On Tue, 30 May 2000 leskayc@a... wrote:
> Dear List,
> One of you talented and enlightened souls has a Goethe quote at the end of
> your posts-the one about hearing a little music and seeing a beautiful
> picture every day..........or something along those lines. For the life of
> me I cannot remember who has it, and I thought of it this morning while
> discussing the problem of FUNDING with out Arts Council's executive director.
> We would like to use the quote in a newsletter .
>
> SO, whoever you are, could you send me an email so I can print it off and
> have this most true and worthy saying for my own?
>
> Thanks,
> Leslie Christopher
> Board member and general gopher
> Athens-Limestone Arts Council
> Athens, Alabama
It's probably me you're thinking of.
I also have a page devoted to Goethe's novels on my website at:
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/goethe.html
The funny thing is, I'm a huge fan of Goethe the novellist, and also have
great appreciation for Goethe the poet, but I'm not all that turned on by
Goethe the playwright. I never quite understood why this was until I read
WILHELM MEISTER'S APPRENTICESHIP, in which Goethe - through the lips of
Wilhelm Meister - espouses his own philosophy about the purpose of drama.
Apparently he felt drama should be used to convey uplifting moral
messages - and what has always put me off about Goethe's plays (including
FAUST) is the fact that they were clearly written with an "agenda" in
mind. I don't find the same is quite as oppressively true of his novels -
yes, he has many ideas - moral and otherwise - to convey, but I also find
the novels much more "naturalistic", and also surprisingly unjudgemental
in their frank portrayals of human relationships, including sexual
relationships. He is not "explicit" in the modern sense, but he's very
down-to-earth, consistent, I think, with the mores of his age
(pre-Victorian). And yet, still a very "moral" writer.
Karen Mercedes
-----
Ich singe, wie der Vogel singt,
Der in den Zweigen wohnet;
Das Lied, das aus der Kehle dringt,
Ist Lohn, der reichlich lohnet.
-- J.W. von Goethe, WILHELM MEISTER
My NEIL SHICOFF Website:
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/shicoff/shicoff.html
My Website:
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
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