.ox.ac.uk Subject: 6th contribution by Bertil Haggman from _Die Schere_ 153 (p.110) "Die Titanen wirken und leiden in und an der Zeit. Sie wird, wie gesagt, von ihnen gekuerzt und gedehnt. Die Bewegung wird praeziser, zugleich endlos kreisend, die Geraeusche werden qualvoll und drohend zugleich. Die Naechte verlangen nach einem Hieronymus Bosch. Wer in diese Herberge eintritt, geraet in Mitleidenschaft. Dem entspricht die Hoffnung, von ihr einmal erloest zu werden, hier nur als Gast zu sein. Schopenhauers Konzeption vom blinden Willen als dem bewegenden Prinzip gilt der titanischen Welt. Er erkennt sie, weil Nietzsche sie bejaht. Dass beide unter ihr leiden, kann nicht ausbleiben." Commentary Always wondered what E.J. exactly meant with the sentence of the titans being active and suffering "in und an der Zeit". I can't help with any mythological references but if one works from the assumption that modern technological society is titanic and analyzes the society, then the dominating dimension of time is obvious. All our achievements are in time - they are based on measurements of time, they can only be realized in time, and they will perish with time. Even our wealth in the most mundane sense of money is calculated on the "time value of money" - given infinite time, we would get richer and richer. And that is where the suffering comes in - we just don't have infinite time. In the everyday microcosm, we never seem to have enough time to do "what we need to do to be happy". In the cosmic sense, the Titans only have a limited period of dominance in which to achieve their ambitions - as we all know, according to Junger another a century or two. Incidentally, I like Aladdin's Problem precisely for its resolution of the problem of time via connection with the timeless in art and the world of the dead. Thomas Friese Association Eumeswil Vancouver http://www.eumeswil.org/
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