Dear John, well the question is interesting. In fact there are many comparison between Grass and other contemporary writers in the french press. (But who is reading the french press afterall ???). But none evoked EJ. One is a parallel between Fest and Grass : "Deux destin allemands" in last week Le Monde. It is a good one since they are two main characters of the contemporary german intellectual landscape. But what's the point of comparing Grass and Jünger, since they were in a very different position in 1945 ? The former was in the bunch of the anonymous german crossing the conflict, the latter was famous and - in a way - put under the light, that is to say watched out, by the nazis. I am sure Jünger would have prefer to be, at that time, as anonymous as Grass. When in 1944-45 he left the army and came back home, it was a way to do so. It is striking to see that in Eumeswill he identifies himself with, what we could define as a "rather distant but close from the power character". I still believe that Eumeswill is the key of any political reading of Ernst Jünger works and life. Well we may also try to compare both destiny in 1914 and 1945. But how it is difficult to do so in our "post-enthusiasm era" as Sloterdijk coins our time. Maybe another parallel is to be found with the young character of Jeux Africains and EJ joining the french foreign legion ? Something very transgressive for a german at the time ! To close this interesting debate let me add that in today Le Monde there is a parallel made by a police officer (I am serious) between Grass and Ignazio Silone. This is what we call in french : "Une vision policière de l'histoire". Best regards O. Bosc -----E-mail d'origine----- De : jejk...@btopenworld.com A : Envoyé le : Lun 28 Aoû 2006 18:09 Sujet : Fw: [Juenger-list] Grass and Juenger - "and the first shall be last"
Not seeing much reaction on this list is not at all surprising, unfortunately... we've all got rather passive over the last few years. >I'm surprised to have seen no commentary either on this list or in the >German press (as far as I am able to follow it from afar) on the seemingly >natural comparison between these two authors' relationships to Nazi Germany >and the public's corresponding perception of them. I did notice a brief >comparison in this context between Heidegger and Grass in Die Presse (Wien) >a week ago, but of Juenger nothing at all. I'm not overly suprised. Jünger and Grass are of different generations and adopted quite distinct strategies for working through the experience of the Third Reich, the Second World War and the experience of defeat and displacement. Furthermore, the places they were assigned in the discourses of the last sixty years were also quite different. >As an unabashed fan of Juenger (and someone who always firmly believed in >the correctness of both his attitude to the Nazis and towards public >justification of this attitude), I find it hard not to view the current >controversy with some relish. I don't dislike Grass, I am rather >indifferent, but I was disappointed when Grass received the Nobel Prize at a >moment when Juenger was another logical candidate who was passed over. Frankly, the current discussion is a storm in the proverbial teacup compared to what it might have been ten or fifteen years ago. My personal feeling is that Grass is all the more credible for having been in the Waffen SS. Nonetheless, I can quite understand why he considered it politic to keep quiet about it. >Juenger was passed over not because of the quality, originality and >contributions to peace of his work, but because of the persistent >stereotypes of his purportedly dubious relationship with early National >Socialism. When scholars and "ordinary" readers finally begin to occupy I respectfully submit that the reason is because Grass is a better author, in particular of fiction. "Heliopolis" or "Die Blechtrommel" - not really a fair comparison ;) And if you ever read the article "Revolution und Idee" in the "Völkischer Beobachter", that would generally tend to relativise "purportedly". The "dubiousness" comes not from membership in or direct colloboration with the NSDAP but in the areas of overlap between the NSDAP and other elements on what is generally called the "extreme right" and with which Jünger was quite definitely associated. >themselves with something other than Juenger's early works, this stereotype >will slowly erode and his works will be studied and 'studiable' by the >public without prejudice. The opposite seems to be true of Grass. In This is already the case. It is indeed also the case with his early work, unless you are dealing with those who still endlessly repeat the post-Second World War right-left debates on Jünger where the actual content of his work seemed to play a secondary role. >contrast to Juenger's transparency and integrity from early on, despite >rather individualistic and unpopular views, Grass said nothing of his own >clear enthusiasm (and so late in the war, when the moral aspect of the >picture was clear!). In reward for his cowardly but clever silence, he wins >the Nobel Peace Prize. And only when his own mortality and conscience begin >to threaten him late in life does he risk coming out of the closet. Grass did not win the Peace Prize, he won the prize for Literature, which is what I'm sure is what was meant. (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1999/index.html) So, we have Jünger on the one hand who, in an attempt to deal with the legacy of the First World War, writes extensively in national-revolutionary journals as an adult, and on the other Grass who as an impressionable teenager volunteers for U-Boot service but is instead assigned to the Waffen-SS... One might even suggest parallels in the anti-bourgeois gesture, breaking free from the constraints of the parental home into the dubious adventure of active military service, in 1914 for Jünger and thirty years later for Grass. Greetings from Hamburg, jk _______________________________________________ Juenger-list mailing list Juenger-list@juenger.org http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/juenger-list _______________________________________________ Juenger-list mailing list Juenger-list@juenger.org http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/juenger-list
