Paithan

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Paithan is Currently Reading

Paithan is currently reading

On the Marble Cliffs

by Ernst Jünger

bookshelves: currently-reading

Reading for the 5th time

read in February 2023

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Paithan said:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

" Fourth Reading (2025, Again): When Evil comes aroujd you cannot sit in your ivory tower. You have to go out and do something about it, before it gets too strong.

Third Reading (2025): On this go around I was struck less by the intense imagery, which Fourth Reading (2025, Again): When Evil comes aroujd you cannot sit in your ivory tower. You have to go out and do something about it, before it gets too strong.

Third Reading (2025): On this go around I was struck less by the intense imagery, which stimulated and overwhelmed me at first, and was struck far more by what is happening underneath this novel. There are quite a few spiritual forces at work in the story, some of which manifest as places (the forest) or as animals (dogs and serpents). I read in the afterword that this novel is "an assault from the world of dreams." Well I'd believe it. There is a certain artistic and dreamy elegance to the writing, where everything is infused with symbolism and spirit. You cannot always grasp what is being said. You want to, but it is all just out of reach.

This is best portrayed in the climax of the story. Our heroes set out to defeat the Huntmaster in his forest. Armed and with fighting dogs, there is a vicious battle, but they fail. When they flee back to the city, it has been sacked and destroyed. The huntmaster's henchmen and their dogs are only defeated when a young boy summons a swarm of vipers to bite them all to death.

It is not the solid, iron weapon that defeats evil. It is the uncontrollable, uncountable spirit.

Second Reading: The ending still makes me upset. Because this beautiful culture is destroyed, and it took so many generations to build. And it was a wonderful thing. I think in that regard the book is the story of Western civilization, which has experienced its decline into materialistic savage over the last 80 years. On a different note, I feel like this book is not finished. This feels like a very solid late draft, in some final revisions. For example, who is Fortunio? To read throughs, I may have missed the introduction of his character. He seems to be an explorer or treasure hunter, who has made a map of the forest. This is never explained it is simply presented.

On top of that, why does the main character leave his son behind when he flees? I know it implied that the boys grandmother has some deal with the barbarians, but we also see the house go up in flames. Why did the main character not rescue his son? This really bothers me. This book reminded me of the book of judges from the Bible, where, in every man does what is writing in his own eyes, because there’s no king in the land. This is what happens when there is no righteous authority figure to keep order. I think I know why there is no character like this in the story. There is a strain of gnosticism in the book. The main character has retreated into metaphysics, using it as an excuse not to act in the world. but in the climax, he acts, anyway, and it is too late. I suppose this could be the authors argument against an internal life.

First Reading: I am hovering between three and four stars because the book is very well written. It has some of the most beautiful imagery that I have ever read in a book. It almost transcends prose to become poetry. Yet the ending was unsatisfying. This story is somewhat of a fable, somewhat of a fairy tale. It seems the purpose of it is to instruct people, or perhaps act as a witness, to what Juenger saw in the rise of Adolf Hitler in the 1940s. That is all fine and very good but I feel it is only half the story because it ends with the Villain in power. Now that requires some background as Juenger wrote it during the war when Hitler was at its height, so he didn't know how things were going to go down.

Anyway, it also transcends its own subject matter. It is a book about Hitler but it is also a book about every populist dictator that has ever gained power. It is a book about what happens when barbarians take over civilization. I have personally felt at times that Europe before the World Wars was another world and that world was destroyed by the violence of the wars. In this book, you can see the last vestiges of a once noble and medieval civilization burn up in fire. It is a sad thing to witness. 78 or so years after the end of the Second World War, we still haven't replaced that civilization, but built something out of plastic and billboards instead. ...more "

progress:

(page 6 of 136)
— Mar 11, 2026 06:34AM

Sep 25, 2025 06:27AM · see review

Paithan is currently reading

The Long Ships

by Frans G. Bengtsson

bookshelves: currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in March 2024

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Paithan said: " Fun and exciting. Cozy and wholesome. Full of brave warriors, swords, ships, gold and witty women. Probably one of the best stories I've ever enjoyed. ...more "

progress:

(page 17 of 503)
— Mar 11, 2026 06:33AM

Mar 06, 2024 06:57AM · see review

Paithan is currently reading

A German Officer in Occupied Paris: The War Journals, 1941-1945

by Ernst Jünger

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progress:

(page 271 of 496)
— Feb 28, 2026 06:14PM

May 01, 2025 05:04AM

Paithan’s Quotes

“Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.”
― G.K. Chesterton, Alarms and Discursions

tags: cheese, poetry

5017 likes

“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

tags: how, life, purpose, questioning, questions, why

5867 likes

“Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.”
― George Orwell

4329 likes

“Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

5860 likes

“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big answers don't remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.”
― Charles Bukowski

tags: atheism, religion

8900 likes

More of Paithan’s quotes…