Money and Magic: A Critique of the Modern Economy in the Light of Goethe's FAUST (review)

Abstract

Goethe Yearbook 323 AU too often it seems that Ciupke's metrical or other preconceptions lead to interpretive distortion. He thus credits "Synaphie"—defined not as in Classical metrics but as "Fortführung eines alternierenden Versganges über die Versgrenze hinweg"—with expressing "Erregungszustände" and increasing "Sprachtempo" (p. 274), but his very first example of such "Temposteigerung" φ. 42), 386-42, seems to me to open ("O sähst du, voUer Mondenschein") with a lyrical retardando in clear contrast to Faust's preceding Knittelverse. The dubiety of attributing innate affective value to a metrical form is obvious when the "beschwingter Charakter" of 903ff. is attributed to their dactyls φ. 49) while to those of 8378 is credited die achievement of a "besonders eindringliche, feierliche Wirkung" (p. 122). Knowledge tiiat 2073-78 were already in "Urfaust" in their final metrical form, compounded with the assumption—made despite no evidence of Goetiie's use of the verse form before March f 773— tiiat they are Knittelverse because written "in Leipzig, also bis Õ 769 [sic]" (p. 39), constrains Ciupke to scan their pentameter couplet "Das liegt an dir; du bringst ja nichts herbei, I Nicht eine Dummheit, keine Sauerei" (p. 58)! (Other examples of forced "knittelversartig" scansion are—pp. 118f.—7991 "Viel klüger, scheint es, bin ich nicht geworden," 7798 "Und faßte Wesen, daß mien's schauerte," und 7800 "Wenn es nur länger dauerte," although die last of these verses adds a fifth stress to its predecessor.) Since Ciupke's monograph will probably long remain the sole volume of its kind, I end tiiis review with a few corrections and additions φy page or by page and line). 13,2 for Buches read Buch; 47,2 for vier read drei; 68,26 for Kreuzread Blockreim; 77,14 for 3429 read 3430; 79,8 for ungewöhnlichen Superlativ read Verb; 112 only die last two of die four verses (7001-4) here said to constitute an epigram are apothegmatic; 130,2 for fünf read sechs, after 8828 insert 8878; 143,5 after dem a word seems missing; 167,23 for 1850 read / 750; 170,35 for Kaiserlich read kaiserlich; 186,23 die suggested emendation of Gewühl to Gefühl ignores an aUusion φy Kurt May) to i 583; f 88,37 for Methougt read Methought, 190,3f to claim it is "unklar" who utters 11593f because the Lémures previously use only "Liedverse" is to forget that the chorus of Helen's attendants speak both strophically and stichicany; 200,21 for Mysticus read mysticus ; 207,28 for 514 read 515 (since 514 rhymes with 511); 210,35f for 2752, 2753 read 2753, 2754; 226,25ff for ungereimt: 66... 468-76 read ... 65... 468- 74 (since 475 rhymes with 477); 287f die definition of "Madrigalverse" is inconsistent with Ciupke's counting as such unrhymed verses like 2282, 2308, and 2775 (to take examples for tabular figures on p. 210 only). Santa Barbara, California Stuart Atkins Hans Christoph Binswanger, Money and Magic: A Critique of the Modern Economy in the Light of Goetiie's FAUST, trans. JE. Harrison. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.133 pp. This brief monograph asserts in its first paragraph that Goethe explains the economy as an alchemical process: die quest for artificial gold. Out of this quest develops an addiction that ensnares forever the individual who has 324 Book Reviews "sold his soul." Whoever fails to understand this alchemy, the message Goethe's Faust conveys, cannot grasp the gigantic dimension of the modem economy. From this statement and from the title one might reasonably expect an analysis of the modem economy rather than oÃ- Faust. Not so. And the reordering of events in die plot φ^α^ Act 1 before die pact), the cfichéd reading ("sold his soul"), die overdramatization ("Whoever faUs to understand"), the repetitiveness ("the message Goethe's Faust conveys") are aU typical. The book belabors the obvious point that Goethe compares the introduction of paper money to alchemy, a point made expticitiy, after aU, in Act I where Faust appears as alchemist. Since Binswanger has little to say about the impncations of this insight, he is reduced to repeating it and finding it other places in...