tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1674709389503889160.post7182328666573219..comments2024-03-25T14:25:25.102+00:00Comments on Poetry as Socio-proctology: Tannhauser's dilemma and Krishna's Visvarupawindwheelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18099651877551933295noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1674709389503889160.post-59815807913157884322011-07-19T10:45:50.613+01:002011-07-19T10:45:50.613+01:00@Sheila- sorry, forgot to add, I loved the bit abo...@Sheila- sorry, forgot to add, I loved the bit about the equation, in Heine, between Venus and the Sabbath- is this your original contribution or something in the literature? I don't have access to MUSE at the moment so can't read the essay you suggest.<br />I have a poem on the 'Lekhah Dodi' theme in my 'Mirror's messiah'<br />"Lekhah dodi!" I said, by the day's wasting light<br />"Come welcome the Sabbath in her sable of Night"<br />"Light thou the menorah?" my shadow replied<br />"Keep thy Torah! My Sabbath's denied."windwheelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18099651877551933295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1674709389503889160.post-34826708035356650842011-07-19T10:37:33.828+01:002011-07-19T10:37:33.828+01:00@Sheila- thanks for this! I'd love to hear wha...@Sheila- thanks for this! I'd love to hear what you think of Rational Choice Hermeneutics. Have you read this Paisley Livingston guy? More generally, I'd love your opinion of 'evo devo' lit crit and other such harbingers of the Apocalypse.windwheelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18099651877551933295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1674709389503889160.post-55746889667516998022011-07-18T19:41:39.338+01:002011-07-18T19:41:39.338+01:00Like you, I don't know German and it may be th...Like you, I don't know German and it may be that the authors of this essay are looking at a different libretto from the one summarized on the National Public Radio site- vide http://www.npr.org/2011/02/25/134032170/wishful-thinking-wagners-tannh-user- but there is a huge gap in the argument in that the (male?) authors assume that Elizabeth's hand in marriage is the prize for the song contest. This isn't true. In the Courtly love tradition, she is the 'midons' who might equally possibly prescribe a quest or a crusade rather than grant her hand to the winner. It isn't Tannhauser who is making rational choices to sabotage the contest but Elizabeth who does so, by intervening to prevent the knights from slaying Tannhauser. Furthermore, Elizabeth prays to the Virgin Mary- invocation of whom had freed Tannhauser from Venusberg- that her might life end so she can intercede for her lover in Heaven. Thus, it is Elizabeth- not Tannhauser- who makes all the decisive moves and it is her values that prevail, not those of the male knights and minstrels or even the Pope himself. <br />Indeed, in Heine's poem, Venus is a gemutlich sweetheart whom Tannhauser leaves in a fit of jealousy because she is immortal and has had many lovers and will have many more. But, it turns, out the Pope has no power over Venus and so the minstrel returns to his wife who makes him a nice broth and asks after his disillusioning travels. At this point, Heine makes an equation between Venus and the Sabbath-<br />"To Frankfort I on Schobbas came,<br />Where dumplings were my food.<br />They have the best religion there:<br />Goose-giblets, too, are good.<br /><br />before getting off a typical piece of satire-<br /><br />"In Weimar, the widowed muse's seat,<br />Midst general grief I arrive.<br />The people are crying 'Goethe's dead,<br />And Eckermann's still alive!'"[A]<br /><br />There's an article on the Tanhhauser legend in Heine, Herzl and Perez here- http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/jewish_social_studies/v009/9.1garrett.htmlShielanoreply@blogger.com