"Goethe's Faust" in English

When did people in English write the most about "Goethe's Faust"? A search of google books reveals that it was a while ago ...

Faust I and II!

In German: Pact with the Devil vs. the Faustian

For the first time in my life, I realized that the term "Faustian bargain" is not really idiomatic in German. In German, they talk about the "pact," or the "wager," not the "bargain." So I did a search on google books for the phrases "Pakt mit dem Teufel" [pact with the devil] and "das Faustische" [the Faustian]. Note the spike after the Second World War.

In English: "Faustian Bargain"

So I used the new interface with google books, which allows you to search terms in all 5 million books that are in the google books data base. I was stunned to see that the term "faustian bargain" has really only taken off since the 1960s.

Urich Grothus: Sixty Years of Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus

In case anyone finds this interesting, I neglected to write this up during the previous weeks, but the article itself provides interesting insight.


Sixty Years of Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus
Urich Grothus
2008

A fan of Goethe's Faust and the Faust myth in general, Urich Grothus makes a few points about the literature. Firstly, he sees Syphilis as more of a metaphor for a pact with the Devil, which enables Leverkuhn to begin on his musical journey-- "The infection is interpreted as a stimulant to artistic creativity - and as a silent pact with the devil who makes his appearance exactly half-way through the novel, probably only in Lever­kühn’s fantasy." He describes the untreated syphilis as Leverkuhn's undoing in the end, paralyzing him the day he invites his friends over to share his presentation of his "Lament of Doctor Faustus" and to inform them of his condition.

Grothus describes the novel as a parallel for the "entire era from Imperial Germany to the Nazi regime." He describes Zeitblom as definitively non-Nazi, but not necessarily anti-Nazi, as he never actually resists them. Through Zeitblom, Mann articulates his idea that the “good” in German society and intellectual history could not easily be separated from the “bad” and dark.

Grothus goes on to compare Leverkuhn to both Nietzsche and Schoenberg, arguing that the latter is clearly the model for Leverkuhn's musical life, citing the 12-tone music as Schoenberg's invention, and the former for Leverkuhn's "clinical history." He offers a little insight to the relationship between Mann and Schoenberg: "Schönberg, whose sense of humor was not quite up to his musical genius, was furious to be portrayed as suffering from syphilis and being in a pact with the devil (and even feared that future generations might think Mann, rather than he, had invented the system). Schönberg had once said that his system would “ensure the hegemony of German music for the next hundred years”. Even he was not free from the temptation to style Germany as the unique music nation, different from and superior to any other."

Grothus thus describes the desire for Germany to be unique and great-- the Kulturnation-- as the first central topic of the novel; the closeness "of aestheticism and barbarism, of beauty and crime, ...which touches the fundamental role of art in society" as the second topic of the novel; and music-- with Theador Adorno as Mann's musical advisor-- as the third topic.

Comparing modern Germany to the Germany of Mann's time, Grothus says, "the strain of irrationalism that Mann describes and that was so fraught with disaster has all but vanished in contemporary German culture." He discusses the moving away from philosophy as a topic of fascination for the German people-- how few modern graduates have even given the consideration that previous generations have to philosophical works, but philosophy's neighbor, music, has survived.

He concludes saying, "there are good reasons to believe that, finally, democracy in Germany has been the success that Thomas Mann, in Zeitblom’s words, had already hoped for during the Weimar Republic. “It was an attempt, a not utterly and entirely hopeless attempt (the second since the failure of Bismarck and his unification performance) to normalize Germany in the sense of Europeanizing or “democratizing’ it, of making it part of the social life of peoples.”

Faust Entering Other Literature:

I was looking through all of the books I read this semester, and two of them caught my attention and I thought I should relate their Faustian Elements to the Blog.

I read the book "My Wounded Heart: The Life of Lilli Jahn, 1900-1944" By Martin Doerry in my Holocaust agency and Action Class. It is about a German Jewish woman. She is very cultured, she was a doctor until the Nazis closed down her practice. She had several adorable children and a curdled marriage that eventually failed. (Her favorite play was Friedrich Schiller's "The Maid From Orleans." Which is also my favorite!)

In this one passage where she is talking about faith in God, she says "I love God in the rustle of the trees and the wind as well as in the most delicate flower. And I also love God in Mephistopheles." (Page 36)

In other words, she loves the part of God that is sarcastic, adventurous, lustful, and sassy. All aspects that are not pure, but are often apart of growth.

I also read Stephen King's Memoir "On Writing" where he talks about his life, his work and gives anecdotes that help advise writers. Somewhere, he mentions a story he wrote about a mad scientist or doctor who sold his soul, his own modern Faustian Science Fiction.

Goethe really did leave some footprints on the planet of literature. His Faust became the Hauptfaust. His Faust has, and will continue to influence further Literature.

Václav Havel’s Faust Drama Temptation (1985): Or, The Challenge of Influence

Here's the link for the PDF of Bahr's article for my presentation.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/goethe_yearbook/v007/7.bahr.html


Here are my notes:

Václav Havel’s Faust Drama Temptation (1985): Or, The Challenge of Influence

By Ehrhard Bahr

Goethe Yearbook: Publications of the Goethe Society of North America (GSNA) 1994; 7: 194-206.

Bahr began the article by discussing that while the Faust story has been retold countless times, no one has exclusive rights to it (not even Goethe!). Yet, it’s important to note that the Czechs believe the Faust legend remains part of their national heritage since one of the earliest translations was a Czech translation in 1611. The 1985 version was written by Vaclav Havel, a master of absurdist theatre (Their work expressed the belief that, in a godless universe, human existence has no meaning or purpose and therefore all communication breaks down. Logical construction and argument gives way to irrational and illogical speech and to its ultimate conclusion, silence; characters caught in hopeless situations forced to do repetitive or meaningless actions; inadequacy of language to form human connections; nonsense), and a prominent dissident of the “Velvet Revolution” (non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that saw the overthrow of the communist government). He was also a principle organizer of the Czechoslovak human rights organization Charter 77, until he was jailed repeatedly for a total of 5 years. Interestingly, Havel was presented with versions of Faust by Goethe and Mann while in prison, instead of the traditional socialist realism readings, but I’ll talk about the reason for that later. He wrote Temptation after returning home from prison, which turned out to be one of the darkest periods of his life. Being so, he interpreted the Faust story differently, as he attempted to confront the intellectual and ethical problems of his time. His central theme was: “responsibility and the affirmation of individual identity in a time of dehumanizing pressures exerted by the totalitarian state and/or modern society,” which ran parallel to his real life beliefs. Havel expresses that repression and regulation of ideas are the real moral enemies of humanity, and that a “devil” who encourages independent pondering of the deep questions is working for good, not evil. This idea connects to his firm support for dissidents as agents that rebel against a repressive power, which characterized the majority of his political career before he became President of the Czech and Slovak Republic in 1990.

Bahr went into depth on how Havel’s version of Faust was influenced by Goethe and Mann’s versions.

Examples: protagonist’s first name is Henry (Henreich like Goethe’s) instead of the traditional John (Johann); existence of a Margarete figure, named Marketa, who suffers nearly the same fate as her Goethean counterpart; Mann’s motif of a “cutting coldness” radiating from the devil character; appearance and behavior of devil; costume party with Goethean Walpurgis Night theme (everyone dressed accordingly)

Havel goes farther than Mann when his protagonist outdoes the devil in coldness. If you look at scene 9 (p. 61), when Foustka gives in to temptation and thinks he’s manipulated Fistula, the devilish figure’s teeth begin to chatter and he rubs his arms, exclaiming “Man, you must be 100 below zero!”

Bahr then describes the instance where Havel was imprisoned by the secret police of Czechoslovakia, and had a trap set for him. They provided him with Goethe’s and Mann’s versions of Faust in order to distort his statements and ruin his credibility with other dissidents. After reading them, he began to have “strange dreams and ideas” and felt that he was being physically tempted by the devil. He later described this incidence as his greatest moral failure.

Read quote from reading pg. 196

From this experience, Bahr describes Havel’s idea, originally from Martin Heidegger’s existential, of “two souls in one breast.” It became a central idea in Temptation, that it’s immoral to try to shift the blame onto someone else. In other words, “The individual cannot blame other persons or circumstances or shift responsibility onto that “other soul” in his breast. Such an attempt would lead, according to Havel, to the disintegration of one’s own identity.”

Bahr drew his thesis out of this idea. Using the term tessera, which means “completion and antithesis,” he argues that Havel “rewrote the central theme of Goethe’s Faust, namely, the problem of two souls in one breast, because he thought that Goethe had failed to resolve the problem with enough ethical rigor to meet the demands of our times.” Havel had a strong desire to challenge the ethics of the interpretations from the older texts.

In order to prove his argument, he went through the scenes and characters, drawing comparisons and showing how Havel expanded the Faustian myths of Goethe and Mann to accomodate the current state of affairs in Central Europe in the 1980s.

Examples: Dr. Foustka seduces Marketa intellectually, as opposed to Goethe’s Faust’s sexual seduction. In the 20^th century, intellectual seduction is far more powerful; Marketa sent to psych ward which was the customary procedure for handling dissidents in the former Soviet Union…there, Marketa attempts suicide while singing the same song that Goethe borrowed from Ophelia’s Hamlet scene…Foustka lies to save his own skin, not coming to her rescue in the end.

It’s important to note that in Havel’s version, Foustka was not saved by a divine grace in the end. Instead, he was shown ridicule, and his dissidence was trivialized, as shown when everyone began clapping after his impassioned speech on the last page. He was not allowed to get away with his corrupt behaviors of manipulation. As he was not shown as a positive figure, Havel used Foustka’s negative aspect to address his own personal moral failure, and to allow the audience to realize within themselves what is good. Since Havel lived througha tumultuous political era, this interpretation of the Faust story was necessary as a model for dealing with the totalitarian past of Central Europe. He essentially provided an ethics for dissidents in the post-totalitarian states of Eastern Europe.

Vaclav Havel's Temptation

As I was reviewing Temptation by Havel, I noticed that the first translation of Temptation appeared in the Index on Censorship in 1986. I also noticed that one of the stage directions is to have rock music played in scene intervals and during the intermission. The rock music reminded me of Tom Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll (great play, by the way!), which is about the emergence of the democratic movement that took place between the Prague Spring and the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia. Rock 'n' Roll, like the title suggest, incorporates a lot of rock music.

I love coincidences. Both Tom Stoppard and Vaclav Havel are both from the former Czechoslovakia. More importantly, Vaclav Havel was the last president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the Czech Republic.

I am enjoying the social/political satire of Soviet Europe in Temptation because I am so intrigued by dissent movements. The Scientific Institute certainly clamps down on what Foustka and dissidents in society have to say. In addition, there's the whole creepy Fistula spy thing going on and the end scene of everyone except Foustka assimilating and dancing in tune to the music.

Havel's Temptation

I was actually the dramaturge for a production of Havel's Temptation at Eugene Lang College, the New School for Liberal Arts.

Here are some photos of the show.

And here's another link.

Liszt: Faust Symphony and Dante Symphony

The previous post by one Stussah (he he he) reminded me of something, and I was not entirely sure what it was, till Youtube, sadly, once again came to the rescue.
Allow me to share with you a symphony by one of my favorite pianists/ composers- Franz Liszt

Now, not a person remotely talented musically, or educated beyond a few years of flute, I consider myself still able to appreciate a good tune.

The Faust and Dante Symphonies, ladies and gentlemen, by Franz Liszt:




(I like the fact that geeks and composers have helped us reach a point where we can embed entire playlists as flash frames. Just keep clicking next above to listen to the full thing.)

Dante and Goethe

I have started (and will most likely finish over Winter Break) Dante’s Inferno, the first part in The Divine Comedy. It is a classic that I have wanted to read for some time, and now I have finally allowed myself to make my nerdy dream come true. After reading the first Canto, and snooping through some of the commentary provided by the editor, I realized how Faustian this book is.

Evidence in Canto 1:

First line Dante is traveling through the “Midway on our life.” Like Faust, he is Middle-Aged and restless.

Dante cannot handle his restlessness, thus, he “found” himself “now searching” in line 4. Also like Faust Dante has a strong thirst for knowledge, something new.

Further on in the Dante finds a savage Beast. The feline beast is Unfaustien because it “blocks progress”. I interpret the Beast represent the lethal politics of the Catholic Church. Dante was exiled from Florence in 1302 due to his political beliefs that the church found unsavory. This large feline is chasing him, and Dante fears for his life, but he is rescued by the poet Virgil. When Dante meets Virgil, he is Star struck. It would be as if I meet Margaret Cho, or Professor Tobin met the Ghost of Herr Goethe. Dante meets his literary inspiration, his hero. Or, as he puts it “the light and glory of all poets” in line 82.

In the next line, 83, Dante talks about his “ceaseless care” in his study of Virgil’s poetry. The element of Care allowed him to study Virgil’s poetry, to open Dante’s eyes. In the story of Faust, on the other hand, Care blinds the protagonist. Another interesting difference in this story is that Virgil is sentenced to live on the outskirts of hell, where as Mephisto works in hell. The guide in Dante’s story is captive, where as the guide in Faust’s story is a collaborator.

Another interesting similarity (outside literature and present in the author’s realities) was the fact that there were both politicians. (Goethe in real life and Dante in real life).

Exorcising the Devil from Thomas Mann's "Doktor Faustus"

Hello class!
Last week I talked about Karin Crawford's article Exorcising the Devil from Thomas Mann's "Doktor Faustus"
A write up on my presentation can be found here.
A link to the article on JSTOR can be found here.

During class time, we had a guest lecture from Professor Korstvedt from the Music Department on dodecaphonic music and we listened to pieces from Schoenberg.

By Thanksgiving we should hand in our creative writing pieces, based on pp. 382-283, the Thomas Mann style characterizations. We should also be beginning our research for our papers!

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

The Overwhelming World of Faustian News Articles

I decided this week that I would Google News Search the terms “Faustian bargain”. I was surprised at how many different news items were described in this way – a demonstration of just how much the US has integrated the Faust myth into its culture.
Here are links to some of the articles, categorized and with a brief description. If nothing else, it’s a good way to keep up with some current events!

Politics/History/Science:
Scientists, officials and others once affiliated with the Nazis were allowed to come to the United States after World War Two and contributed to important scientific developments.

The pros and cons of energy sources

Geoengineering

The Pakistani-American political relationship

Entertainment:
Scary celebrity children taking over the entertainment industry

Chelsea Handler’s new publishing imprint

Sports:
Payment of college athletes

Yankees players’ high salaries

Dare by Abiola Abrams

This is the book I was talking about in class - the African American Faustian novel :-)

This is the link to Abiloa Abrams' homepage where you can find out more about her and the book and the story behind the story!

FiredUp Presentation

Women Characters in Doctor Faustus

Brigitte Prutti

1. The Mother Figures

Elsbeth Leverkuhn: We have a maternal figure not included in the classic story of Faust. In Adrian’s childhood world, music is manifested on a personal level concerning both mother and stable-maid.

While Mother uses her voice with restraint, Hanne is unbound by reservations. The motif of the “stable-warmth” of music returns to his childhood influence.

Adrian’s musical history begins with this system based on simple melody and its repetition.

There is also an episode when Mother Faust is speaking with the music teacher Kretzschmar: she is possessive of her son while he wishes to “fling himself into the arms of music.” -----Here music substitutes maternal love by portraying how Mother Faust is jealous of the musical “bride” that is to replace her.

Mother Schweigestill tells a story that closely resembles Adrian’s own experiences. About a girl who wants to be seduced and is willing to sacrifice her life for the seduction. This parallels to Adrian’s willingness to be enveloped by music and the sacrifices he makes when he achieves his own seduction.

2. The Female “butterfly”

The transparent butterfly of his father’s mystical speculations about nature remain with Adrian through his childhood memories when he calls the prostitute “Esmeralda”.

The inspiring Muse, the “eternal feminine,” becomes an agent of the poisonous “angel,”, the devil. The social inversion makes a prostitute out of a seemingly “heavenly Muse”. By having sex with the diseased woman, Adrian gains the desired breakthrough of creative inspiration, even though this liberation comes at a deadly cost. His sexual desire becomes the sinful pact with the devil. The enhancement of his creativity via his illness requires Adrian to direct his sexual energies into art.

Her existence as a social outsider and her “otherness” are captured by the image of the exotic butterfly. As a destructive force, the woman is simultaneously the instrument of artistic inspiration.

THERE IS ALSO another thought to keep in mind: That Adrian’s attachment to music is pictured as a wedding. Adrian the female, music the male. Only after his encounter with Esmeralda, the natural genders are inverted. Adrian’s longing “demonic conception manifests itself in copulation; only after he is impregnated with the disease does he obtain his full male creative potency in art.

Without her, the conservative revolution in the music of Adrian would not be possible.

THE LITTLE MERMAID> She sacrifices her tail in order to have human legs, but every step she takes is like walking on sharp pins. She sacrifices her life for a human soul. “There are pains that one gladly and proudly take sin the bargain with pleasures so enormous, pains such as one knows from a fairy tale, pains like slashing knives, like those of the little mermaid felt in the beautiful human legs she acquired for a tail.”

3. Women of the World

Frau von Tolna: sympathizes with Adrian and supports her understanding of his work. Her gift to Adrian was a ring inscripted with a “hymn to Apollo, by Callimachus.” Apollo a Greek god can bless with healing and curse with death from his arrows.

When Zeitblom recalls Adrian’s encounter in Graz, he summons “Apollo and the Muses in order to talk about the event. Zeitblom realizes that through Arians encounter with Esmeralda, “that love and poison here once and forever became a frightful unity of experience; the mythological unity embodied in the arrow.” The relationship between Esmeralda and Tolna is their “structural identity”, their personifications of the unity of “poison” and “healing” female love, as it manifested in the double function of the god Apollo.

Dante's Passage at the Begining

I found a translation at this website. It would not allow me to copy and paste. Scroll down less than 2 pages and you will see the translation of the passage in Dante's Inferno.

http://www.slideshare.net/AutoSurfRestarter/doctor-faustus-the-life-of-the-german-composer-adrian-leverkuhn-as-told-by-a-friend-by-thomas-mann

I found it interesting that some quotes are related to Zeitblom andothers are related to Leverkuehn.

The quote "and I myself alone prepared to under go battle, both of the journeying and of the pity"This reminds me of Zeitblom's isolation and loneliness due to the fact that he craves Adrian's recognition of him as an individual. (Adrian and him are not pare-du.) Theses lines are also very Faustian because the person going on the journey has the courage to face painful experiences in order to gain knowledge.

The part of the passage that reminds me of Adrian is the calling of the muses, towards the end of the quote. In my opinion, Adrian wanted Esmeralda, not only Esmeralda in all of her beauty and glory, but also her disease. Adrian wanted the disease because he knew that his genius would crescendo with the malicious microbes.

Doctor Who

So ever since I've started this class, I keep looking for examples of Faustian characters in day to day life. My friends and I really like this show Doctor Who, which is about a time traveling humanoid (known as a Time Lord) who maintains balance in the universe. As a whole, the show does not seem to relate to Faust themes but one episode entitled The Family of Blood Part 2 really struck me as Faustian. The Doctor is not a human, he is an alien but in this episode he becomes human and falls in love. (By the way I'm going to spoil the end of the episode, just a heads up). However, at the end of the episode he turns back into a Time Lord. As the Time Lord, The Doctor travels the universe, seeking adventure, and solving conflicts. He cannot remain in one place- or tarry- because it is his duty to protect the universe and he loves exploring. At the end of this episode the woman begs him to stay with her and part of The Doctor wants too. However, his desire for adventure and knowledge is too great and he ultimately rejects her and becomes a Time Lord once more. This reminded me of Goethe's Faust, who wants to live with Margarete and marry her but is too tempted by the acquisition of knowledge and thus will not tarry.

I would highly recommend this series as it is awesome!

Leverkuhn bumper sticker

Insanity: A Small Price to Pay for Sheer Brilliance

http://www.zazzle.com.au/insanity_is_a_small_price_to_pay_for_brilliance_bumper_sticker-128147455910514572

Illustrations by Harry Clarke in Goethe's Faust (1925)

I love the feel of an old fragile book. More than that I love old type. But most of all, in this context, I like intricate illustrations, rich in metaphor and skilled in their portrayal of the text, that compliment the old feel of page, text and type.

I stumbled upon (I mean literally, not by way of any memory-hogging toolbar) a copy of the 1925 New York edition of Goethe's Faust printed by Arden Book Company.

What is special about this particular edition, you ask?

Well, this is the edition which contains Harry Clarke's illustrations.

Here are samples that I took screenshots of:
(Click on the images to enlarge.) And please DO see them enlarged!






























The non-copyright version is available as a PDF file from the Archive.org website. Here is the link where you can download a scanned copy of the book.

Presentation in Class

Today, Thursday, November 4th 2010, was my turn to present an article in class.
I chose the article The Duplicity of the Devil's Pact:Intimations of Redemption in Mann's "Doktor Faustus", by Susan von Rohr Scaff for the presentation.

The Stable URL version can be found on the JSTOR database here.

My writeup on the presentation can be found here. It is a Word document that can be downloaded to your computer.

"We are lost"

I was reading a paragraph on p. 186 ["Yes, Monsignor Hinterpfortner....out of control"] and it struck me on two threads. First was the underlying foreshadowing/&comparison between Germany and Leverkuhn. The second was a passage with very Faustian imagery.

"We are lost. Which is to say: The war is lost, and that means more than a lost campaign, it means that we in fact are lost-lost, our cause and soul, our faith and our history. Germany is done for, or will be done for. An unutterable collapse- economic, political, moral, and spiritual- in short, an all-embracing collapse looms ahead. Not that I would have wished for what threatens us, for it is despair, it is madness."

"...liars and frauds then prepared a stupefying poisonous home-brew. That wild intoxication- for constantly yearning to be intoxicated, we drank freely, and under that illusory euphoria we have for years committed a plethora of disgraceful deeds-must not be paid for."

A slight briefing on modernism and Mann's Doctor Faustus

For my presentation, my source was Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus: A Novel at the Margin of Modernism, edited by Herbert Lehnert and Peter C. Pfeiffer. The book is a collection of essays regarding Thoman Mann’s Doctor Faustus. In the introduction, Herbert Lehnert remarks how Doctor Faustus displays awareness of a change of an era in the 20^th century; hence the book’s title regarding modernism.

The book’s notion of modernism revolves around Western society. At the beginning of modernism, religion had a strong influence on morality and social rules. This religious influence was slowly replaced by a secular morality. Modernism features rejection of the certainty of Enlightenment thinking and a revolt against conservative values of realism. Modernism features much ambiguity. Instead of presenting socially-acceptable characters, a modern novel reflects the many faces of a society. A novel playing to modernity does not subscribe to one set of moral codes.

Doctor Faustus deals with modernism as an era, the consciousness of the end of that era, and the transition to the new era of postmodernism. Mann accomplishes this by making Leverkühn be like the original Faust and having allusions to Luther and Nietzche. In the novel, Leverkühn is the modern artist, and Zeitblom is a typical middle class German. Leverkühn represents the creative mind and artistic amorality and immoral use of power. Zeitblom has all of the cultural characteristics of the bourgeois class. By having these two characters symbolize different facets of German society, Mann puts German high culture with creativity against modernist tradition, which is based on reason and guided by religion.

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!