*Faust
Faust, I & II -Goethe
Strange.
Part I, which I’d read before, was legible, full of action, tragic, and, indeed, dramatic. Part II was hifalutin, abstruse, very sexual, discombobulating, and wonderful. My favorite storyline (there were many) was that of Homunculus, the sarcastic incorporeal man-spirit, who accompanied Faust and Mephisto on their journey to Ancient Greece (in search of Helen of Troy), to find himself a form to inhabit. Quickly, (as went most of Part II, either quick or at an enormously poetic standstill), and with hardly any background or buildup, the little mansprit spots his ideal form in the passing sea goddess Galatea (a non-sequitur cameo), falls in love, and in a semi-onanistic climax, sacrifices himself before her to be deposited as the lowest form in the sea, where he will eventually, over millennia, evolve up the ontogenic ladder to become, or reincarnate, Galatea herself (which all takes place in about three pages). But Homunculus is only one of many sidebars. In fact, the entire “drama” of part II seems constructed exclusively of sidebars. Even Faust himself doesn’t seem to find much page space, and when he does, he usually poeticizes obscure references to ancient forms of magic or deities. But, somehow, despite, and also because of, a few hundred pages of nearly pure orgasm (greeting, courting, foreplay, even bodies barely exist in part II), it is a wonderful read. Not to mention the two philosophers, a Vulcanist and a Neptunist, arguing about the origin of a recently appeared mountain.
Concerning Part I: the story of Gretchen is one of the most gruesome and ruthless I’ve ever encountered. Yet Goethe still tells it playfully. And a misconception (my own) that has been righted: Faust initially “sold his soul” to Mephisto, not for knowledge, but for the experience of all human experience. Which, omniempiricus, is much more interesting than omniscience or omnipotence. Faust longs for the whole gambit of human experience, all the way to even the sadness of loss, and the ultimate loss: “Heap all their joys and troubles on my breast, / And thus my self to their selves’ limits to extend, / And like them perish foundering at the end.”
Faust retranslates the first line of John’s Gospel:“In the beginning was the Deed!”
Faust’s first words when he wakes up after time-traveling to ancient Greece (concerning Helen): “Where is she?”
Learned something about Goethe in the footnotes, that he supposedly hated bells.
“Freedom and life belong to that man solely / Who must reconquer them each day.”
And the last words of the play, “The Eternal-Feminine / Draws us onward.”
Strange.
Part I, which I’d read before, was legible, full of action, tragic, and, indeed, dramatic. Part II was hifalutin, abstruse, very sexual, discombobulating, and wonderful. My favorite storyline (there were many) was that of Homunculus, the sarcastic incorporeal man-spirit, who accompanied Faust and Mephisto on their journey to Ancient Greece (in search of Helen of Troy), to find himself a form to inhabit. Quickly, (as went most of Part II, either quick or at an enormously poetic standstill), and with hardly any background or buildup, the little mansprit spots his ideal form in the passing sea goddess Galatea (a non-sequitur cameo), falls in love, and in a semi-onanistic climax, sacrifices himself before her to be deposited as the lowest form in the sea, where he will eventually, over millennia, evolve up the ontogenic ladder to become, or reincarnate, Galatea herself (which all takes place in about three pages). But Homunculus is only one of many sidebars. In fact, the entire “drama” of part II seems constructed exclusively of sidebars. Even Faust himself doesn’t seem to find much page space, and when he does, he usually poeticizes obscure references to ancient forms of magic or deities. But, somehow, despite, and also because of, a few hundred pages of nearly pure orgasm (greeting, courting, foreplay, even bodies barely exist in part II), it is a wonderful read. Not to mention the two philosophers, a Vulcanist and a Neptunist, arguing about the origin of a recently appeared mountain.
Concerning Part I: the story of Gretchen is one of the most gruesome and ruthless I’ve ever encountered. Yet Goethe still tells it playfully. And a misconception (my own) that has been righted: Faust initially “sold his soul” to Mephisto, not for knowledge, but for the experience of all human experience. Which, omniempiricus, is much more interesting than omniscience or omnipotence. Faust longs for the whole gambit of human experience, all the way to even the sadness of loss, and the ultimate loss: “Heap all their joys and troubles on my breast, / And thus my self to their selves’ limits to extend, / And like them perish foundering at the end.”
Faust retranslates the first line of John’s Gospel:“In the beginning was the Deed!”
Faust’s first words when he wakes up after time-traveling to ancient Greece (concerning Helen): “Where is she?”
Learned something about Goethe in the footnotes, that he supposedly hated bells.
“Freedom and life belong to that man solely / Who must reconquer them each day.”
And the last words of the play, “The Eternal-Feminine / Draws us onward.”
posted by JohnWashington at 4:55 PM
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