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A review by mezentine
On the Marble Cliffs by George Steiner, Stuart Hood, Ernst Jünger
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
What a fascinating look into the mind of the aesthetic reactionary. I find so much of this book abhorrent that I can't recommend it to anyone on its virtues as a text, full as it is with some of the most pernicious and destructive attitudes of the last two hundred years. It sketches for us a paradise, an idyllic land of vineyards and marble cliffs on the edge of a lake, where young men get drunk on warm summer nights and chase young women laughingly through the streets, where impoverished poets live on the grace of charity and the servants always know their place. Dying soldiers find themselves moved to one final charge by the sound of the bugle, drawing forward the inherent heroism of rushing headfirst into the slaughter. Those of noble blood are rightfully fit to rule, since they are both better able to appreciate beauty and of more magnanimous spirit than the common man. All that is good is beautiful. All that is beautiful is good.
Against them are arrayed the forces of all that is disgusting and abhorrent in Junger's reckoning: from within the depths of the great forest, the brutal Head Forester schemes to destroy paradise. Drawn to him are all manner of undesirables, thieves and prostitutes, gypsies and huns, dwarves and other "vulgar" types. They worship the Head Forester, and aid him in his efforts to spread wanton death and destruction among the people. Its fairly widely accepted that the Head Forester is a thin allegorical stand-in for Hitler, a move which lays bare the complete incoherence of the reactionary traditionalist. Our narrator states explicitly that it is only those of noble blood who have the courage to stand for what is right and just, for liberty and the rights of man, when the commoners have lost themselves to rabble-rousing and disarray. What is contained in here is a fantasy; a fascinating one, and one I wish wasn't so dangerous. Unfortunately we've seen before what these fantasies justify. Read this book as an academic curiosity, with a sharp eye and a critical mind.
Against them are arrayed the forces of all that is disgusting and abhorrent in Junger's reckoning: from within the depths of the great forest, the brutal Head Forester schemes to destroy paradise. Drawn to him are all manner of undesirables, thieves and prostitutes, gypsies and huns, dwarves and other "vulgar" types. They worship the Head Forester, and aid him in his efforts to spread wanton death and destruction among the people. Its fairly widely accepted that the Head Forester is a thin allegorical stand-in for Hitler, a move which lays bare the complete incoherence of the reactionary traditionalist. Our narrator states explicitly that it is only those of noble blood who have the courage to stand for what is right and just, for liberty and the rights of man, when the commoners have lost themselves to rabble-rousing and disarray. What is contained in here is a fantasy; a fascinating one, and one I wish wasn't so dangerous. Unfortunately we've seen before what these fantasies justify. Read this book as an academic curiosity, with a sharp eye and a critical mind.