

On the Marionette Theatre by Heinrich von Kleist (1801) - myrrh
http://www.southerncrossreview.org/9/kleist.htm

======
contingencies
A real period piece. It was great stylistically and a joy to read save the
abhorrent biblical reference and the postface, which seemed grossly wrong to
me in asserting that the writer is proposing humanity move forward with
"complete knowledge", whatever that is. Where they found that idea, I don't
know.

This piece of writing to me demonstrates the sense of common curiosity and
intellectual inquiry that can frequently be found in 19th and early 20th
century writings. To join with the writer along a series of discoveries about
a subject, combining both practical and aesthetic observations, is really
something rarer today: post-industrial, post-war, post-modern English with its
emphasis on efficiency, function, and commerce (ie. mass-market appeal ... in
a sea of predominantly television-affected, often non-native readers) seems to
have lost this. And all the more to draw it finally in to a higher point!
Clearly, a manner of elucidation far too obtuse for a modern readship.

It probably had additional appeal to me as growing up in suburban Sydney a
family of French puppeteers moved in next door to us, fresh from Polynesia.
Living for most of the last decade and a half in Asia, I frequently see
puppets in both the shadow and water incarnations, and have begun to collect
close up photographs of them wherever I can. In addition, I have recently been
reading a fantastic book (also from a prior era of the English language) on
Chinese Theater, discussing the stupendous training regimes and regulations
inflicted on generations of performers.

Anyway, I for one am going to swing onward, my thinking propelled by this
string of text as if by pendulum, to smash another problem :)

