Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth

It seems to me that poetic language, like a lot of other things in Wackenroder's "A Wondrous Oriental Tale of a Naked Saint," stems from music. poetic language cannot exist without it. Look at the first half of the story. Sure, the narrative is fairly (B,B+) poetic as far as language. It is literary, although this passage probably will not make it into any Norton anthology that does not have "Kunstmärchen" in the title anytime soon. But the spoken words within the narrative are far from poetic. Our naked saint gives "wild, garbled speeches." After he kills people for being so foolish as to try and chop wood when the wheel of time needs turning, he speaks "in a garbled manner" until he lets off enough steam. The naked monk's "desperate yearning for unknown beautiful things" goes unfulfilled until that special night with the two lovers comes along.

But even here, where the connection between music and poetic language becomes much more apparent, music seems to precede poetic language. Wackenroder mentions that "The penetrating rays of the moon had illuminated and unraveled the dark depths of their souls for each other. Their most tender feelings flowed together and formed tidal streams that no bank could contain." Wackenroder is dabbling with a pretty powerful metaphor in these lines, but that is not the important part of the passage. These two lovers are communicating on an incredibly deep level, one that only tidal flows and not mere words can communicate. Ethereal music starts flowing (or rather bumping as it is almost assuredly techno) from this boat. Only from this techno finally rises a lyrical song. Embedded in these lyrics is the idea that "Love's sweet tone does now resound./ Every note lulls love's sweet beauty/ To the sleeping palms and flowers." Love is talking in music, not in sonnets. It is notes and sounds, not words and semicolons that make love's sweet beauty sleepy. This song solves the naked saint's problem of garbled "crazytalk" and is utterly freeing. Music seems to be the cause of poetic language; without music poetic language would have no source.

What I find more interesting is the extended metaphor I see for the effects music has on life in general. It is no stretch to see our naked friend's constant turning of the invisible wheel of time as a metaphor for living a monotonous life. His perpetual work is driven by a great fear. It sounds like " a waterfall with thousands and thousands of rushing streams" that blots out all other noise. This life, living the rat race if you will, grows more and more violent, and "he wanted to bring all the energy of his body to bear on the blistering wheel, so that time would never be in danger of standing still." He is completely devoted to turning this wheel. However, the narrative makes it clear that "the wheel of time did not allow him to rest and do anything on earth-to act, to effect things, to be productive." Wackenroder is quite clear about the fact that this constant turning of the wheel produces nothing of any actual value. But even with all this wasted effort, our saint still feels a "desperate yearning for unknown beautiful things."

Before music comes along and saves the day, Wackenroder makes one pointed comment about the state of human nature. He says "The people, no longer blinded by sunlight, lived with their eyes fixed on the firmament, and their souls were mirrored beautifully in the heavenly glow of the moonlit night." People are blinded by sunlight, which can be read as the trivial daily work of the world numbing their senses to the firmament that they should actually be mirroring. The naked saint too is obviously blinded to the beauty of the firmament by the turning wheel of time. The toil we as humans do in the sunlight blinds us to the finer things in life. But music saves us. "As soon as the naked saint heard the first notes of the music, the rushing wheel of time disappeared. This was the first time that music had ever been sounded in this remote place." Simply hearing the music for the first time breaks the spell over us, so we are freed to mingle with the greater beauty in the world.

So is this story a fairy tale? Well, Jack Zipes certainly thinks so. But it has several traits in common with more traditional fairy tales. The ones that stick out most clearly to me are the indeterminate time and place in the story and the obvious transformation that occurs. However, the spiritual elements in the story are less legible in a Christian moral framework than they are in a social critique. The point I made about music freeing us from the drudgery of life backs me up on this one. Also, the transformation is to a higher plane, a very "kunst" trait. The transformation is not a taboo transformation into an animal like we encountered in the "folks" tales. There is also a sense of longing between the lovers, which is another important trait in "kunst" style tales.

Song of the blog: "My life would suck without you" by Kelly Clarkson. The "you" in the title refers to music.