Thursday, July 29, 2010

Thunder.

I am reading a book right now--an 800-pager--called "The German Genius. Europe's Third Renaissance, The Second Scientific Revolution, and the Twentieth Century" by the great writer/historian/thinker, Peter Watson.

A chapter I read last night was on George Buchner, who was born in 1813 and died 24-years later in 1837. In that short time, he studied medicine, fought for the poor and became full professor of anatomy at the University of Zurich. He also wrote like a sonofabitch, writing plays and novels with dizzying speed.

His most famous work, thanks to Alban Berg's opera was "Woyzeck." The story of a common soldier driven mad and to suicide by unyielding military discipline and the strict hierarchy of German society.

That description in and of itself reminded me of advertising. But these two clips really got me: "Man's an abyss; you get dizzy when you look down." And this one, by a poor character in Woyzeck: "I think that if we went to heaven, we'd have to help make the thunder."

Have a nice day. :)

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