A review by taitmckenzie
The Glass Bees by Ernst Jünger

4.0

This short strange tale follows an ex-cavalry officer trying to get a job at an automaton factory. While other reviews suggest this novel is science fiction (though closer in fact to the fantastic of Hoffman or Felisberto) marred by seemingly pointless autobiographical-style and often Proustian digressions from the narrator, I actually found this conflict of genres to be integral to the tale. Given that its main theme is the conflict between a classical humanistic worldview and an alienated technological futurity (questioning not only the technological methods of war but also of popular entertainment), the interruption of literary modernist type memories into the fantastic events of the novel is the most effective way for the writing style to tie together and perform the theme and content. Though written in the 1960s, this book feels like it was written 50-100 years earlier, like listening to an old man rant about the kids these days and how good it was back then, at least until he finds some missing ears in a truly Lynchian moment.