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Chaunceton Bird's Reviews > Faust
Faust
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I get it, it's impressive. Any epic poem is an incredible feat of creativity and perseverance. But Lord have mercy, does anybody actually enjoy reading this?
Part I is a barely understandable tale of Faust, a former physician and current scholar, who suffers from discontent. So, he does what any one of us would do (if, of course, we were in his shoes) and sells his post-life soul to one of Satan's representatives. Eventually, Faust's actions end up causing the death of many. That much I could follow, sort of.
But Part II? Yeah right. You didn't understand that. Nobody does. Was Goethe on mind-altering substances when he wrote that? I mean, he threw it all in: empires, Helena of Troy, shape-shifters, magical sub-surface ocean scenes, love and marriage, intrigue and disguise, and much more. He put it all into a boiling pot of incomprehensible sludge and we were told to enjoy it because it is cultured to do so. Well, I dissent. Although the meaning and many of the ideas of this work are remarkable, the delivery is painful. One star for writing hundreds of pages, and another for rhyming all the while.
Part I is a barely understandable tale of Faust, a former physician and current scholar, who suffers from discontent. So, he does what any one of us would do (if, of course, we were in his shoes) and sells his post-life soul to one of Satan's representatives. Eventually, Faust's actions end up causing the death of many. That much I could follow, sort of.
But Part II? Yeah right. You didn't understand that. Nobody does. Was Goethe on mind-altering substances when he wrote that? I mean, he threw it all in: empires, Helena of Troy, shape-shifters, magical sub-surface ocean scenes, love and marriage, intrigue and disguise, and much more. He put it all into a boiling pot of incomprehensible sludge and we were told to enjoy it because it is cultured to do so. Well, I dissent. Although the meaning and many of the ideas of this work are remarkable, the delivery is painful. One star for writing hundreds of pages, and another for rhyming all the while.
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Reading Progress
December 8, 2018
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Started Reading
December 8, 2018
– Shelved
December 11, 2018
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Finished Reading
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Alper
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rated it 5 stars
Nov 20, 2019 01:08PM
Understandable point of view, glad you at least got 2 stars' worth of enjoyment out of it. I personally love Part II. That's the part where Goethe shifts his focus on human existence at large, which he seems to conclude is one hell of a chaotic and nonsensical thing (The whole bit with the Homunculus seems to suggest as much anyhow), though he never wavers in his faith that it can somehow be salvaged. So coming at such a wide theme with such a wide perspective warrants the sensory overload of Part II, in my opinion. I get why you found it painful though, at times it definitely is, though a decent knowledge of Greek culture and literature helps (so do good footnotes, in fact), and in any case I personally think a bit of sweat on the part of the reader can be justifiable if what one gets at the end of it is anything like Faust.
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I appreciate your perspective and I agree that the meaning of Part II is important and it's meaning is capacious. But you gotta admit, it takes some serious effort to follow Goethe through his sentence labyrinth.
Definitely, no arguing on that point, but I'm of the sort that finds putting in that effort fun as long as I feel it will pay off at some point, so I guess it's a matter of what you look for (or what you tolerate) in a read.
Indeed. I commend your dedication to understanding the classics.
And I appreciate your commendation! Best regards.
Finally someone says it as it is. I read it in German (my 2nd language). I found it too hard, so I decided to give it a try in Spanish (my native language) and it was as hard as in German...
