Posts Tagged ‘Balzac’
Mythical Tetralogy of Richard Wagner: Masterpieces manipulated and abused by Germany bourgeois class
Posted by: adonis49 on: December 15, 2014
Mythical Tetralogy of Richard Wagner:
Masterpieces, the Ring or Chant of Nibelungen, manipulated and abused by Germany bourgeois class
The 20th century political/economic system in Germany disseminated this myth that German culture doesn’t care about society composition but mainly about the individual human spirit.
This tendency of setting Germany culture apart from western Europe’s Latin culture and the Slovak culture was initiated by manipulating Goethe’s work in the 19th century.
Unlike Dickens, Thackeray, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Balzac, Zola… masterpieces that envisioned the world in its social aspect, The German culture wanted to see the masterpieces of Goethe, Nietzsche, and Wagner as representative of the human in his absolute quest that is crystalized in the myths of the primitive people, the in-temporal poetry of the nature and of the heart.
This cultural explanation was used by Imperial Germany as an expedient for the dissemination of mythical concepts in order to resolve the tenuous organization of its social/economic system “All I want is the popular story“. The Nazi movement took it to its ultimate level of how it interpreted National Socialism.
This genius poet/musician or musician/poet of Wagner had to seek refuge in Switzerland after the failed uprising of Dresden in 1849. It is in Zurich that Wagner composed most of his masterpieces. The German term elend, which means misery, originally meant being in a foreign country, and that is how Wagner felt in his first few years in Switzerland.
And it is from Zurich that Wagner felt deceived by the successive enlargement of the Prussian Empire to include all of Germany and part of Austria.
Wagner wanted that his mythological story goes as far as the origin of mankind and as far as the myths went back in time. Myths not linked to the Scandinavian or German Medieval myths.
He wanted to take care of the primitive nature of a myth in its simplicity.
And Wagner production was not done in a linear manner. The first work was Gold of the Rhine in which Wagner described the primitive life of the natives who didn’t care about wealth, gold or power. He then composed the Death of Siegfried, but had to wait until he produced The Valkyrie, Lohengrin, Tannhauser and the Youth of Siegfried. Why?
Wagner was composing for the masses who were more apt to understand and appreciate the primitive way of life and Not for the bourgeois elite society.
However, the little people need a continuity in the story and need to the genesis of the story first thing first and thus, what took place before the death of Siegfried was essential for the tetralogy and Wagner worked 20 years before he presented his first work.
“The initial plan didn’t include many of his works “This is not what I wanted, but now it must be and may God come to my rescue”
The ambition in the great work has its source in the work in progress as the author seeks larger reach than he initially endeavoured.
“The most little of detail is the fruit of a happy inspiration”
“Enthusiasm has the greater part in my plan and Not the fruit of reflection. But it is wrong to understand the power of reflection: In a period of high culture, the artist work cannot but be born from full consciousness.”
Without primitive music his dramas would have lost a great deal of their poetic values.
The music of the original period in mankind history must be incorporated in the ears of the audience before the audience hear the music in the last episodes.
For example, the motif in the question of the kid’s impatience to get tot know who is his mother, the heroes of a race from an enslaved God who wanted his descendants to live the life of the Free without a God, the rapt of Alberich, the ballade of Senta, the incestuous hymn of Siegfried and Siegelinde, the malediction of love, malediction of gold in the mind of Wotan.
In the beginning was the River Rhine.
Creating the myth of the music and its genesis and knowing that Love and Fear are intertwined so that only music can disseminate these intricate feelings.
The German bourgeois society was initially appalled by the tetralogy, but as it gained momentum and appeal to larger section in society, this bourgeois class ran with it and usurped the masterpiece to give it a nationalistic mythical dimension.
The colonial powers could now send the little people to the colonies under the motto: “What is good for the Nation (elite class) is necessarily good for the citizens”
Note: Read the essay of Thomas Mann “The Nobleness of the Spirit“
Famous Manuscripts Banned by the Vatican: (Part 2, April 19, 2009)
Thousands of literary works were indexed by the Vatican from around 1200 to 1966.
Virtually no author was spared indexing. Pascal, Descartes, Locke, Spinoza, Rousseau, Kant, Diderot, Stendhal, Lamartine, Hugo, Flaubert, Balzac, Saint-Simon, Proudhon, Zola, Sartre, and even Gide were indexed for part of their work.
Voltaire was the most indexed: each of his manuscripts was automatically indexed before reading it. Voltaire would occasionally sign Ecralinf meaning (Let us crush the despicable infamous Church of Rome).
Ironically, Darwin, Karl Marx, and Hitler were spared INDEXING.
“The Defender of Peace” by Marsile of Padua (Rector of the University of Paris) is published in 1324 and banned by the Church. The manuscript said that the function of governance does not suit the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) because this urge for domination of the Church is the bane of all discords. Communities should be governed by their own councils.
Baruch Spinoza published “Treaty on Theological-Politics” in 1670. He is excommunicated (herem) by the Jewish Wise Men of the synagogue of Amsterdam and later indexed by the Vatican. Spinoza claimed that the Torah is false, that soul dies with the body, and that God exist only philosophically. Religions instituted a God with 7 main characteristics so that their logical scaffold can hold: God should be One, Unique, Omnipresent, has absolute authority and rights over everything, that obeisance to God consist in justice and charity, that Heaven and Hell are the consequences of our behaviors, and finally that God is forgiving because everyone is a sinner. Faith does not dwell on whether God is fire, spirit, light, or thought.
Pierre-Augustin de Beaumarchais published “The Wedding of Figaro” in 1781. This manuscript said of the aristocrats “You were given the pain of being born, and nothing else”; and thus was blamed for disturbing the social construct. Beaumarchais published also “The Barber of Seville”
“Praise of Folly” (L’Eloge de la Folie) by Erasmus of Rotterdam was indexed in 1511. Under the mask of irony, Erasmus creates a Foul dominating the World and supported by ignorant idiots with humongous Ego; he attacks the theologians and scholastic specialties whom thrive in adding subtlety over subtlety in order to obscure any kind of comprehension. In just the same century, the manuscript is re-edited 600 times.
“The Prince” of Nicolas Machiavelli is published in 1513 in Florence. The book explains how a Prince should behave to acquire and then retain power and would be one of the founders of modern political thinking.
“The Third Book” of Francois Rabelais was published in 1532. The previous publications “Pantagruel” and “Gargantua” were not spared indexing too. The art of mockery far exceed that of Erasmus and his farces scorch all the princes. Moliere would rely on Rabelais’ works for his comedies.
The Essays” of about 107 of essays by Michel Montaigne are published as of 1580 and was censured by the Church Inquisition. The Church didn’t like the offhandedness of mixing sacred topics with profane subjects and the manuscript was judged morally too permissive.
“The new Stories” succeeds the famous fables of Jean de la Fontaine and are published as of 1674 and mocks the clerics and was indexed for “corrupting the moral and inspiring libertine behaviors”. Before he dies, his confessor forced him to recant, and he did so that he may die in peace of that pest of cleric.
“The Spirit of Laws” by Charles-Louis of Montesquieu was published in Switzerland in 1748 to avoid censuring. The author demanded that the three branches of executive, legislative, and justice enjoy independent powers for check and balance in governance.
“Therese the Philosopher” by Jean-Baptiste Boyer was published in 1748, in the same year that “Fanny Hill” of John Cleland was published. This manuscript described in details the bacchant sacrilegious ceremonies that a Pope relished. The Marquis of Sade would imitate that genre of pornography. It is rumored that these kinds of books influenced the French Revolution more than any other manuscripts. The French National Library cataloged this book under “Hell” section.
“Emile” by Jean-Jacques Rousseau was published in 1762. Rousseau offered a new educational system for kids so that the natural kindness of humankind is preserved; that kids enjoy their lives as kids and refrain from reading before the age of 12; that they wear loose garments to play leisurely. The manuscript was indexed and publicly burned in Paris for inciting man to follow his instincts. Rousseau will publish “The Social Contract” in 1766 and Geneva Council banished it. In reaction, Rousseau abandoned his Switzerland nationality.
Adonis Diaries 