Provoked by recent discussion on the evolution of Ernst Jünger's works over his career, I pose a theoretical, though I believe revealing, question to the other readers of this list.
Did you first come to reading Ernst Jünger through later or through earlier works? My thesis is that the great difference in world view and emphasis between for example Stahlgewittern or Der Kampf als Inneres Erlebnis and Eumeswil or Aladdin's Problem sets up an initial prejudice in the reader, which only slowly evolves, if at all, as they move onto works from other periods. Conformist public opinion (ie literary criticism, media) also either supports or confuses the reader´s early first-hand impressions. (And it may be that they even came to their first reading after picking up someone else´s opinion of the author - in which case IMHO they start with a handicap.) Bear with me as I first relate my experience, through which an evident prejudice in favor of the latest works has formed. I first read Eumeswil, then Annäherungen Drogen und Rausch, then Aladdin´s Problem and probably then Die Schere. I was captured as I have never been by any other author. Then I came to read Stahlgewittern, Der Kampf als Inneres Leben, Der Arbeiter etc. With the exception of An der Marmor Klippen and Abenteurliches Herz I found them somewhat disappointing, shallower, less transcendent. Only as a last step did I came to literary criticism, and here I learned that he indeed had a controversial reputation based on these and other earlier works. Which surprised me, irritated me, and, now that I understand its basis, merely disappoints me. My current status is that I read these early works primarily in order to be able to discuss the author as a whole with other readers, not to be uninformed that is. I am secondarily motivated by a weak and not at all convincing idea that they might be important for understanding the, from my point of view, more essential late works. To be clear, I about the validity of this second motivation - it may be that one can assimilate by far the greater part of all that Jünger has to contribute by exclusively reading everything after, let´s say, Der Arbeiter. This is a simplification, an artificially sharp distinction between "early" and "late", but given our limited time on this earth and our only-too-human limitations, it is convincing enough to me to demote a study of the early works to the lowest priority. This is my experience, which I suspect is uncommon and, as such, a provocation for others on this list who came through a different path to Jünger. I am looking for enlightenment on the matter, which state I do NOT presume to have reached. Please therefore, tell me of YOUR experience - auf Deutsch oder Englisch, ist mir egal. Thank you in advance! Simon Friedrich
