EJ: "The Color Red"

[Richard Brem <llr@magnet.at>]

-- [ From: Richard Brem * EMC.Ver #2.5.02 ] --

Here's one of the few capriccios from "The Adventurous Heart" that 
are available in an English translation. "The Color Red" is one of the
meditations on colour from Juenger's book "Das Abenteuerliche Herz. Zweite
Fassung" (1938). It was translated by Louise Bogan and Elizabeth Mayer for
the American magazine 'Noonday' in September 1958. 

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ERNST JUENGER
The Color Red
                                                                            
                                                                            
                      Goslar

We have good reason to be cautious with the color red. In the smoothly
flowing stream of life it only rarely shows itself, but it blazes up in
moments of tension. It intimates things that should be hidden or protected,
particularly fire, sex, and blood. When, therefore, red appears unexpectedly
, we are put on guard, as at the sight of the red flags which bar the
approach to quarries and rifle ranges. This color indicates the proximity of
danger: the tail- and signal lights of our vehicles are red. This indication
applies especially to the danger of fire: fire-alarm boxes and fire
extinguishers are painted red, as well as the motor trucks for
transportation of inflammable liquids or high explosives. As the need for
combustibles and propellents increases, the world covers itself with a
network of blazing-red kiosks, and this spectacle alone would reveal to a
stranger that he has entered explosive landscapes, in an age where Uranus'
reign begins. 

The strange duplicity which animates the world of symbols gives the color an
effect both menacing and attractive. This manifests itself very beautifully
in the red berries with which the hunter rigs up the snares and nooses for
catching birds. In choleric animals like the turkey and the bull, the
fascination of red is conspicuous in its most provoking aspect – its power
to dazzle. There are also human temperaments that are affected, almost to
vertigo, by a fiery red, such as that of certain species of tulips. 

The acutely appealing effect of the color red makes it particularly suitable
for the marking of objects, intended to be within easy reach. Here, too, the
element of danger usually plays a part, as in the case of first-aid kits,
life belts or emergency brakes. Sometimes this element of urgency has an
abstract character, as in the little red labels which the postoffice affixes
to special delivery letters. 
     The double characteristic of menace and solicitation, attached to this
color, shows itself very clearly when sexual relationships are involved.
Then we find a disquieting scale, ranging from the lurid, almost palpable
gleam of the lamp which lights up the entrance to a house of ill repute, to
the crude and shameless flesh color of the carpets and draperies in the
vestibules of great gambling casinos and pleasure haunts. 
     In the red lips, of nostrils, and of fingernails the color of the inner
skin reveals itself. In the same way we imagine the lining of garments as
red, and it pleases us when their groundcolor appears through the slits of
the outer material or on reverse. This is the meaning of red facings, brims,
pipings and buttonholes and of all red undergarments; in Europe even the
inner parts of the bedding under the coverings are red. This idea extends
also to the interior of rooms and houses, but with a special relation to
magnificence. Rooms of state are entered through red curtains, and at
receptions red carpets are unrolled up to the ramp. Étuis and other jewel-
boxes are by preference lined with red silk. 
     Among the other colors it is yellow which intensifies the excitement
emanating from red; the combination of red and yellow in a pattern evokes
disagreeable and painful sensations. The effect of black combined with red
is still more forbidding, while green generally tempers it. A green
background may even add a somewhat gay quality, as when green swards sets
off the red cloth of hunting coats; but even here the association with blood
is not lacking. Gray, too, has a subduing influence; but if red is
contrasted with white as in the juxtaposition of rouge and powder, of wound
and bandage, of blood on snow, the aspect of blood is strongly underlined.
Pomp and power are emphasized by combinations of scarlet and gold.    An
admixture of white gives red a nuance of gentle charm; one of black, a note
of pride and melancholy. A sanguine empty-mindedness is attendant on the
pure scarlet tones: like the spectacle of fireworks or of waterfalls they
make the spirit captive to movement. The ambition to grow black flowers from
which the last traces of red is distilled by cultivation, is a curious one.
It is the Philosopher's Stone in the field of horticulture. It is true that
every branch of science must needs be hostile to red. 

In any case it requires courage to wear red, and for that reason it is a
color which generally appears as if it had become visible inadvertently, as
in slits or through rents, or in the case of a disarranged seam. The person
who wears red openly and largely displayed is the possessor of power over
life and death, as in the case of high judges, princes, and commanders; as
well as the executioner, to whom the victim is surrendered. To him a black
coat is appropriate, and its red lining shows only at the instant when he
strikes.

The red flag of rebellion indicates the hidden side, or the elementary
material of order. It is, therefore, not an emblem in the proper sense; but
its color appears in the flames of conflagrations and streams of spilled
blood – everywhere when the woven fabric tears apart. There are times when
the red primary matter wells up as from hidden springs and craters and seems
intent on inundating the world. But when it recedes, consuming itself –
surviving only in the Caesarean toga. 

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