On Tue, 16 Feb 1999, Brown wrote: > theogony. He has a keen interest in theology and persues it continuously > in his readings. Also it would not be like Jünger to show remorse over > something which he had no control. Now it is important to note that EJ's > view of fate is very complex and cannot be reduce to those simple > statements which were mentioned above.
It is interesting to note the quasi-religious dimension to a lot of EJ's writings in the 1920s (ok, it is my field of research!). Beneath the technicist and nationalist rhetoric is a deep-seated desire to regain a sense of meaning and certainty. Religious language is present even in the introduction to the first edition of "In Stahlgewittern" - "Dies ist mir Evangelium, ihr seid nicht umnsonst gefallen", he writes addressing the fallen. Further indications that this is what is happening beneath the virulent and (today shocking) nationalism is given by a couple of articles: 1. "Die Heilige im Automobil", a review of Georges Bernanos' (the French Catholic novelist) novel "Journal d'un cure de campagne". Here he discerns a "Wille zum Glauben" (will to belief) in post-First World War Europe - indeed, he claims that "Das Abenteuerliche Herz" is about this will which, he says, is in itself insufficient. 2. "Zum Jahreswechsel" (Vormarsch, 1928). Here he criticises nationalist journalism's tendancy to produce dogams centred on words such as "Schicksal (fate)", "Glaube (belief)", and "Blut (blood)". Given that a substantial part of his own journalism had tended to do just that, it follows that he was aware that he himself had this "will to belief". So, I would suggest that his nationalism had less to do with political programs and rather more with a confused and confusing attempt to find a religious faith with martyrs, sacraments (blood), certainties. At the same time, he had an anarchistic streak (cf. his enthusiasm for the rural terrorists of the Landvolkbewegung), a futurist element (cf. his enthusiasm for advertising and film), a hyper-modernism (cf. his declarations that nationalism was more up-to-date than liberal republicanism) and a sort of post-modernism (cf. his rejection of universal claims and his insistence on difference and relativism), mixed up at times with very conservative language. All very confusing, I know - but typical for Juenger, not black and white. JK ============================================================================== John King St. John's College GB - Oxford OX1 3JP ==============================================================================
