Date: Mon, 10 Nov 1997 16:24:19 -0800
From: goya-AT-uvic.ca (Michael Chase)
Subject: Re: PLC: Farbenlehre



>>
>Does he mean Goethe was actually familiar with their work, or that that his
>ideas just came out sounding the same?

M.C.: The latter.

 I always think of him as an
>anti-theorist, that he just sat down and looked at things.


M.C.: Well yes, but such was his greatness that he somehow managed to find
the time to read the theorists before dissing them...

 I guess I'm
>basing this partly on his distaste for Newton, and  partly on his idealizing
>of dyers --as if they were practical men and he was carrying his case to the
>people.  It wasn't my impression that he read much theory.

M.C.: I think he read just about everything; but although he "translated"
Hafiz, I don't think he read Persian, and so he could not have read
Semnani.
>
>I've only read English translations.  Do you know how much is untranslated,
>and whether it's all been printed?

M.C.: Of Goethe, you mean? I'm sure it's all been translated, although when
I visited a few German bookstores years ago I could not find a handy
edition of the Farbenlehre. There is a great German Jubilaumsausgabe. My
own edition (_Goethes Werke in sechzehn Baenden, Leipzig: Max Hesse Verlag,
n.d.,) omits the scienitific writings. Leider. There is also a
Gedenkausgabe in 24 volumes (Zurich/Munchen: Artemis Verlag; the
naturwissenschaftliche writings occupy vols. 16-17). Nietzsche's favourite
book was the _Conversations with Eckermann_, which give G.'s views as an
old man; I have the edition with commentary by Dr. Eduard Castle,
Berlin/Leipzig/Wien/Stuttgart: Deutsches Verlagshaus Bong & Co., 3 vols.,
n.d. Aubier-Montaigne published a series of bilingual French-German
editions of G.'s verse, including two volumes for both parts of Faust.

Isn't this a bit far from Classical
>studies, or is there some connection I'm missing?

M.C.: Goethe's greatness, like Nietzsche's, comes in no small part from the
fact that he absorbed the totality of Greek and Latin culture.


Who is Henry Corbin?

M.C.: Hooboy. Can this wait for a later message? I should get back to work.....
>
        Ciao, Mike.

Michael Chase
(goya-AT-uvic.ca)
Victoria, B.C.
Canada




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