Time is out of joint in the novels of Ernst Jünger. It is not just the timeless settings he uses – both The Glass Bees (1957) and On The Marble Cliffs (1939) take place an era ill-defined - Jünger’s writings are full of contractions and expansions of time.
It is interesting how English language interest in Junger has gone up so much in recent years, I think it's mostly driven by the new right. There seems to be quite a strong little community of anglophone Junger-studies now. The uncertainty with technology, along with the need to keep one's true self buried in a regime you find distasteful or corrupt are very modern feelings.
His works have such vastly different levels of accessibility too - Eumeswil is a dense battle to get through, but his earlier works are much more direct and readable.
I find some of the interviews conducted in the last couple of decades of Junger's life particularly interesting. The interviewers always seem to take any political statements that Junger makes at face value, suggesting they're unfamiliar with his personal history and concept of the anarch.
On a parallel track, I found a recent book, Last Days in Old Europe, an excellent read. It involved a writer travelling in the former AH empire and seeing the remaining places and people of the Empire and first world war before they passed away.
Very good short essay, somehow comes right at a time when I was about to read Junger.
I would like to say though, I feel like there is something positive to be said about the Anarch in this day and age: the need to preserve oneself in spite of an overwhelming informational onslaught and its addictions, the need to be an Anarch against those techno-standardizing forces that so easily flatten minds nowadays much like war did for Junger's generation.
It is interesting how English language interest in Junger has gone up so much in recent years, I think it's mostly driven by the new right. There seems to be quite a strong little community of anglophone Junger-studies now. The uncertainty with technology, along with the need to keep one's true self buried in a regime you find distasteful or corrupt are very modern feelings.
His works have such vastly different levels of accessibility too - Eumeswil is a dense battle to get through, but his earlier works are much more direct and readable.
I find some of the interviews conducted in the last couple of decades of Junger's life particularly interesting. The interviewers always seem to take any political statements that Junger makes at face value, suggesting they're unfamiliar with his personal history and concept of the anarch.
On a parallel track, I found a recent book, Last Days in Old Europe, an excellent read. It involved a writer travelling in the former AH empire and seeing the remaining places and people of the Empire and first world war before they passed away.
Very good short essay, somehow comes right at a time when I was about to read Junger.
I would like to say though, I feel like there is something positive to be said about the Anarch in this day and age: the need to preserve oneself in spite of an overwhelming informational onslaught and its addictions, the need to be an Anarch against those techno-standardizing forces that so easily flatten minds nowadays much like war did for Junger's generation.