/lit/ - Literature

>>16955101
>>16954635
>>16954578
>>16954332
Junger didn't see war in this way. And as pointed out before, the idea of a great shift in his work is mistaken, it comes from people who did not see the essence of his work, especially the later writings, and even misunderstood simple things.

War should be understood in relation to the world plan and law (at minimum the nomos). If it is a matter of spirit it is of values being tested within the shift of time, not the creation of values. The idea of war bringing about a transcendental state, or the cultivation of a strong character is backwards - it is of the reactionary/conservative viewpoint, entirely modern. And in this it is also weakened because it does not see the laws of time, the plan of the age. One may point to the minor flaw in Tocqueville's theory of war given that the colony soldiers proved themselves as equal to the professional Germans. Tested and proven skill was overcome by volunteers who had the instincts of the new form of warfare, and a leadership willing to alter itself and dedicate itself to it. What this points to is elemental strength and something higher than state plans. Germany lost precisely at that moment it lost sight of history and time, the deep law within that allowed for its greatest fighting. With defense in depth, in its early stages, Germany approached the wealth of war, of necessary sacrifice that was of the age but also the enduring myth of the nation. It is no mistake that all of the best fighting took place in this period of 1917, and also that once shifted to a technical, and so limited, plan that no other great victories occurred.

Junger discusses the blind sense of attack that took over in 1918, and the deep nihilism that began to take over the true fighters. He also discusses the immense wealth that was created in the concrete trenches, they were made for living and fighting, but they also served as a means to establish dominion within the battlefield. One can speak of morale here, but what is even more significant is the contest of territory that approaches wealth and sacrifice, much as the ancient battlefields fought over the armour of the fallen. It is within the invisible forces that the utmost tests of war occur.

Goethe said of war that there is nothing greater than to be wounded. Or rather, that there is nothing more accursed than not to be wounded. It is in being wounded that one sees the fortunes of war, without it there is nothing but empty work, and with it the retreat of Ares as the battle lines disappear and one begins to celebrate within the plunder of dominion. All that had been sacrificed begins to form as law, wealth returns to the territory which approached ruin. This is also the highest point in the Iliad, when the heroes are wounded they ascend to the law - each becomes like Nestor, their only concern in raising up the autochthonous forces to their highest.