For humor amongst the Germans we can go back to Marx' friend Heine (to whom Marx observed, "...there's no lack of clumsiness in Germany of whatever period") -- and you, appropriately given your nom de plume, could mention Brecht's humor. --CGE
On Thu, 12 Feb 2004, andie nachgeborenen wrote:
>
> Jews don't do revelation. Ecstacy, maybe -- if you are a Chassid, but
> that wasn't Strauss's schtick. He was with the Vilna Gaon, not the
> Baal Shem Tov. Maybe he wanted to believe but -- contrary to your
> theory -- was actually traumatized and agonized by the death of God.
> Nietzsche found it liberating (Now I don't have to deal with at that
> mealy-mouthed Pietist crap!) but for a lot of people the realization
> that we are really all alone in a big empty universe that doesn't care
> about us and has no purpose except what we make up for ourselves
> really hurts. The advantage of this reading of Strauss, its "fit" with
> his esoteric teaching, is that it is precisely this fact that he
> thinks the hoi poloi will not be able to bear. Isn't taht classic
> projection -- that it was Leo who wasn't able to bear it?
>
> Yeah, he was humorlesss. But so was Heidegger, whom Arendt adored even
> after he turned Nazi. Leo was a schmuck, OK, but what about Martin?
> True, Heidegger had an aesthetic sense. His later writer is quite
> beautiful in German. (Sein und Zeit, however . . . .) But frankly the
> Germans have never been strong on humor. Arendt too. Or either, for
> that matter. The Austrians, that's different. But we are not talking
> about Austrians here.
>
> jks
>
>
>
> --- Chuck Grimes <cgrimes at rawbw.com> wrote:
> >
> > Steven Nadler, Spinoza: A Life (1999)
> > Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, Hannah Arendt: For Love of
> > the World (a wonderful
> > read!)
> >
> > ken
> > --------
> >
> > Yeah, I have the Arendt bio and have read it. The
> > trouble is that
> > Bruehl in subtle ways didn't understand some
> > diminsions of
> > Arendt, so she couldn't render certain passages very
> > well. For
> > example, Bruehl didn't understand the poetry and she
> > didn't understand
> > what Arendt and Heidegger were doing together.
> >
> > I am having a similar problem with Strauss. I am
> > still brooding on
> > what he wanted out of Judaism. I suspect he expected
> > to be convinced
> > of the actuality of revelation. I am almost certain
> > he never had such
> > an experience and he is extraordinarily blind to the
> > aesthetic
> > dimensions of life. It's like he has a fundamental
> > block, so he can't
> > feel anything. Oh, he can get angry and pissy, but
> > he has no lyrical
> > moments, ever. There is nothing funny about him. He
> > can be sarcastic,
> > but otherwise he is irony deficient.
> >
> > I have no doubt at all why Arendt told him to buzz
> > off. Leo was a
> > dower putz.
> >
> > Anyway, thanks for the Spinoza cite.
> >
> > Chuck Grimes
> > ___________________________________
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