Ernst Jünger - Storm of Steel BOOK REVIEW
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Great review. I've been fascinated with Ernst Jünger for the last 2 years or so, slowly reading through his works and I'm German, which means that I have the privilege of reading him in the original, so maybe I can say a few things about him. This is quite long, but what can I say: I'm obsessed with literature. Maybe it is of some interest to someone.
Jünger is a sort of problematic figure in German literature. If you say to some people that you're reading him, you have to explain yourself because most people think that he was a Nazi, which is not quite true. But it is true that he wrote some pretty fucked up stuff in the 1920s, especially in his political essays. He was part of the nationalist revolutionary circles in the Weimar republic, a group that hated the new democracy and wanted to bring back the good old days of German might and glory (whatever that is), ending the shame of the Versaille treaty and of course these were the kind of circles the Nazi party came from. Jünger himself was not a member of any party, but he wrote antidemocratic, militaristic essays in which he longed for a new war and an autocratic German state, lead by a great leader. One can see the overlap with the national socialists and of course, they really liked him and thought they could make good use of him. Jünger's opposition against democracy and the new establishment was rooted in him being disgusted by the bourgeois lifestyle, which was also the reason why he ran away and joined the foreign legion when he was 16 and why he volunteered in 1914. Because of all this he was called a "Wegbereiter" of the Nazi regime in post-1945 Germany, a forerunner, someone who helped to destroy the democracy. And there is some truth to that of course, but it's not as if Hitler couldn't have managed it without him. Jünger knew many of the people who would later become big in the Third Reich, he knew Goebbels for example, they mixed with the same kind of people. And Jünger didn't like them, he thought they were proles (do you say that in English?), part of a mass movement and he hated the masses. He was an elitist and these people were certainly not the elite.
Then came 1933 and Jünger withdrew to private life. He was pretty much disgusted by the events and he overhauled many of his views during the 1930s and especially later, during the war. But Hitler liked his works, especially the books he wrote about WWI and the Nazis courted him, they offered him a seat in parliament, they offered him a position in the academy of arts, both of which he declined. Starting in 1933, the Gestapo began to harrass him, they searched his home several times, partly because he refused to break off contact with his friend Ernst Niekisch (a so-called national bolschewist) and other friends, who were communists. Ernst Niekisch was soon arrested (he remained in prison until 1945) and Jünger took care of Niekisch's family, another insult to the party. When the veteran club of Jünger's old regiment expelled its Jewish members, he quit his membership as a form of protest. Then, in 1939, shortly before WWII started, Jünger wrote "Auf den Marmorklippen" (On the Marble Cliffs) and he published it, which was probably the most bold thing he did during this time. "Auf den Marmorklippen" was a sort of parable, in which a character called the head forester (Oberförster in German) takes over the fictional country that surrounds the marble cliffs on which the narrator lives. The head forester is a powerhungry and gruesome tyrant who has gained a following of lowlifes and criminals who spread terror and oppression throughout the land. One day the narrator and his brother take a walk through the woods and they stumble upon a hut in which one of the followers of the head forester stands over the tortured and mutilated bodies of his victims. It is a horrible scene that makes you think of the death camps that would be implemented a few years later and it is absolutely insane that Jünger published it and got through with it (even though there were some people in the Nazi party who wanted to put him in the concentration camp for it, but apparently Hitler didn't want that). At the end of the book, the narrator stands on the marble cliffs and looks down on his homeland that is engulfed in flames and large groups of refugees roam the country, trying to get away from the approaching troops of the head forester. Everytime I read these passages, it sends shivers down my spine because it seems almost prophetic how he predicts the things that were to come.
Jünger then took part in WWII, although this time, mostly behind the front lines, working as an officer of the military government of occupied Paris. There he was in close contact with members of the resistance among the officers of the Wehrmacht, especially those who took part in Stauffenberg's assassination plot, about which Jünger was informed beforehand. After the assassination attempt, Jünger was kicked out off the army because although no one could prove that he knew anything, he wasn't deemed trustworthy by the regime. Near the end of the war he was again called up to help with organizing the home front which meant that he was in command of old men and children with no experience who were sent to the slaughter. Jünger ordered them to lay down their weapons and go home.
I could go on but basically, Jünger was not a Nazi. In fact he stood up against them on several occasions, which is more than most Germans ever did at that time. He was not a fighter of the resistance or anything like that, but he was also not a mindless follower or an opportunist. He had a backbone and he wasn't afraid to put his life on the line. His problem was that he never tried to explain himself, he never tried to fit in with the new society after the war. He wasn't allowed to publish anything during the time of the Allied occupation because he refused to fill out the denazification forms because, as he told the Allied officers, he never was a Nazi. He basically remained an outsider for his whole life and he had no interest in changing that.
I'm a leftist and a pacifist, which means I disagree with many of Jünger's views, especially those of his early career. But I think that this is not important when it comes to great art and I also think that Jünger is one of the most important writers of the last century. One of his most unique characteristics is his almost frightening lack of fear, especially in the face of death. He was not just some soldier in the trenches during WWI, he was almost suicidally brave, always throwing himself into the most dangerous situations. That's the thing that's so special about his account in "Storm of Steel": he sees the horror and the violence and the terror, but he sort of enjoys it. That's something that disgusts many people and it's definitely understandable, but it also enables him to see things that most people don't. That's the problem with a moralistic view on literature. Where else do you find an account of someone who feels sheer bloodlust and who walks about the battlefield, shooting everyone he sees, where else do you find a description of someone who feels euphoric and overjoyed while everything around him goes up in flames? It's not something that I find appealing on an ethical or personal level, but this is also part of the human experience, and Jünger is the only one who can tell us about it. He's the most keen observer of chaos and violence and utter destruction. It's as if he's at home there. While others look away and break down, he keeps his eyes open, he observes. It's not that he's a psychopath who doesn't feel compassion, he can be immensely compassionate, it's just that he is an optimist, probably the strangest form of optimism I've ever come across. For him death is not something to fear or despise, it's almost a positive thing, something that transcends life, a passage from one layer of existence to the next. That's what enables him to stay sane throughout the horrors of the first half of the 20th century.
Thank you for this write-up, just fantastic!
Excellent insight, thank you for taking the time to do this write-up.
Schöne Zusammenfassung! There's another famous line by him that might be of interest for the people who enjoyed this summary:
In 1927 Goebbels, the future Reich Minister of Propaganda, had offered Jünger a parliamentary seat. Jünger declined the offer. He wrote: “I’d rather write one good poem than represent 60,000 idiots.”
Thank you for taking the time with such a thorough write-up, very well articulated thoughts here my friend. Helps a lot!
Excellent insights, thanks!!
French Foreign Legion... In Armenia? I think Algeria is the country you're looking for.
yep
Junger's book is a consistent narrative of daily warfare, its intense and filled with interesting little stories. He has within him a schoolboy's mentality of war, as a something great, as an adventure, as a fulfilment of life, ironically, and as he looks at the whole war at times through the solipsistic eyes of a third person to the event. I may not agree with Junger's militarism, but I was moved by the chivalry and honour that he gave to his fellow soldiers and to British combatants. There is a sort of nostalgia and tinge of poetry to this book...Junger the botanist and lover of nature, comes out at times, there is a man searching for something more through the fog of war. Junger the poet comes out in the interesting descriptions he makes, of the landscapes of war, of the searching and questioning of man in an event which one is thrown into!
Dont know how much time there is to get nostalgic as he wrote it less than One year after the end of the war and much was taken from his diary from the time
I like when you read a passage or two in a review. For me it can be what tips the scales on deciding what I'll actually seek out and read. Thanks for including them.
Your Dad's abscess tooth story was great. I really enjoy these longer videos of yours, Cliff. Have never read Storm of Steel but it sounds highly interesting. I'm about to start 2666 currently.
-Jake
There's something so therapeutic about not just your voice but how you talk about the book/ content and reflect on it using your real reactions and emotions.
GOOD. That is BIG feedback for me, I've heard that before, but you're confirming it - so that's extremely useful and incentive for me to continue. Thank you for commenting, seriously.
Of course. In fact, no joke, I saw this review and I have just recently purchased this book. Looking forward to more of your work.
Your reviews are always very nice to watch, I will definitely check this book out!
Always glad to see another new video by you! Love your stuff!
I always appreciate your lengthier reviews. Added to my already insufferably long to-read list. 😊
It says a lot about a channel when you watch every single video and still keep coming back, rewatching over and over again. Congrats!
Cliff I absolutely love all of your reviews, you've introduced me to some awesome novels.. I know you want to be unbiased and review from many authors, but I say keep the Hemingway reviews coming! haha
Nice work!
+Gregory B. Sadler love your channel, but it would be much more popular if you spoke over created art for the things you try and demonstrate
***** Not sure what that means - to speak "over created art for the things you try and demonstrate". Perhaps you can explain that?
You want me to give my honest opinion? critique if you will? well, at times you make interesting subjects somewhat boring and tedious, I think the more juvenile approach of implementing visual imagery to add to the oral explanations will make it more accessible and for a lack of a better excuse, 'easy on the eyes'. Don't get me wrong, I love listening to you explain theories off a black board but some of it can be actually be better represented using technology. Much like the school of life's channel. And I know it will take a lot of time and effort, but if you're youtube serious then it's a necessity. But that's only if you want more viewers.
The reason I say this is because many other youtubers like yourself have much more exposure and don't have the quality of content that you do
***** Yeah. . . I tend to think there's enough people doing that sort of video work in the discipline already, so I'll likely leave that to them. I do something different, quite deliberately, not least for the people who would like something like an actual classroom.
Believe me - producing solidly researched videos in philosophy takes a lot of time and effort, even if they're shot in front of a chalkboard.
+Gregory B. Sadler There is nothing wrong with your videos at all. Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to remove, so I don't see the need for all the bells and whistles. He may find your videos "tedious" but I love them, especially your 'Half Hour Hegel' series. +Malibu Thompson Maybe "The School Of Life" is more your style rather than real philosophical discussion?
Henri Barbusse's book, Under Fire, is an unbelievably great account of the first world war from the french side. Although there isn't much combat depicted in the book, you still get all the gory, descriptive scenes of war and the continual annihilation of the enemy and all of Henri's fellow soldiers. What it does great at is the depiction of the waiting around that soldiers did at the time, and how they had to pass days, maybe weeks on end, sitting in mud and rain, thinking about death, loved ones, and a decent meal while they awaited the inevitable battle.
I just finished, Junger's WW2 Diaries, 1941--45....Excellant work....
Good God this guy Junger guy sounds like a hardcore legend!!! I should read his book!
Your videos are just getting better and better for each new video.
+BillyMcGonageull Good! Very good, I was hoping there was a positive progression, thank you for your thoughts.
Oh, amazing review, man! I've almost bought it once, but as I'd read some review saying it was all boring and unimportant (and that some other of Junger's works was better and really worth it - I don't know how it is translated in English, there's marble in the title, that I know) I passed the opportunity on... Try and review some Murakami next! I'm always curious of what you'll think of him :)
Cliff, if you haven't heard of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast, you should check it out. He has this six part series all about World War 1 and it's nuts how good it is. Good video by the way. Make sure to eat your veggies.
I second this, fantastic podcast.
+Better Than Food: Book Reviews
Just out of curiosity, what do you do for a living?
Thank you. You're wonderful to listen to and you have exquisite taste.
+Andrew Leavitt Thank you for watching Andrew.
This is so good! So detailed and thought-out. :)
P.S. Please review DeLillo and Pynchon.
+Asher Deep I promise I'll get to it.
+Better Than Food: Book Reviews i have to second the pynchon! havent gotten to delillo yet myself. I also have to say you should channel your obviously dedicated personality into some writing. cheers brotha.
+Better Than Food: Book Reviews white noise and underworld are his obvious best books, the airborne toxic event is probably his greatest piece of writing, so interesting and engaging, I couldn't take my eyes off the page! However Mao 2 and falling man were not as page turning.
I haven't yet read Junger's novel, but had intended to some time ago - thanks for reminding me about it Cliff.Two other extraordinary books to issue out of World War I that I would recommend to anybody interested in literature inspired by this historical atrocity:
'In Parenthesis' by David Jones
'The Enormous Room' by E. E. Cummings
God, this video is better than food...
New favorite channel. You deserve the more subs
Seeing a new video upload by you appear in my subscription box is like cutting open a fresh new avocado.
+ladymarla It satisfies my soul.
+ladymarla I am really flattered by that. Nothing like a good avocado.
Great video, pleasure to watch as always.
This sounds really interesting. I will definitely give it a read.
I'm reading this book for my history course. It's a great novel, very detailed and descriptive.
Daenerys it’s not a novel
Came for the book review. Stayed for the stories. Thank you
Just finished it today. It was an exquisite read. Might I recommend House to House: An Epic Memoir of War by David Bellavia. Its a modern war memoir that details the author's experiences in Fallujah, Iraq. As an Iraq veteran myself, I found it captivating and inspiring. It might give you some insight as to the horrors and high points of modern combat. Cheers.
Hey Cliff, nice videos. You really are a sort of inspiration, dude. I just had a question. Time is not eternal, and I notice that to read a book I take a lot of fucking time. Since good books are very much, I wondered, for you, is it more valuable to read just one book but well or is it better to pick another if it is taking so much?
Sorry about my English and greetings from Mexico.
+Manuel Valderrama Depends on the books and how much you can read at once - I do a few at a time usually.
+Better Than Food: Book Reviews Thank you! I'll try that to see if it fits me.
I am still reading the book of disquiet on my kindle, I can usually only get through about 3-4% of it a day before I find my eyes are 3 or 4 sentences ahead of my mind. its going to be awhile before I finish it. I am at 22% right now, and that's only after skipping most of the introduction.
Bought this a few days ago and I cant wait for it to arrive. I haven't been this excited about a book in a long time.
Best book I've ever read.
great that you liked it, I have it but I have it in my "to do" list.
You wont regret it.
An extraordinary person and you could say an intellectual warrior. A shock troop leader in the First World War who was awarded the pour le merit for his incredible deeds. In the meantime, the gentleman was still writing diaries, which he later summarized in a novel. In storms of steel. During a fire raid in no man's land, he lost his bag with the diaries. This guy went back into the ongoing shelling to look for his diaries. As I said, an extraordinary man and a true warrior and writer. Jünger was what Ernest Hemingway would have liked to have been. This man was not like us normal people.
I used to know a Polish woman who came over here to the US from Poland in the 50's. When I knew her she was maybe 60 years old.She used to talk about her experiences as a conscript (slave) laborer on a farm in eastern Germany. The farm was close to a city so they were often subject to allied bombing raids. Every night they would sleep in dugout bomb shelters. In the mornings they would come out and sometimes find people who had been caught in a raid hanging dead caught in the branches of trees. She said one time," People talk about war these days...they don't know what they are saying...when I hear talk of war, I am afraid."
please review Nick Land's "the thirst for annihilation"...
+Carlos Maglione FUCK yeah, GOD that is a good one...But it will have to come later...It's very important I get this Bataille sequence right. More on that to come. Merci
Junger's thinking has been highly influential, post 1945...amongst European Race & Culture community.....He is our guide in 2019....retired US Army....War is 95% boredom, followed by 5% moments of sheer madness & terror...
Junger somehow manged to make Max Stirner's philosophy conservative and I love it so much
What does Max Stirner teach? I haven’t read him. I’ve read War as an Inner Experience by Junger, Metaphysics of War by Evola, Quran of Islam, Bhagavad Gita.
Hey man, I'd love it if you read and reviewed one of Mishima's works
Check the second review on the channel.
Please do Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I don't think you've reviewed many books by women authors and in my opinion this is one of the great novels of modern times.
Ernst Jünger was the first person who tested the drug "LSD", you know? He was a friend of the founder Albert Hoffmann. Anybody can see: He was a very special person.
Not only the first person Albert Hoffmann invited to test LSD with him - Juenger was fascinated with "getting high" in all its variaties, and experimented in a serious (and not recreational) manner with marijuana, lsd, magic mushrooms, mescaline, opium, chloroform, cocaine..... Look for the unofficial translation into English of his book "Annäherungen: Drogen und Rausch" (Approaches: Drugs and Inebriation"
Crispin Glover was on the latest WTF podcast with Marc Maron and they were briefly talking about this book, The Day of the Locust by Nathaniel West. It sounds quite interesting and it seems like it would be right up your alley, Cliff, if you haven't read it already.
Yo Cliff. If you really dig war stories, you should read The Good Soldiers by David Finkel. And also its sequel called Thank You For Your Service, it concerns PTSD.
Have you lissened to David Bowie's Blackstar?
+Viktor Bäckman Yes. I enjoyed it.
That sweater looks really fucking comfortable.
+Steve Smith Oh man. It's h&m so I didn't have expectations but dude - I bought like three of the same kind. cheap. warm.
As a German I think your pronounciation wasn't that bad. Great book, great review! Would still love to see your take on a Thomas Bernhard book.
+all of them milking with green fleshy flowers Well thank you, yes I'm getting to Bernhard asap
+Better Than Food: Book Reviews Great! I'm very excited to hear your thoughts.
Ernst Jünger was the transition between the 19th century human and the 20th. He never gave up certain ideas of chivalry, even though he was very familiar with industrial scale slaughter..
u're so talented lecturer
Wittgensteins short account of War is amusing. You should read his biography
Please review Stefan Zweig! Its time! - Greetings from Austria
i remember how i was looked down by the guy working in the shop...when i wanted to buy this book
he didnt have a clue who Junger was so he got on google and then he laughed at me sarcastically only because of Junger being a German soldier.
A sensitive review, thank you. I'd like to see some more female authors, and recommendations, especially contemporary ones. Thanks again Cliff x
I was in to military history. Out of all the great memoirs Louis Barthas,Sigfried Sassoon. Ernst Junger is the best by far.
Obrigado!
review the very hungry caterpillar :)
nice sweater
Please edit the video
This is a non sentimental record of a young man in the first war. The precisely structured and beautifully articulate use of language is addictive. If your doing a book review it’s always good to strike to the book.
Nice man, I just recently found your channel and I have to say that it was a surprise to see a good youtube thing about books. Anyway, Ernst Jünger is fucking great, I highly recommend to read his other stuff too, if you haven't done so yet. [just a little btw, this is inspired by On the Marble Cliffs (the whole album is actually name of the book in French) th-cam.com/video/2V0KPTsA8V4/w-d-xo.html ].
+J. Alfred Prufrock
And for the nazism vs. Jünger: He helped ti sort of build it (see his journalist work in 20's and early 30's, see his Der Arbeiter etc.); but it goes the same way as for Heidegger, Gottfried Benn, even Carl Schmitt. They liked or supported some ideas of nazism, but not the whole thing (conservatism, need of powerful government and so on), but they despised the thing as whole (his sons were sent on front - killed, because of his views). Jünger's view turned (see On the Marble cliffs, later Der Waldgang which completely turns the ideas of Der Arbeiter etc.); he himself said he was an 'anarch' (taking some ideas from Stirner, ...), a man outside of all ideas, not supporting any government, rather opposing them.
It would be possible to write a lot about him, experimenting with drugs, his entomology interests and so much more. One last thing: his brother, Friedrich Georg Jünger, was a great writer and poet too, his book influenced late Heidegger and his thoughts about technology. (Heidegger was influenced by Ernst too). Okay, I'm done for now.
u mixet up a few things, but at all, not bad
hey, I only found out about your videos because you followed me on tumblr. you don't have to do it (the composition of all the reviews are fine I don't need to tell you this, it's indispensable )
Heidegger did nothing wrong
done my bachelor dissertation on this book lol
If you haven't already, you should check out "Wars unwomanly face" by the latest Nobel Prize winner, Svetlana Alexievich. 95 % of the book are testimonies of Soviet women who fought in the WWII. I assure you, you've never read anything like it.
Falluja's in Iraq
u can be a great actor, are u into acting?
Fallujah is in Iraq by the way.. haha
Fallujah is in Iraq
+Aidan Cox You're right, thanks for catching that. Shows my geography knowledge of the middle east, it was a different city.
Hey man, no worries! Could you do a review on the "Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy" by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt?
+Aidan Cox I'll get that on the list - looks great, thanks
This sounds really interesting. I will definitely give it a read.