Werther

[mikebailey at speakeasy.net]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Otto [mailto:ottosell at googlemail.com]
> Subject: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Die Leiden des jungen Werther (1774)
>
> Sorry 'bout that but that's the way it is. Even today I cannot get into it.
>

I haven't read it either, and my informal poll of Germans (now with 2 data points, the first being a visitor last summer) indicates no fondness for Goethe.  Werther was a very popular book when it came out.

>From Wikipedia:

The Sorrows of Young Werther was Goethe's first major success, turning him from an unknown into a celebrated author practically overnight. Napoleon Bonaparte considered it one of the great works of European literature and carried Werther throughout most of his campaigns. It also started the phenomenon known as the "Werther-Fieber" ("Werther Fever"): Young men throughout Europe began to dress in the clothing described for Werther in the novel. It also led to some of the first known examples of copycat suicide; supposedly more than 2,000 readers committed suicide. The "Werther Fever" was watched with concern by the authorities and fellow authors. One of the latter, Friedrich Nicolai, decided to create an alternative - and more happy - ending called Die Freuden des jungen Werther ("The Joys of Young Werther"), in which Albert, having realized what Werther is up to, had loaded chicken blood into the pistol, thereby foiling Werther's suicide, and happily concedes Lotte to him.

However, Goethe was not pleased with this version and started a literary war (which lasted all his life) with Nicolai by writing a poem titled "Nicolai auf Werthers Grabe" in which Nicolai defecates on Werther's grave, thus desecrating the memory of Werther from which Goethe had distanced himself in the meantime (as he had from the Sturm und Drang). This was continued in his collection of short and critical poems, the Xenies.

Still, Goethe acknowledged the great personal and emotional impact that The Sorrows of Young Werther could exert on those forlorn young lovers who discovered it. In 1821, he commented to his secretary, "It must be bad, if not everybody was to have a time in his life, when he felt as though Werther had been written exclusively for him."
------------------
(He does sound like kind of a butthead)

> And what is "a gone cat with a right to sing the blues"?

Kerouac writes of "a real gone chick" in various places; so maybe a "real gone cat" would be the male equivalent.  As to "a right to sing the blues" -
I was extrapolating from the fact that he had "Sorrows".  Just trying to get a handle on the Werther phenomenon, I guess