106
PART ISAN REV I EW
in
Felix Krllll,
w hi ch mi ght have been a chee rful ep il ogue, he takes on the
most deli ca te qu estio ns of art and compl ains that even in thi s "foo li sh no n–
sense" th e tendency to degenerate into the " Fausti an" o nce aga in cro ps up.
Then , however, he rea li zes w ith resignati o n th at Fa ust must be deli ve red to
th e wo rl d , "and yet I have so littl e worl d": a hars h summati o n of hi s
w ri ter's existence. H e confesses
to
havin g no hercul ea n crea ti ve ge nius; hi s
g ift was rath er in h is ability
to
give an idea ti o nal cla rity to rece ived
th o ugh ts, experi ences and utterances w hi ch were playfull y encircled by hi s
humo ro usly apropos fo rmul ati o ns. " What is mate ri al? Materi al is fo un d o n
th e street," says hi s Goethe in th e Goe th e nove l's lo ng internal mo no logue.
In
fact, the later d iari es have a ce rtain simil ar ity
to
the seventh chap ter of
Lotte ill Weilllar.
Th ey are a lo ng intern al mo no logue of th e aged w ri ter.
And the entry o f Jun e 6, 1952 reads, " My seventy-seve n th b irthday. 0 tr ul y
wo nderful life!"-we are witn ess ing hi s amazemen t at ac tu all y havin g
made it so fa r. H e could very poss ibly have met hi s end in th e mann er of
H ann o 13uddenbroo k or at least during the d iffic ult lung-ca ncer o pe rati on
he had to undergo sho rtl y after turnin g seventy. 13u t just then he was in
th e mi ddle o f
Doktor Fa llstlls;
dyin g was o ut of th e qu es tio n . D espi te all thi s
he neve r rid himself of th e no ti o n th at " th e wo rld is lead ing him about by
the nose." There are " too many embarrassing IlI elll u ri cs," with "glimpses
o f contentment in betwee n." And w hen fi ghtin g breaks o ut in Ko rea :
"Why sho ul dn' t I peri sh) My li fe is li ved o ut. It was n't pl easant."
So he di ed as he had lived , commi tted to th e extreme limit of the
"world-feasible." T he las t wo rds he spo ke to hi s eldest daugh ter were an
apo logy; because he was so wea k, he unfo rtu na tel y couldn' t "agree to a
visit just now." As th e end drew nea r he exchanged a few wi tticisms w ith
hi s docto r in French and Engli sh , and we smil e-eve n at th e end- w hen
we see how the Goethe-s uccesso r has become th e breezy mode rn . T he las t
thin g he uttered was the requ es t that hi s glasses be bro ught to him .
Hi s Goethe says to Lo tte in Weimar that the sp ir it is the " higher gui d–
ing force," whi ch meaningfull y j o ins things together in art and life and w hi ch
urges us to see " in everythin g senso ry o nl y the gui se of higher relati o nships."
"There is no coin cidence in the uni ty of any mea ningful life . . ." It seems
to us he did everything he coul d not to hamper, no t to wo rk aga inst the
" higher guiding fo rce."
Translated from the German
by
Ian Johnson
