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WHAT IS...? Art, love, man: defined, quoted
A few weeks ago the last volume of a trilogy appeared, the first of which received a manifold echo in the feuilletons of German-speaking magazines because art and literature historian Andreas Maeckler had managed to approach a fundamental cognitive problem, the analysis and essence of a term, with a strikingly simple method. From the overwhelming resources of literary history he collected and selected thousands of quotations referring to three fundamental terms: Art, Love, Man. Only those words from different schools of thought passed the didactic filter which answered the formulaic question "what is...?" Nobody can expect that a coherent view of the world was manufactured through this method. In his attempt to find an all-encompassing answer, the editor displayed a puralism of argumentation, definition and failure. "Art is a question of content." (J. W. von Goethe, 1749-1832)
The mountain of quotations, from Aristotle to Rudolf Steiner and Timm Ulrichs, from Adorno to Emile Zola,was divided into twelve logically themed chapters. "Art", for example, is examined under the technological aspect as an end to establish order, as an imitation of nature ("natura naturans", that is to say, "natura naturata"). Some other chapters are dedicated to metaphysical, aesthetic and political aspects as well as the relationship between art and life and communication.Art as art, l`art pour l`art, the immediate identity of the analytical discrimination concludes this round of contradiction and conformity, individuality and norm, for the question "what is art?" is as old as its object, and the answers to it are as numerous as the questioners. "Art is if you can`t do it, for if you can, it is no art." (Johann Nestroy)."Art is what becomes world, not what world is." (Karl Kraus). "Art is not a mirror which reflects reality, but a hammer with which it is shaped" (Karl Marx) "What is love? Love is, when you- ah well! Love is love. (Erich Mühsam, 1878-1934).
This could be the conclusion after a perusal of an original, pleasurable, and thoght-provoking anthology by Andreas Maeckler." we read at the back page of the book. It is an excellent characterization of the content, but at the same time this statement misses the essence of the work. For even if we are presented with tremendous fireworks of quotations, drawn from the concept of love in history, there remains in each chapter a concrete element which offers something like real help in matters of love, beyond all those stimulating, amusing, and confusing things described. "Yes, love is a special thing." (Matthias Claudius, 174o-18 15) Love is too large a subject, to be dealt with in a single paragraph", notes Ernest Bornemann, born in 1915. "Love, they tell us, fine and straight - carries an important weight." (Wilhelm Busch, 1832-19o8). Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) found particularly beautiful words: "Enlightenment is the the most spiritual, love the most selfless form of devotion, for love is a true heavenly light in everyday life." "Man is indeed a mammal, for he sucks up a lot of liquid... but man is also a fish, for he does incredible things in cold blood, and he has scales that suddenly fall from his eyes, usually too late. Man is a worm as well, for he of-ten writhes in the dust and thus creeps forward. Last not least , man is an amphibium, which lives on land and water... finally man is also a quill-driving animal, for some, if they take up a quill, show that they are animals." (Johann Nepomuk Nestroy, 18o1- 1862)
For his anthology "What is man?" Andreas Maeckler joined forces with anthropologist Volker Sommer from Göttingen who contributed the foreword. and the introductions to the chapters. Thanks to his universally comprehensi-ble language and a concise, but careful representation of important fields of research, Sommer competently and interestingly succeeds in introducing even the layman to the essential conceptial problem of anthropology. The chapters containing material from Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and Modern Times, comprise all the important authors, arguments, and schools of thought: Homo animal - animal in man" (Product of evolution and nature, sexual and deficient being)"Homo creatus est- creature and crown of creation" (Macro -and Microcosm, matter with a living soul, centre of the world), "animal rationale - reason and self-knowledge", Homo faciendum - the growing and open-minded man of the world" ( Time, history, education), the "zoon politicon - man in society" (product of his surroundings, individual and collective), the homo inventor - the acting and creating man" (player and artist, man as machine), "Amor et passio - love, suffering, death" ( Lover , passion and being exposed, murderer of man, the knowledge of death)"deus et damnatus - the god-like sinner" (transcendence and religion, likeness of God, damned, wanderer between two worlds.)
Each of the presented works furnishes us with an inventory, rich in nuances, containing essential answers of philosphers, theologians, poets, and scientists. They instruct, fascinate and entertain at the same time. What more do you want?
Bruni Maier: Darmstädter Echo, January 27, 1990
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