German High School Musical: Faust

I tried unsuccessfully to think of what to write as an introductory paragraph for the following masterpiece, made by some intrepid high school kids somewhere highly unimportant.

Basically I Googled the terms 'high school musical' and 'Faust' together, not entirely certain why.

Here is the result:

Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:

While I was online...

I was online earlier today trying to get some inspiration for our paper due tomorrow and I found this:

http://web.quipo.it/frankenstein/mythoffaust.htm

It's interesting to see different aspects of Faust and different perspective. I feel like it really tied a lot of things together and provided new insights. Plus the background information is really useful.

Sorry here is the cartoon.

Funny Cartoon

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/cgo/lowres/cgon473l.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/g/goethe.asp&usg=__oDLLuKlbOBJBf3ryHDBBc09OuE4=&h=329&w=400&sz=48&hl=en&start=14&zoom=1&tbnid=0

I have got to say I very much enjoyed this cartoon.

Musical Fausts

A good list of compositions (mainly classical) that reference the Faust story.

Gounod's Faust in Text

In case any of you are interested, here is an English translation of the text to Gounod's Faust.

Link here!

Faust, Der Übermensch, & Leslie Nielsen's Close Encounter

In last week’s class, we briefly talked about Nietzsche’s understanding of the pursuit of knowledge as an attempt to flee the tragedies of existence. With Nietzsche in mind, could we see Faust as a sort of Übermensch? Indeed, Nietzsche’s “Übermensch” ideal states that the self should naturally be held as one’s highest priority, and certainly Faust’s egocentricism led him to sell Mephisto his soul from the get-go. But Faust never really wished to escape the Lord's authority, much less ever actually did.

I would say that, although he would appear to have achieved the status of “Übermensch” during his rule of Holland, what truly definitively separates Faust from Nietzsche’s concept of the ideal/authentic human is the fact that Faust never really recognized his ontological potential: unlike the Übermensch proper, Faust sold his soul because he was at no point in his diegetic lifetime forced to confront his existential angst directly and therefore never articulated his transcendental purpose as a human being. Faust was fed up with his worldly status, but instead of trying to realize his place in the realm of existents, he instead repressed his admission of ontological submission to God and sold his soul to Mephisto, the embodiment of negation and non-existence, the representative of the realm of the imaginary.

In this sense, the story of Faust (especially of Goethe’s portrayal) is much like the 1956 science fiction masterpiece Forbidden Planet. For those who have never watched this monument to Classical Hollywood cinema, this film tells the story of a star ship crew (commanded by no other than Leslie Nielsen) and its encounter with a planet that was once inhabited with a race of super intelligent aliens. The planet’s only current residents, a wise old scientist, his flirtatious twenty-something daughter, and Robbie The Robot, reveal the greatest creation and ultimate cause of extinction for the LONG gone former inhabitants. As it so happened, the aliens built a massive, city sized underground machine that could turn pure thought into physical reality. Obviously this didn’t fare well for the aliens, and neither did it for Leslie Nielsen and his men, who suffered the same wrath that the alien civilization had hundreds of thousands of years prior.

Ok, so what does a ‘50s sci-fi blockbuster have to do with classical Faust? Just as Faust’s ambition for omnipotence equated to mass suffering, so to did the extinct alien race of Forbidden Planet amass the power of the imaginary and mythical into reality in a similar vein. Both instances involved successful attempts to harness the powers of that which does not exist and somehow rendered such hyper-realistic power physically with tragic results: Faust did so with the help of the Devil, while the extinct race of Forbidden Planet achieved similar ends with science, knowledge, and technology, the “postmodern Lord” in a sense.

Returning to my initial point, an Übermensch, though ultimately embodying the potential for such power as described above, would never actually suffer the same existential fate as Faust did, or literally fall prey to his/her own abilities par the thematic discourse of Forbidden Planet. I would say, then, that Faust is not an Übermensch: though he flirts with the (metaphorical) rendering of the Übermensch’s boundless abilities, insofar as such ability is only obtainable (much less conceivable) upon authentic ontological articulation before Heaven and nothingness, Faust proves himself unable (or subconsciously unwilling) to recognize his place/purpose as a physical inhabitant of Earth, and therefore succumbs to the transcendental abilities that he cannot actually control.

Left vs. Right in Gounod's Faust

As I was watching Gounod's Faust, I noticed that Mephisto wears his cloak over the right shoulder. I studied Latin for several years during high school and, during that time, we learned that Romans would wear their cloaks (or whatever other drapery they were wearing) over their left shoulders because to them, the right side was the "good" side, and therefore the left side was bad or "evil" and should be covered. (Though it was still developing, this was most certainly furthered by, if not started by, Christianity, which places Christ at the right hand of God, indicating good). In addition, the Latin word for "left" is "sinister"-- sound familiar? This is indeed the root for the modern English equivalent.

Goethe!

The new Goethe movie coming out in Germany ...

For the 21+ Crowd

So I got curious about where else we could find Faustian references in non-traditional places, after hearing about the Mephisto shoes last class, and sure enough, this exists:

http://www.drinkemporium.com/product_detail.php?id=169

It's a Polish Vodka, and apparently it has a smooth finish and a non-acidic taste. I'm still a year off from being able to partake myself, but if I have ~$40 to toss around a year from now, I'll report back and let you all know how it is.

Also, I love how although it's Faust Vodka and not Mephisto Vodka, the logo still appears to be the devil. Interesting how a lot of people get the two mixed up.

Gounod's Faust

As an opera fanatic, it was a total delight to watch Gounod's Faust with you all tonight!

Seeing it performed reminded me that Faust was at some point intended to be seen on the stage, and I felt like I established much more meaningful connections with the story, seeing it performed as opera.

Converting Goethe's Faust into a lover's tragedy (with redemption for both at the end!) translates the story perfectly to the theatrics of an opera stage. Faust and Margerete's "j'taime" lovers duet was breathtaking both at the first time they met and in the final prison scene.

However, here is an interesting dilemma I felt while watching the opera tonight:

I am aware that Faust I ends with Margerete's soul being saved, and most people do not read Faust beyond book one, but I am still wondering if this version of the Faustian is story is still, well, Faustian.

Faust was not presented to us as a scholar in this opera, and his reasons for making a deal with the devil had to do with youth and desire, not skepticism or the desire to achieve more than what humanity had to offer. And while Faust is the man who brings Margerete to ruin in the opera, I did not detect the major Faustian theme of the constantly moving and modern Faust destroying the unmoving and constant traditional.

Another thought I had on this opera was that there did not seem to be a main character. The length allowed us to connect with Mephistopheles, Faust, Siebel, Margarete and Valentino alike, by giving them all songs to sing with insights to their inner conflicts.

The portrayal of Margerete was especially strong. The fact that her aria was about her desires, her love of the jewels and vanity gave her a lot more depth than just a poor, chaste girl seduced by Faust. The same goes for the fact that in the opera she is undoubtedly a Kindesmoerderin. She becomes a multi-faceted characters, who is still overwhelmingly good, and recognizes that something is amiss with Mephistopheles and also during their love song, is skeptical of Faust's love for her and begs him not to break her heart, because she would die for him.

One thing that I am especially glad did not change was the awesome-ness of Mephistopheles, I absolutely loved his pimped out red sequined cape and hat. His air-lute solo which he did not mean to sing to Valentino was an example of the humor that he always managed to bring into the Goethe text, and his humor came as an overwhelming relief from the operatic drama that we were already almost 2 hours into viewing.

I am very excited to hear all of your thoughts on the opera as well!

Theodore Ziolkowski's The Sin of Knowledge

On Thursday in class I gave a presentation on Theodore Ziolkowski's The Sin of Knowledge. Ziolkowski has an interesting thesis that certain characters become mythic figures because they represent the folly of questing for knowledge. I found the book to be an interesting read, but did not find the theoretical analysis particularly engaging. At the end of this post you will find a link to a google docs version of my summary of The Sin of Knowledge, which is too lengthy for a blog post.

Click here to read my write up.

Democratic Deals

Earlier in the semester, Prof. Tobin posted an article from the New York Times suggesting that Obama and the Democrats had made a Faustian bargain. Apparently, that's a comparison that the New York Times has been making for decades, since I found an article describing Clinton's deal with the devil (I'm talking former President, not current Secretary of State).

The article says that the deal Bill made was that we, as a nation, would agree to overlook his infidelities in exchange for his policies. If you're interested, you can read it here.

I'll have to look into whether or not similar comparisons are made about the Republicans.

Holland!

Particular attention was paid today about Faust's land reclamation and creation of Holland in Act V of Goethe's Faust II. It's pretty crazy stuff, all those canals and Faust's vexation at the ocean.

The Holland thing reminded me of my awesome 6th grade world geography class. I remembered how my teacher went on about how Holland should be underwater. So just now, I Wikipedia-ed Holland, and, sure enough, Holland does have a precarious geography.

Holland had major problems with the ocean breaking through the sand dunes and the major rivers flooding. Most of the area was marsh, and, in the 10th century, people cultivated the land by draining it, which lead to soil sinkage. This soil sinkage put the country at very great risk of catastrophic flooding from the ocean. To avoid making Holland a series of barrier islands, dikes were built to protect against the ocean. In the 16th century, the people of Holland took the offense and began land reclamation projects, in which they turned lakes, marshes and mudflats in polders (low-lying land enclosed by dikes).

And the photo is of two levees in Holland.

Faust in modern artwork

I was looking around YouTube and I stumbled onto a series of videos depicting scenes from Faust. Here's one of the links.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdoTFVAJwXY

This particular video focuses on Faust, Mephisto, and Marguerite.

Modern Margarete

While listening to my usual bitter, angry fem-rock the other day Alanis Morrisette's "Hands Clean" came onto the play list. It is about a young woman who has a lustfully forbidden romance with a (much) older man. An affair that ends up causing her pain, yet it was a pain she wanted to experience.

Sound familiar?

The video , I thought I might post on here, it is subtle and artistic, yet comprehensible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GP_yr-UA7E&ob=av2e

Faust Idol...

Does this remind anyone else of the first Walpurgis Night scene?
Amazingness.

Not so much the lyrics, but the setting.

African-American Faust

faust - the african-american, in the witch's kitchen :-)

http://theater.nytimes.com/2006/05/04/theater/reviews/04faus.html

Homunculus

Here's one visualization ....