At the time David Krell refers to in the Grus Gott story lived in the small village of Trachslau in Switzerland. The - should say originan - story had to do, not with professional fame but with die spread of village news.' diought the Scott sound ofthe Swiss pronunciation of die greeting meant that everybody in die region knew had moved into Trachslau and were welcoming me by name. When got the facts straight about the greeting found that could respond properly and Swissly simply by saying back my name to the folks on the road. find my version much less worthy of repeating tiian David's. For die purposes of this conversation will say tiiat my version of the story is less mythological than his and very likely more factual. And it is also less interesting, less invested widi spirit, less satisfying in several ways. Mine, after all, only speaks of bad hearing, a silly mistake and die effectiveness of lines of village communication. David's addresses Hubris, Error, and Resentment against God. can say from the outset that bore no resentment against such a Creature2 and that although my interest in religion was waning during that period of my life sang in a Zurich church choir and participated fully in die congregation's life. Although more dull and prosaic, die more factual story allows me to recall an experience had that was amusing to me but considerably less than mythological in its meaning. As respond to David's generous observations and hard questions will move, as believe he moves, toward die question of sacrality by way of mythological time and quasitranscendence. The Good Pagan David is less positively moved by JudeoChristian belief than even Holderlin, Schelling, and Hegel. He goes to archaic Greek religion and sensibility, to blood sacrifices untranslated by either Jewish law or Christian redemption, to die pull, the draw, die gravity, and in his wonderful prose, die excitement of death, birth, continuous loss, creation, narration, and again, death. It's not God, it's Ananke, figured without sense or unity, figured vaguely by chora in some accounts, and perhaps (he doesn't say) by the continuous but always past mating of Ge and Uranos. am now talking with a good pagan, even if he does not say his prayers frequently during die day, or offer sweet smelling incense regularly to the gods, or offer his first-born for sacrifice. That is, David is a good pagan now who does not live in a sacred world tiiat would be possible probably only without modern science and me many lineages spawned so long ago by our pagan heritages. Or should say, pagan origins? will come back to the question of origins. The Importance of Being Earnest Scott's levity is always in earnest ___ Although believe that statement is not a criticism, hear in it a caution: be careful not to think of lightness of mind and absence of a spirit of seriousness as necessarily lacking fervor and constructive intention. It's not cynicism, and skepticism does not appropriately describe it any more than cynicism or skepticism adequately describes Silenic wisdom when it is woven into Greek drama. Lacking the spirit of seriousness and creatively appropriating the teaching of Silenus, rather, give an opening to a quality of affirmation that Nietzsche found unavailable in traditional JudeoChristian wisdom. In King Midas 's presence, captive and unfree, Silenus was certainly earnest. And we should be earnest too, given the stakes of Western spiritual bondage. There are many strands in die bond - moral, religious, political. The one will speak of is scientific, so that can respond to an issue tiiat believe hovers throughout David's paper: bondage to science (i.e. the death of the mythological). I Was Born OK the First Time. The importance of being earnest is limited. We are talking about basic sensibilities that constitute predispositions to some intentions, values, meanings, and practices and not to others. …
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Oct 14, 2024
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