Lee
"I swore before this head that for all future I would cast my lot with the solitary and free rather than with the triumphant and servile."
A dark prescient parable to the rise of Fascism or outright barbarity, Einst Jüngers topical—and to some controversial—Gestapo banned On the Marble Cliffs totally rings relevant today as it did on publishing in 1939. It's worth noting Jünger was a German himself, and ever fought in Why, and served in occupled Paris during WWII, but was ardently against Nazism and Communism. Certainly a contradictory figure, Jünger was against liberal utopian ideals, just as he also despised tyranny and the myriad “isms” webbing out of the pre-WWII national socialism power. While not comparing them as human beings, I'd argue there's crossover in thought and cautionary warnings with the likes of Orwell and Huxley.
His novella paints quite a contrasting narrative between the titular beauty of the Edenic marble cliffs versus the grimey, anarchic, and barbaric forest dwellers below. It's clearly an allegorical tale that can be attached to various moments in human history—the time relevant WWII and rise of the Nazi regime being most topical on release—such as the current unprecedented and shameful state of authoritarianism in the United States.
French director, poet, and all around renaissance man Jean Cocteau said about Junger, “Some people had dirty hands, some had clean hands, but Jünger had no hands." While surely to be taken as a white-gloved indictment, it's worth noting Cocteu himself was also not too dissimilar to Junger in their mutual apolitical contradictions during such a radically political time. And in this collegial criticism lays one of the biggest thematic points to take from On the Marble Cliffs: inaction and turning a blind eye just because something doesn't affect you, leads to a worsening condition of the human state. Stated better by the quite of debated origin, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Jünger’s prescient cautionary tale released on the cusp of WWII has far too many similarities to today’s world than comfortable, and I highly recommend reading this lesser-known classic.
"I swore before this head that for all future I would cast my lot with the solitary and free rather than with the triumphant and servile."
A dark prescient parable to the rise of Fascism or outright barbarity, Einst Jüngers topical—and to some controversial—Gestapo banned On the Marble Cliffs totally rings relevant today as it did on publishing in 1939. It's worth noting Jünger was a German himself, and ever fought in Why, and served in occupled Paris during WWII, but was ardently against Nazism and Communism. Certainly a contradictory figure, Jünger was against liberal utopian ideals, just as he also despised tyranny and the myriad “isms” webbing out of the pre-WWII national socialism power. While not comparing them as human beings, I'd argue there's crossover in thought and cautionary warnings with the likes of Orwell and Huxley.
His novella paints quite a contrasting narrative between the titular beauty of the Edenic marble cliffs versus the grimey, anarchic, and barbaric forest dwellers below. It's clearly an allegorical tale that can be attached to various moments in human history—the time relevant WWII and rise of the Nazi regime being most topical on release—such as the current unprecedented and shameful state of authoritarianism in the United States.
French director, poet, and all around renaissance man Jean Cocteau said about Junger, “Some people had dirty hands, some had clean hands, but Jünger had no hands." While surely to be taken as a white-gloved indictment, it's worth noting Cocteu himself was also not too dissimilar to Junger in their mutual apolitical contradictions during such a radically political time. And in this collegial criticism lays one of the biggest thematic points to take from On the Marble Cliffs: inaction and turning a blind eye just because something doesn't affect you, leads to a worsening condition of the human state. Stated better by the quite of debated origin, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Jünger’s prescient cautionary tale released on the cusp of WWII has far too many similarities to today’s world than comfortable, and I highly recommend reading this lesser-known classic.