totale mobilmachung vs dalmatinischer (=croatia!) aufenthalt

[John King <john.king@st-johns.oxford.ac.uk>]

> "Der Arbeiter", and also the decadent of "Sturm" and of the Berlin of the
> twenties and also the surrealist (according to Bohrer) of "Das
> abenteuerliche Herz" (I). "Hugging the greens" is what he did from 0 to
> 102. I find it sometimes difficult to imagine that the writer of "Der
> totale Mobilmachung" is the same as the one who wrote "Dalmatinischer
> Aufenthalt" (1934). Maybe John would like to share his thoughts on this point.

IMHO, one of the most fascinating things about Juenger and what makes him
worth studying is precisely this tendency towards contradiction,
especially in the early texts. Consider for example, "Der Kampf als
inneres Erlebnis" in its attitudes towards bourgeois, Western
civilisation. J both celebrates the hardness of the (IMHO, literary)
"Landsknechte" and dismisses the working-class values of his "real"
soldiers. He wishes destruction upon conventional society and yearns to be
reintegrated into it. A similar dichotomy can be found in the orignal war
diary. . Or, in the first edition of "Feuer und Blut" Juenger eloquently
(it has to be said) proclaims a new subject, synthesised in retrospect out
of technology, the Nation and a new form of soldierly man - and yet at the
same time attempts to illustrate this new man by referring to Rimbaud's
"Bateau ivre".

It is therefore not surprising that in the late 1920s and early 30s J
should continue to exhibit contradictory inclinations - a yearning for
authenticity outside modernity and recognition - and welcoming - of the
domination of that modernity and an attempt to ground authenticity there.
In the first edition of "Das Waeldchen 125", J both celebrates Hermann
Loens - (in)famous for his rejection of modernity in favour of an
(imaginary) rural idyll - and the domination of modern technology - in the
same book!

So, whilst Juenger's contradictions are fascinating and his writing at
times highly suggestive, I do not think that he is always an appropriate
person through whom to view the world.

Soviel dazu,

JK

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John King
St. John's College	
GB - Oxford OX1 3JP
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