/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.21705158]

holy shit

[Anonymous No.21705166]

[Anonymous No.21705225]

>>21705158
Apparently there a different versions of the book, as Jünger kept revising it. I can read German, but not sure what version to read.

[Anonymous No.21705468]

>>21705158
>expect deep and powerful meditations on the phenomenological transcendence of war and the revelation of the sublime absolute in a hailstorm of shrapnel and artillery shells
>get extremely boring reportage of the day-to-day minutiae of an upper-class officer who just constantly makes his orderlies bring him cheese and wine to his bunker behind the frontline
Dreadful. Absolutely dreadful. Put me completely off Jünger and I haven't read anything else by him - a shame, because I don't doubt his later works might have merit, but this was written by a 25-year old, and it shows, oh it so painfully shows.

[Anonymous No.21705476]

>>21705468
Damn that's disappointing and something I was afraid of. But it sounds true.

[Anonymous No.21705485]

>>21705468
Just for that soldier, double sentry time

[Anonymous No.21706750]

>>21705476
He's wrong as fuck, Junger rules

[Anonymous No.21706775]

>>21705225
All are good, 1929 version is best

>>21705468
>Filtered

Jünger's other stuff is great too. Mandatory reading other than storm of steel:
On the marble cliffs, the forest passage, The adventurous heart: recordings by and night, the worker, eumeswil, leaves and stones

[Anonymous No.21707653]

>>21705468
>expected le marvel epic fight slop
>instead got an actual aristocratic description of modern industrial warfare
you almost had to actually understand human experiences outside of memes, wow

[Anonymous No.21707822]

>>21706775
The Glass Bees is also good

[Anonymous No.21707866]

[Anonymous No.21707884]

>>21707866
Masterwork. The sovl of Deutßchland; sprawling, illimitable... vgh..

[Anonymous No.21707934]

>>21707866
Gott, Ich wünschte das wäre ich

[Anonymous No.21707949]

I like Junger's philosophical essays a lot. It's a shame that I can't talk about him in public
>>21705468
>upper-class officer who just constantly makes his orderlies bring him cheese and wine to his bunker behind the frontline
holy based I need to read this

[Anonymous No.21707951]

>>21705468
Why would you expect that from this book if you knew anything about it prior? If you didn't do you go in to every WWI novel expecting it to be nothing but dread and horror?

[Anonymous No.21708005]

>>21705158
Holy based.

[Anonymous No.21708008]

I read this book recently. Absolutely loved it. Would any knowing anons be able to recommend other works by Junger please.

[Anonymous No.21708019]

>>21708008
Copse 125
Cannot be Stormed by Salomon

[Anonymous No.21708115]

>>21707653
>>expected le marvel epic fight slop
>>instead got an actual aristocratic description of modern industrial warfare
>you almost had to actually understand human experiences outside of memes, wow


"Why would I read Junger when I could re-watch Thanos compilation videos on YT for the fiftieth time?"

[Anonymous No.21708129]

>>21705485
>>21707653
>>21707949
Extremely online nerds bootlicking an aged and effette “aristocracy“ because they didn’t have fathers and learned about hierarchy yesterday are something else

[Anonymous No.21708149]

>>21708129
lol you really had to make up that whole ass imaginary scenario and post it just to feel good about yourself, huh?

[Anonymous No.21708666]

so did you fuck those belgian women?

[Anonymous No.21708675]

>>21708129
That whole post is sad, anon. Why did you write that? YOU'RE the one who only learned about hierarchy yesterday >:) and now you're trying to cope with the eternal, scientific knowledge that "hmm...maybe someone smarter and better than me" by throwing stones of petty gayness blindly into the dark of le interwebz

[Anonymous No.21708700]

>>21706775
is eumeswil really worth reading? its one of the only fictional engagements with stirners ideas ive heard of but apparently its kinda just a shitty book

[Anonymous No.21708704]

>>21706775
I found it mindnumbingly boring and juvenile, and yes, that filters me. Are you able to tell me why you like it? What's so great about it? Can you articulate it?

>>21707653
This really isn't the case at all, and the only one conceptualizing human experience in memes is you.
I expected him to try, in the literary form, to convey the absolute or transcendence, as experienced in war, in much the same manner that the other early modernists of the time had, though not via the medium of war - Thomas Mann and Knut Hamsun in particular, which Jünger would surely have read given his background, and who both do so masterfully via stylistic innovations, and therefore, earned their place among the greats.

The criticism I get for my opinion really does nothing but strengthen my believe that this book is juvenile. "Nuu-uhhh he's not bad it's just that you WATCH MARVEL". I mean this is just deranged.
As for the juvenile aspect, tell me, and honestly, do you also listen to Sabaton?

>>21707949
Give it a shot if you feel like it. It is not particularly interesting in regards to literary form. He writes like a journalist. If you find the subject matter very interesting, then by all means, go for it.

>>21707951
You're misunderstanding me - dread and horror can absolutely be transcendent experiences or experiences of the absolute, I mean, that's Heidegger's ENTIRE shtick, Kierkegaard's as well. What I expected was that there would be philosophical meditations or literary inventions that could reflect or convey on that, but it reads like a 300 page newspaper article.

[Anonymous No.21708745]

>>21708704
How daft can you be not to feel that his style encapsulates the “lived experience” of the war so much more succinctly than any Remarque bullshit.
His final stand and fight for survival when the british outflanked his unit is a better read of a climax than any Shakespeare work.

[Anonymous No.21708769]

>>21708745
I haven't read Remarque but sure, I'd imagine he is worse. Worse than a reportage would be a reportage that moralizes relentlessly. It might be that Jüngers style encapsulates the lived experience of war - reading Orwell's Homage to Catalonia and his experiences from the spanish civil war, one does get the impression that the most constant aspect of war is quotidian boredom, and that is exactly what Jüngers style conveys - but is that what you mean? I'm not so sure.
>His final stand and fight for survival when the british outflanked his unit is a better read of a climax than any Shakespeare work.
It really isn't. I'll freely admit it is an extraordinary experience, truly monumental and far beynd what most men will experience, but his conveyance of it in literature is just slightly better than mediocre, not much different than the climax of Monte Cristo or Harry Potter (oh you're gonna be really fucking angry now, I jest, I jest) - and really, how could it not be? He was 25. People know Shakespeare's lines by heart because they are sublime, I really don't think anyone, even fanboys, feel the same about any passage of Jünger's Storm of Steel.

[Anonymous No.21708819]

>>21708769
you seem very narrow minded.
You won’t remember a specific line from Jünger but anyone whose read the work could create their own paragraph mimicking his short sentence, simple style and plot instantly, and it would be recognizable and unique to others who’ve read it.
Storm of steel hits differently than conventional literature but it still hits.
Both oughta count for something, but you don’t want to appreciate that because of some reason than certainly has nothing to do with the work and its content itself. That’s for sure.

[Strange Love No.21709032]

>>21708704

>What I expected was that there would be philosophical meditations or literary inventions

Better read Eumeswil then. Hope you can do so in German, I am quite sure the English translation does butcher it, he likes to use wordplay.

[Anonymous No.21709056]

>>21705468
You either didn't read it or didn't read between the lines. Idiot.

[Anonymous No.21709067]

>>21709032
Sure. I mostly read German when I read Heidegger, but I could really use the training in reading something in German that isn't so profoundly linguistically idiosyncratic. I am doing Das abenteuerliche Herz first, as that seems more interesting, and if that's nice, I'll try it out Eumeswil, thanks for the rec. But not for months, I need plenty of palate cleansing.

>>21709056
Could expand a bit on what I missed?

[Strange Love No.21709083]

>>21709067

If you can into German you might also wanna try Heliopolis, it is similar (and within the same fictional universe) as Eumeswil. Btw might try Das abenteuerliche Herz too, currently free slot on my reading list anyway. Concerning In Stahlgewittern, it is very "mechanical" in its style. Sehr deutsch, you need a certain mindset to enjoy it ... I'd compare it to finding joy in the idea that the Paris-Geschütz did use a sequence of shells with progressively larger diameter (sure calculated down to a very low engineering tolerance) to deal with the issue of extreme barrel wear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QdsxX-ngUY

[Anonymous No.21709095]

>>21709067
Junger never ever comes out and outright explains what he's thinking, at least in Storm of Steel. His style is very journalistic and factual, true, but you are supposed to look at what he's saying, or not saying, and consider things from there. He's deliberately (maybe half-unconsciously) understating his experiences.
>A man in a steel helmet reported to me as a guide to conduct my platoon to the renowned Combles, where for the time we were to be in reserve. Sitting with him at the side of the road, I asked him, naturally enough, what it was like in the line. In reply I heard a monotonous tale of crouching all day in shell-holes with no-one on either flank and no trenches communicating with the rear, of unceasing attacks, of dead bodies littering the ground, of maddening thirst, of wounded and dying, and of a lot besides. The face half-framed by the stell rim of the helmet was unmoved; the voice accompanied by the sound of battle droned on, and the impression made on me was one of unearthly solemnity. One could see that the man had been through horror to the limit of despair and there had learnt to despise it. Nothing was left but supreme and superhuman indifference.
>One can fight with such fellows.

[Anonymous No.21709604]

>>21708700
It's very obviously written by an eighty-year-old man, so much of the book is just the main character sitting and thinking.

It's useful for understanding his other book The Forest Passage. I read both a few years ago; I'm thinking of rereading them again now that I have a clearer idea of ideas such as positive liberty, which I think is the concept Junger's philosophy fits into.

[Anonymous No.21710848]