Life as a Work of Art
Picked up Rüdiger Safransk's biography of Goethe, Life as a Work of Art, translated by David Dollenmayer, in a bookstore before the shop closings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Reading this well-written work in the last few days before I turn 50, I found it very suggestive about the development of an artistic character. From young, Goethe was keenly aware of his immense creative gift, but learned in his young adulthood to apply his gift to the "objective" world of politics, finance, and science, in order to grapple with "reality." Astonishing too was his capacity to fall hard in love, right up to his eighties.
"The example of Shakespeare had taught Goethe what characterizes a great dramatist: he doesn't identify only with his hero, but grants all his figures the right to life." (82)
"He notes in his diary, Every work of man has what I would call a smell. As, in a rough sense, a rider smells of horse, a bookstore a little of mildew, and a huntsman of dog, it is true in a finer sense as well.... A master does not dream in generalities.... When the time comes for him to act, he takes hold of whatever is needed now. Thus, the sense for the correct intervention means in the political realm that all arrogance must wither away. Only then can beautiful strength prove its worth." [Italics are Goethe's words] (195)
In our actions were are always without conscience. No one has a conscience except in contemplation. (221)
"Goethe took pride in his ability to lead this double existence.... And his double existence did not mean the two spheres were entirely separate. Only in the innermost reaches of my plans and resolutions and undertakings do I remain true to myself in a mysterious way and thus tie my social, political, moral, and poetic life back together again in a hidden knot." (262)
"Goethe's model of sociable education is also play, a party game if one will, in which people act "as if." Civilized manners are called for, not uncompromising authenticity, not the tyranny of intimacy or the blunt protestant candor of Luther's "Here I stand, I can do no other." In society you have to be able to "do other." What is needed are measured doses of the words and actions that allow us to slide past one another and float over chasms of difference." (344)
"Knowledge and self-knowledge deserve their names only when they promote and serve life. The function of knowledge is to preserve and enhance life. If it undermines the powers of life, it doesn't deserve to be called knowledge, for then it is only an expression of enmity and the destruction of self and others in the guise of knowledge. The art of living consists in repelling or keeping at bay these hostile powers. For Goethe, the will to know is integrated into the art of living. That is why he could become an exemplar for Nietzsche." (454)
We love only that is individual; hence the great pleasure we take in portraits, confessions, memoirs, letters, and anecdotes of the deceased, even if they were insignificant.... One cannot hold it against the historian...that he searches for results; but what is lost in that search...is the individual human being. (454)
"Faust hears the clang of spades and thinks it is the sound of work on his humanitarian project of land reclamation—I open land for many, many millions. In fact, they are digging his grave." (539)
[From Goethe's letter consoling his friend Zelter whose stepson killed himself] And so it is in all the tales of sailors and fishermen. After a storm at night, one reaches shore at last. The soaking man dries himself off and the next morning, when the glorious sun reappears on the shimmering waves, the sea regains its appetite for figs. (551)
"The example of Shakespeare had taught Goethe what characterizes a great dramatist: he doesn't identify only with his hero, but grants all his figures the right to life." (82)
"He notes in his diary, Every work of man has what I would call a smell. As, in a rough sense, a rider smells of horse, a bookstore a little of mildew, and a huntsman of dog, it is true in a finer sense as well.... A master does not dream in generalities.... When the time comes for him to act, he takes hold of whatever is needed now. Thus, the sense for the correct intervention means in the political realm that all arrogance must wither away. Only then can beautiful strength prove its worth." [Italics are Goethe's words] (195)
In our actions were are always without conscience. No one has a conscience except in contemplation. (221)
"Goethe took pride in his ability to lead this double existence.... And his double existence did not mean the two spheres were entirely separate. Only in the innermost reaches of my plans and resolutions and undertakings do I remain true to myself in a mysterious way and thus tie my social, political, moral, and poetic life back together again in a hidden knot." (262)
"Goethe's model of sociable education is also play, a party game if one will, in which people act "as if." Civilized manners are called for, not uncompromising authenticity, not the tyranny of intimacy or the blunt protestant candor of Luther's "Here I stand, I can do no other." In society you have to be able to "do other." What is needed are measured doses of the words and actions that allow us to slide past one another and float over chasms of difference." (344)
"Knowledge and self-knowledge deserve their names only when they promote and serve life. The function of knowledge is to preserve and enhance life. If it undermines the powers of life, it doesn't deserve to be called knowledge, for then it is only an expression of enmity and the destruction of self and others in the guise of knowledge. The art of living consists in repelling or keeping at bay these hostile powers. For Goethe, the will to know is integrated into the art of living. That is why he could become an exemplar for Nietzsche." (454)
We love only that is individual; hence the great pleasure we take in portraits, confessions, memoirs, letters, and anecdotes of the deceased, even if they were insignificant.... One cannot hold it against the historian...that he searches for results; but what is lost in that search...is the individual human being. (454)
"Faust hears the clang of spades and thinks it is the sound of work on his humanitarian project of land reclamation—I open land for many, many millions. In fact, they are digging his grave." (539)
[From Goethe's letter consoling his friend Zelter whose stepson killed himself] And so it is in all the tales of sailors and fishermen. After a storm at night, one reaches shore at last. The soaking man dries himself off and the next morning, when the glorious sun reappears on the shimmering waves, the sea regains its appetite for figs. (551)
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