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Title: On the Marble Cliffs
Penguin Publishing Group
Item Number: 9780140029857
Number: 1
Product Description: On the Marble Cliffs
Universal Product Code (UPC): 9780140029857
WonderClub Stock Keeping Unit (WSKU): 9780140029857
Rating: 3/5 based on 2 Reviews
Image Location: https://wonderclub.com/images/covers/98/57/9780140029857.jpg
Weight: 0.200 kg (0.44 lbs)
Width: 0.000 cm (0.00 inches)
Heigh : 0.000 cm (0.00 inches)
Depth: 0.000 cm (0.00 inches)
Date Added: August 25, 2020, Added By: Ross
Date Last Edited: August 25, 2020, Edited By: Ross
Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
$99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub (9296 total ratings) |
Bill Moroe
reviewed On the Marble Cliffs on January 01, 2010Although I have read Ernst Jünger's Auf den Marmorklipeen (On the Marble Cliffs in its English translation, which I have not read) but twice (once at or rather for university and just recently in order to actually post this here review), I can and do certainly understand and appreciate how and why both the author and especially this very novella continue to be both controversial and open to a multitude of different and even contradictory analyses and interpretations. Not all that easy a perusal at best, my first, my university reading of Auf den Marmorklippen was actually rather a strange and at times majorly and annoyingly frustrating experience, as my professor (this was for an undergraduate German literature course at Mount Allison University in the fall of 1988) actually assigned the novel to me alone, as he wanted Auf den Marmorklippen read and presented in and to the class but claimed that the novella was beyond both the German language ability and literary comprehension of the other enrolled students. That Auf den Marmorklippen might also be somewhat beyond my own scope and ability at the time did not really seem to cross my professor's mind, for while reading Jünger's classic was indeed interesting and yes even much rewarding, it was also often if not even continuously difficult, especially since my professor also expected me to do a detailed oral presentation, one that summarised not only the main plot, but also how the white marble cliffs of the title, how the Marmorklippen, were to be seen and approached, what their symbolic capital might be, as well as whether Jünger's Auf den Marmorklippen could be seen as a novel of so-called inner emigration, innere Emigration (a controversial definition at best, used to designate some German authors who did not go, and sometimes could not go into exile during the Third Reich, but while still often being able to publish, were supposedly always against the Nazis not only in their thoughts but also in a hidden but intentional manner with and in their still in Germany proper publishable and published fiction, poetry etc.)
Now Ernst Jünger's Auf den Marmorklippen (which was first published in 1939) is basically in many ways a novella that feels and reads as realistic, but at the same time does not actually describe bona fide reality, does not present and feature an actual and legitimate geographical area and location, but is more a fantastical and dystopian slice of horrible and tragic upheaval and the resulting ruin and destruction of an erstwhile serene and peaceful agricultural society (through the machinations of the charismatic, outwardly jovial but inherently nasty and evil, dreaded head forester, the Oberförster, and his acolytes, his army of uncritical, goose stepping trained and obedient thugs). The narrator of Auf den Marmorklippen (the peace loving botanist Minor) lives with his similarly minded brother Otho on top of the marble cliffs (thus visibly removed from society, and as such both he and his brother actually function more as observers, as dispassionate analysers, as scientists who take note, who record the disintegration and chaos which are the result of the head forester's actions and behaviours, with the marble cliffs of the title in my opinion signifying removal and a sense of otherworldliness and the fact that both Minor and Otho, while indeed becoming increasingly aware of the machinations of the head forester and the danger he poses, are also only willing to acknowledge this and lament this but not really willing to in any way actively resist and fight against the ever increasing threats posed and developing).
And while Auf den Marmorklippen has over the years repeatedly been interpreted as representing, as being both a parable of National Socialism and Stalinist Communism, I personally tend to regard it as being neither, but rather as a warning against ANY type of dictatorship (be it left wing or right wing) and the unfortunate tendency of mankind, of humans in general to often easily and even quickly fall for, to mindlessly support and follow a charismatic leader (a so-called Führer type) who promises to make a given country, a given area etc. supposedly great and important again, who promises the world and more (this was the case with Adolf Hitler, this was the case with Joseph Stalin and today, sadly and dangerously, frighteningly, it is also ever increasingly and obviously to those with eyes to see, the case with Donald Trump, as history really does seem to be repeating itself in a frightening loop of Fascism, of extremism).
Surprisingly enough, and considering its rather staunch and in my opinion pretty well overt anti-dictatorship stance, both Ernst Jünger and his Auf den Marmorklippen, while the novella was indeed much criticised in Nazi Germany, neither was it ever actively censored/banned nor was the author himself ever seemingly threatened with arrest or worse, perhaps due to the fact that as a very much and intensely Conservative and right-wing individual and author (both politically and economically) Jünger was able to benefit from his reputation. However, personally and in my opinion, it is likely more the fact that Auf den Marmorklippen is rather a difficult and in most ways quite massively convoluted and involved work of fiction and even more importantly, that there is also never really any active resistance against the oppressors, against the head forester and his acolytes, his thugs portrayed or cheered, suggested, which was able to save Auf den Marmorklippen from the pyre of burned and burning books, namely that the narrator and his family, that in fact the majority of the characters featured and described face the evil and destruction emanating from the head forester and encompassing them placidly, resignedly, and thus with a sense of sad acceptance, and that due to this factoid and truth, Auf den Marmorklippen was for the authorities, for individuals like Hitler, Göring, Goebbels et al not as yet a tome to be banned (because the novella was likely both too difficult and densely aesthetic for the authorities to even remotely understand it as being subversive and critical, and that above all, not actively preaching resistance and taking up arms against oppression had made Auf den Marmorklippen palatable enough and not to be considered for official censoring). For other authors just as right wing and sometimes even more right wing than Ernst Jünger, who also did not go into exile, indeed had their works banned (burned) and faced the wrath of the Nazis, the Gestapo (including torture and imprisonment in concentration camps) simply for being a bit more proactive with and in their condemnation of the former (Ernst Wiechert being a good example of this, a generally right of center author who was nevertheless against National Socialism right from the start and ended up in Buchenwald for for daring to openly speak out against the regime).
And thus, while I do much appreciate both Ernst Jünger as an author and Auf den Marmorklippen as a document that demonstrates, presents and shows the inherent dangers of mass political movements, and the often violent and destructive results these movements can engender (especially if turning dictatorial) and while I also on a very much personal level, massively understand how and why the pacifistic narrator and his family would choose to approach the threat of and from the Oberförster with both placidity and a striving to conserve one's values even in the face of possible and even probably annihilation, I also (and this is the logical and realistic part and yes, also the angry part of my soul, my being talking) am more than a bit furious at the narrator and his naiveness (for sometimes, pacifism, acceptance and stoicism just do not work, and really, how the head forester, how the Oberförster is approached in Auf den Marmomklippen and by extension, how Ernst Jünger himself seems to consider and approach dictatorships, destruction and violence truly and uncomfortably remind me both politically ands sociologically, philosophically of Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policies towards Hitler and Nazi Germany). And no, I do NOT consider either Ernst Jünger or his Auf den Marmorklippen as being in any way pro Nazi, but I do much consider the novella as being an at best rather lukewarm response to the horrors of the Third Reich and at worst as an account that (inadvertently perhaps) kind of enables National Socialism (and other dictatorships) by not promoting, cheering and demanding an active resistance. Two and a half stars!
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