Help. I'm liking Faust. Halp!
Faust. 'sabout some bloke makes a deal with the devil because he was bored.
But it's so much more than that! It's supremely quotable and has delightfully silly bits in it as well. The Penguin Classics edition I'm reading has an unbelievable 58 pages of introductions prefaces and translators' notes. I didn't read them. I'll say it's because I didn't want to read spoilers but really, tl;dr.
Even when one get to pages that cease to be numbered in hoity toity roman numerals the play still doesn't begin in earnest. First we have a 'Prelude in the Theatre' between a poet, a comic, and their director. They ramble on for about five pages, each with their own idea of what the poet should write. Should he write for the now, or hope to sparkle for unknown future audiences? Will he just get on with it?! The director pleads. Ah yes well. He could do that, yes. But first, melodramatic posing!!
Then we come to the Second barrier to block us from actually reading Faust speak: the 'Prologue in Heaven' Mephistopheles is hangin' out with all the heavenly hosts and god and stuff, havin' a chat.
Ah ha! Now god has agreed to let Mephistopheles try his wily corrupty ways on our favorite German scholar.
It can be Act I tiem naow!
Things happen, la la la, but the really important bit isn't Faust being filled with woe that reading and learning isn't fun any more. It isn't even his adorkably keen friend Wagner who loves reading with the kind of passion you only find in books. It's when they go out for a walk on Easter day. This would be after Faust was playing Russian roulette with random potion bottles his dead father had left him. Exciting.
Anyway the scene of awesomeness is when he and Wagner are sitting on this hill. Contemplating.
Faust goes all PoA Ron Weasley over a shadowy figure - The grim! Wagner! It's the Grim!!!!
Wagner: It's a poodle.
Faust: it's circling us!!! Its casting spells on us!!
Wagner: Poodle.
Faust: It's drawing its sorcerous noose tighter!
Wagner: Friendly Poodle.
Faust: AAaah! Aaah! Demon Dog!
Wagner: Awww. Who's a good boy den? Who's a good boy?
The dog's running, jumping, and barking are a little less endearing when he's in chez Faust. Our boy Faust puts the dog to sleep behind the stove on a cushion. But oh my! The shadows warp and change! It looks like a Hippopotamus! With eyes of fiyah! But it gets bigger! An Elephant! (Down, boy, down! - says Faust) More shadowy changes.
Yep, you guessed it. Mephistopheles disguised himself as a poodle.
How can this be menacing?
Anyway he's stuck now that he's people shaped by some pentagram on the door so he pretends to bargain a while and has spirits put Faust asleep so that he, being Lord of the Flies, can have a rat come and nibble the pentagram until it breaks.
And that's all I read for tomorrow.
But Mephistopheles is coming back!
Of course he is, it's a play.
Other Things I liked:
But it's so much more than that! It's supremely quotable and has delightfully silly bits in it as well. The Penguin Classics edition I'm reading has an unbelievable 58 pages of introductions prefaces and translators' notes. I didn't read them. I'll say it's because I didn't want to read spoilers but really, tl;dr.
Even when one get to pages that cease to be numbered in hoity toity roman numerals the play still doesn't begin in earnest. First we have a 'Prelude in the Theatre' between a poet, a comic, and their director. They ramble on for about five pages, each with their own idea of what the poet should write. Should he write for the now, or hope to sparkle for unknown future audiences? Will he just get on with it?! The director pleads. Ah yes well. He could do that, yes. But first, melodramatic posing!!
Then we come to the Second barrier to block us from actually reading Faust speak: the 'Prologue in Heaven' Mephistopheles is hangin' out with all the heavenly hosts and god and stuff, havin' a chat.
Ah ha! Now god has agreed to let Mephistopheles try his wily corrupty ways on our favorite German scholar.
It can be Act I tiem naow!
Things happen, la la la, but the really important bit isn't Faust being filled with woe that reading and learning isn't fun any more. It isn't even his adorkably keen friend Wagner who loves reading with the kind of passion you only find in books. It's when they go out for a walk on Easter day. This would be after Faust was playing Russian roulette with random potion bottles his dead father had left him. Exciting.
Anyway the scene of awesomeness is when he and Wagner are sitting on this hill. Contemplating.
Faust goes all PoA Ron Weasley over a shadowy figure - The grim! Wagner! It's the Grim!!!!
Wagner: It's a poodle.
Faust: it's circling us!!! Its casting spells on us!!
Wagner: Poodle.
Faust: It's drawing its sorcerous noose tighter!
Wagner: Friendly Poodle.
Faust: AAaah! Aaah! Demon Dog!
Wagner: Awww. Who's a good boy den? Who's a good boy?
The dog's running, jumping, and barking are a little less endearing when he's in chez Faust. Our boy Faust puts the dog to sleep behind the stove on a cushion. But oh my! The shadows warp and change! It looks like a Hippopotamus! With eyes of fiyah! But it gets bigger! An Elephant! (Down, boy, down! - says Faust) More shadowy changes.
Yep, you guessed it. Mephistopheles disguised himself as a poodle.
How can this be menacing?
Anyway he's stuck now that he's people shaped by some pentagram on the door so he pretends to bargain a while and has spirits put Faust asleep so that he, being Lord of the Flies, can have a rat come and nibble the pentagram until it breaks.
And that's all I read for tomorrow.
But Mephistopheles is coming back!
Of course he is, it's a play.
Other Things I liked:
- Faust used the phrase 'cut and paste' on the same page he used the word 'refresh.' Dude - it's the internet!
- Faust: Golly, life is boring and without meaning. I think I'll take up necromancy.
- Wagner: Books, Books, Books! Books are the best things in the world! I love books!
- In Goethe-world, lightening is red. That's rather spiffy.
- Faust: Oh skull, let me hold you up and ponder fleeting life!