Oh no, he's been at the T-shirt design again!
Once upon a time, there was a cautionary tale which became famous not just in the country of its origin, but across Europe.
Then, centuries later, in the country of its origin, a Big Name Playwright adapted it, and changed the ending so as to completely lose the moral. The Big Name Playwright's version became so well-known that in his country, the original version of the story ended up largely forgotten.
Me being me, this narked me.
Me being me, I reacted to this narkedness by designing a (in this case long-sleeved) T-shirt:
For the non-speakers of German amongst you, what Goethe is saying is (in nineteenth-century German) "Faust was saved!"
On the back it says, in German (because after all I'm living in Germany), "Get out of jail free cards don't apply for deals with the Devil."
(In case there are readers for whom this is opaque, Faust is a German story, but of the versions best known today, it's that by the English playwright Christopher Marlowe (a slightly older contemporary of Shakespeare, hence the sixteenth-century English and typeface) which preserves the original end, in which Faust is dragged down to hell after (to cut a long story short) selling his soul to the devil Mephistopheles, not that of the German playwright Johann Goethe.) -Originally posted on Dreamwidth, where there are
comments. Please comment there using OpenID or a DreamWidth account (which you no longer need an invite code to create). Though I am leaving comments enabled on LiveJournal for a bit, please don't comment here if you can do so there instead.
Then, centuries later, in the country of its origin, a Big Name Playwright adapted it, and changed the ending so as to completely lose the moral. The Big Name Playwright's version became so well-known that in his country, the original version of the story ended up largely forgotten.
Me being me, this narked me.
Me being me, I reacted to this narkedness by designing a (in this case long-sleeved) T-shirt:
For the non-speakers of German amongst you, what Goethe is saying is (in nineteenth-century German) "Faust was saved!"
On the back it says, in German (because after all I'm living in Germany), "Get out of jail free cards don't apply for deals with the Devil."
(In case there are readers for whom this is opaque, Faust is a German story, but of the versions best known today, it's that by the English playwright Christopher Marlowe (a slightly older contemporary of Shakespeare, hence the sixteenth-century English and typeface) which preserves the original end, in which Faust is dragged down to hell after (to cut a long story short) selling his soul to the devil Mephistopheles, not that of the German playwright Johann Goethe.) -Originally posted on Dreamwidth, where there are
comments. Please comment there using OpenID or a DreamWidth account (which you no longer need an invite code to create). Though I am leaving comments enabled on LiveJournal for a bit, please don't comment here if you can do so there instead.