Ernst Jünger - The Glass Bees BOOK REVIEW
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#ernstjünger #theglassbees #stormofsteel #yukiomishima
Literally only person i going to sit and watch and think and listen carefully how your give opinions on things and enjoying it in full 30 without skipping
Great review! I wanted to mention that Jünger was a personal friend and correspondent of Heidegger. You can see parallels between this novel and Heidegger’s thoughts on technology. The idea that man’s thoughts, once embodied in the form of a tool, actually acquire their own being. When we create something it’s often not apparent what it’s full potential is!
Have been waiting for this one. Your work on Jünger is always great
3:17 Cliff if you are interested in Jünger I really recommend you take a look at the work of spanish philosopher Antonio Escohotado. He was a friend of Jünger and Albert Hoffman, and an expert in the history of drugs and economy. Really interesting figure who was very pro lefty in his young years and hippie (having founded one of the most succesful night clubs in Ibiza: Amnesia) but gradually he develop into a sort of libertarian. I think his magnum opus, the general history of drugs, is translated to english.
Really like Jüngers later work. Eumiswil was pretty good in my opinion.
Ernst Junger fought in WWI in the trenches. From this experience came one of the finest war books I've ever read, "Storm of Steel." There's a great audiobook version.
literally every major book and essay he wrote after his gradual transition from expressionism towards surrealism is more inspired and insightful than In Stahlgewittern ...
Our present cultural pass was seen plainly by some back in the 50s. PKD wrote "Autofac" and Fredrik Pohl "The Midas Plague" about the awful marriage of advancing tech and consumerism going on to pillage the world. Jünger was head-and-shoulders above those men in craft terms, but the fix was in and they all three, among others, saw it. As always a pleasure to hear your thoughts about life, literature, and the world. Thanks.
Hey - thanks for your videos. I've been catching the last few and find your choices wonderfully odd and strange and most intriguing. I"m a novice to the world of literature and your choices are very new to me and inspiring. Just wanted to let you know, I am appreciating your efforts, very much. All the best.
Great review! Jünger was one of the greatest writers of the XX century. This whole "was he a Nazi/was he not a Nazi" is a silly, he lived 102 years, was a 19 year old lieutenant in the Kaiser's army, lost a son to Nazi executioners, knew about the plot to kill Hitler and yet did nothing to stop it or to warn Hitler about it which would have been greatly beneficial to his military career, hung out and helped every artist and dissident in occupied Paris, and then lived on to write some of his best works after the wall went up. He saw the early days of German reunification and the birth of the EU, he was a maverick writer and lived more in one lifetime than most men live in a dozen lifetimes.
With "On the Marble Cliffs" you definitely have something to look forward to. In fact, this novella was the first work of Jünger's that I read.
Thoughtful review of a complex subject, Cliff. I loved Jünger's On the Marble Cliffs(1939). I often confuse this title with the great The Glass Bead Game (1943) by Hermann Hesse. Another author of the time when Art had to be defended from the tarnish of history.
The psychological feature of having no fear is an interesting phenomenon. Like all human traits it too can be the result of many developmental paths that are very different but end up looking the same on the surface. In Jünger's case, maybe he was hardened by the war. Many Vietnam veterans have told that they found it difficult to stand everyday life after their time in war. It was bland and too safe - meaning that it was hard for ex-soldiers to experience excitement in things they had enjoyed before the war. It was also hard to connect with civilians who could not relate to war experiences.
I just encountered the same pattern expressed by a drug addict in recovery. She said that on heroin she had no fear. The drug in itself probably produced that kind of an effect, but it must have been also the product of living on the edge, constantly on a high risk and among very unreliable people. If you survive the risks again and again, you grow fearless. (video: I Did It. What It's Like Being One Year Sober From Heroin)
Psychopaths are fearless and some people with PTSD are too. Psychopathy may have a physiological origin in some cases.
Why take heroin in the 1st place? I had mulitple moments in life I could get into alcoholism... but I didn't.
@@Stoigniew666 well done you. no really, well done you.
I don't know if you read oldish comments, but:
1. I took a break from your reviews, unknowingly. This is one of the better moments at 12 AM when I realise there's a sector of excitement/enjoyment that I'd forgotten about.
2. I had Jünger on my list for the past month. Good timing!
3. Had Jünger on my list due to currently being in an Isherwood phase. Not nearly as metal and gutted as Jünger's ideas - but a very very enjoyable writer. Did you read any of his stuff?
4. I was on the brink of emailing you about why the Bataille project imploded. "Imploded" maybe a bit strong ... Do you plan on having a video explaining what you'd initially wanted to do, how far the idea developed, why it didn't work out?
Thanks for making life less boring ...
Ten years before Jünger, Georges Bernanos wrote an essay titled "France vs the Robots". It's a collection of critical texts about the new industrial society, with machinism and automation, that was emerging from the ruins of ww2. Dunno if an English translation is available.
Jünger was very knowledgeable in classical antiquity and the fact poets and prophets were traditionally compared to bees would not have escaped him. Perhaps this book also explores what happens when a civilization's beating heart and mind become replaced by an artificial and soulless mimesis.
Once again I'm here watching you discuss the author and philosopher who has had the greatest effect on my life, and I am overjoyed. I love to hear your thoughts on him. A while ago I used your video about 'On Pain' to introduce my best friend to his work. I look forward to when you get to 'Der Eumeswil', a dense book that offers a path towards that totally free Jünger that's hard to place, but wonderful to be around
Hope you can review the Forest passage in another video. ❤
Ernst Jünger is the GOAT
Brilliant author run down. Well written.
Fantastic review as always,
Not to take anything away from mishima... but imagine the disappointment he felt.... he spend his whole life planning this theater act... 1) Nobody could really hear him and his grand speech over the sound of the crowd, to which he might have thought he should have brought a microphone or something... 2) Expecting the sword to connect and in 1 glourious strike, finish him off... only for it to take 3 or 4 tries... what was going through his head that moment?
Very interesting video and opinions. As a german it is sometimes difficult to appreciate the work of Jünger "in public", mostly caused by his self-proclaimend political "desinvolture". Jünger is one of the strangest characters and to set his biography and beliefs apart from his work is a colossal task. A task that not everyone is willling to accomplish.
he is like the german version of Louis-Ferdinand Celine
Why would you want to "set his biography and beliefs apart from his work"?
@@stargazer4326 As we all seem to like opinions that match our own, some of us tend to ignore the works of people with other political views etc.
In this case, someone might miss something pretty unique.
Hoping for The Heart is a Lonely Hunter soon
Interesting! Seems like 1984 meets Invention of Morel.
Hey man, enjoying the review so far. What you said about Mishima's nationalism collapsing into fantasy got me thinking about a passage he wrote in Runaway Horses. It stood out to me because of how directly anti-nationalistic it was - made me wonder if it was an internal conflict he was having at the time. Will post below - as always, awesome stuff dude.
"If one took this concept a bit further, one encountered an extremely pessimistic line of thought: the substance of evil was to be found more in blood brotherhoods by their very nature than in betrayal. Betrayal was something that was derived from this evil, but the evil was rooted in the blood brotherhood itself. The purest evil that human efforts could attain, in other words, was probably achieved by those men who made their wills the same and who made their eyes see the world in the same way, men who went against the pattern of life’s diversity, men whose spirit shattered the natural wall of the individual body, making nothing of this barrier set up to guard against mutual corrosion, men whose spirit accomplished what flesh could never accomplish. Collaboration and cooperation were weak terms bound up with anthropology. But blood brotherhood... that was a matter of eagerly joining one’s spirit to the spirit of another. This in itself showed a bright scorn for the futile, laborious human process in which ontogeny was eternally recapitulating phylogeny, in which man forever tried to draw a bit closer to truth only to draw a bit closer to truth only to be frustrated by death, a process that had ever to begin again in the sleep within the amniotic fluid. By betraying this human condition the blood brotherhood tried to gain its purity, and thus it was perhaps but to be expected that it, in turn, should of its very nature incur its own betrayal. Such men had never respected humanity."
You should review Bronze Age mindset
Excellent review. Also a really nice job of discussing his ideological and philosophical complexity. I believe that whatever we may think of his politics, he seems like an author well worth reading. I also dig Mishima in spite of what some would call the "problematic" nature of his politics. I don't let that stand in the way of aesthetic appreciation.
I think you were too distracted by the author's background for this review. You should have focused more on the book itself.
What a fascinating man
experience that amount of dynamic climax in life is crazy like a
8min, what about Celine, Hamsun and Ernst von Salomon?
This is Blade runner before do robots dream of electric sheep? Replicants, just like Three corp, or Wallace in 2049.
Such an early critique of AI. Thoughts of Ted K more and more often, wonder if he’d read this as well. Does this count as retro-futurism? Junger’s description of complex machines from a 1930’s perspective that is
Retro-futurism implies a technology that didn't come to pass. If he was just straight up describing stuff that happened that's just being a prescient writer
Aw man I want to read this. Also thanks for introducing me to Knut Hamsun, he became a favorite.
…speaking of controversial 20th century authors 😂
I don't know what it was exactly, but this video was firing on all cylinders for me. It couldn't have been an easy video to figure out.
...the stache must come back!
Right when you said "It's quite dystopian" the video stopped for a Domino's ad. Talk about dystopian
Eumeswil also has a 'go with the flow' motif
Hey Cliff,
I keep having a problem with your description with Mishima and Junger as fashy. I've read both of them, and I've read Gentile and Austrian Painter as well. Given your description of how Junger understands technological advancement as a negative, and his disdain for industrial warfare, I don't see that lining up with My Comf or Doctrine of Stick Bundles and how they view the state and technology. So my question is as follows:
When you call Mishima and Junger fascist artists, is your use of the word the best you can do to describe their aesthetic? Or is it a description of their politics?
Sincerely, Nobody
P.S. I apologize for the sophomoric use of alternative terms. I'm trying to dodge the algorithm.
Looks like you own Solenoid if my eyes don't deceive me.
Sounds like roboticist Wily Wonka.
Your ceiling fan is on
God damned auto
correct, Tyrel corp.
You're sponsored by a publisher, and they send you free books? How do I get in on some of that? lol
Fascist according to Wyndham Lewis, "You as a fascist stand for the small trader against the chain-store; for the peasant against the usurer; for the nation, great or small, against the super-state; for personal business against Big Business; for the craftsman against the Machine; for the creator against the middleman; for all that prospers by individual effort and creative toil, against all that prospers in the abstract air of High Finance or of the theoretic ballyhoo of Internationalism." Wyndham Lewis, British Union Quarterly, 1937
Ferdinand Celine wrote beautifully but he also was an ardent fascist and gave ss officers in Paris locations of Jews. Strange times.
Yeah. Also, when the list of Literary Fascists is discussed I always like to ensure Pound is included - definitely the first writer I was exposed to who was clearly brilliant and totally reprehensible. I like Cliff’s reflection on this in general, but felt that he went a little to far excusing “casual” anti-semitism in this review. Mann was not wrong.
also Knut Hamsun, a great writer and a very horrible person
Invited by a recluse visionary to a factory? … Willy Wonka
Wow your review just meandered. Are all your videos like this?
Wow, people like you actually exist?
I think you take kinda a long time to get to the point, was he a schmatzi? Yeah probably. He certainly doesn't pass the Vonnegut "you are what you pretend to be" test. Was his work exclusively propaganda like others who fit that description. No. Is choosing to read his work transgressive on its own. Maybe. Is it valuable outside of its soldier worship? Spend more time on that please.
"Yeah probably" - No he wasn't. He has to include this segment because of people's perceptions like yours
@@stargazer4326, if you have to say someone was technically not something ~(21:27) it typically means that there is a silly distinction with a concerning lack of difference for those willing to accept the apologia.
As a German, I have encountered a lot of bad stuff about Ernst Jünger. Like Knut Hamsun, he was a proto-fascist. The nationalist ideas that are immanent also in the book you discuss would go on to influence the Conservative Revolution which is where both the NSDAP and the current nazi revival in Europe got most of their ideas from. I'm not typically for cancelling literature based on their political implications, but this goes far beyond Houllebecq. I hope you'll consider not raving about Jünger as much in future videos or at least make it come with a reader warning of some sorts.
Ernst Jünger is an interesting guy who lived a fascinating life. His morality as basically alien to most people today. He wrote interesting books, and book review channels should talk about him more.
@@primusinterpares5767what's so interesting about his life, then?
Or about his ideas? Anything besides being non-conformist and amoralist, which you can also find in works by authors who didn't publish in nazi magazines, didn't call Hitler's speeches 'groundshifting events', didn't write pamphlets for a total revolution under the banner of the swastika.
For my two cents, the whole super-individualistic and kind-of esoteric thinking of guys like him and Hamsun - the reason why people still respond to them / find them interesting - cannot be seperated from their fascist political ideas. Also read Oswald Spenglers 'Untergang des Abendlandes' (a work admired by Jünger) for that matter, where he calls for the rise of true individuals and names Caesar and other dictators as prime examples.
There is no current Nazi "revival". They're not getting the old band back together for one more tour of the golden oldies, no matter what fear-mongers like to sell you. It's been nearly 75 years. We should get over it by now. Time to move on confidently in to the current century. Repetition compulsion and trauma reenactment is mental illness.
I would give the followers of this channel enough credit to let them make up their own mind about Junger.
Embarrassing and immature post from a German. To state that the Conservative Revolutionary Movement had some sort of linear link to the NSDAP or a supposed "current Nazi revival in Europe" is shockingly ignorant of the history of that Movement and the time-period. It is not a secret that a lot of those same Conservatives were killed in the Night of the Long Knives.
Asking for a reader warning or suggesting that OP covers Jünger less is disgraceful. Let go of some of that guilt, it has been nearly 80 years.
Interesting! Another 20th century author who has been labeled a fascist is Giovanni Papini. Admired by Borges. He reminds me of Huysmans. I haven't been able to get any of his books yet but what I've read from elsewhere is that Papini's book Gog, for example, has some weird shit going on, like the protagonists buys one hundred pig hearts, bottled in alcohol, still beating. And he "collects" famous men (Nero, Napoleon, Voltaire etc), by inviting their lookalikes to his house dressing them up in their fashion and teaching them their famous phrases. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Papini
Another famous fascist author is an Italian writer Curzio Malaparte.
Warfare has not become, how to say this.. universally immoral or unjust because of modern technology. How justified a war is still depends on its cause. Just look to Ukraine and why each of both sides fight. Ukraine discovers it's own greatest generation right now and the greatness of their deeds is not changed by drones, AI systems etc. in the slightest.