A Wondrous Oriental Tale of a Naked Saint

I know that we are specifically meant to be discussing the language of the poem at the end of the story, but I am going to deviate for just a little while. One of the first things that I noticed about this story was the evocative language - it just seemed so different to the language of the other tales we have been reading in this class. Even if the plot lines of the other tales were aimed at adults rather than children, their language remained basic and childlike. However this story had great imagery and onomatopoeia - as the sentence structure became more and more garbled and confusing, I could almost hear the wheel of time turning. The long winded sentence structure describing the saint's feelings towards the wheel made me feel nervous as I was reading it. For instance, this sentence really stood out to me: "...poured itself eternally, eternally without a moment's pause, without a second's pause, this was the way it sounded in his ears, and all his senses were geared to this roaring." The repetition and the way the sentence quickens in pace was very effective. Through the language, I could understand how anxious and stressed the saint was feeling. This difference in language made the tale more of a literary Kunstmärchen than a simple folk tale. The language was too refined and well thought out to simply be a tale passed down theough the ages by word of mouth.
However, we are meant to be discussing the relationship between the music and the poetic language, so I will move on to that. The music which eventually transforms the saint into a spirit cines durectky frin the intrinsic connection between love and the pure beauty of nature. It seems almost religious - God has finally given this soul a respite and transformed him into an angel through his beauty and love. Although the poetic language of the song adds to the transformation and no doubt helps the saint to transform, "the song arose from the undulating music." It was the sheer beauty and joy of the music that transformed the saint - the poetic language was merely an added bonus. I therefore believe that the power evoked by the music is not truly accessible to the language, rather the power of the music itself creates the poetic lyrics.
There are elements of this tale that make it fairy tale like. We first encounter our hero (the saint) , he then encounters a problem (the never ending noise of the wheel of time), he suffers through the noise, then the solution arrives in the form of the beauty of the night and the lovers (perhaps God) and his problem is solved as he transforms into a spirit and leaves the Earth to live eternally (happily ever after) in heaven. However, even though it follows the folk tale format, it is definitely a literary tale. The language is much more evocative and well developed than the language of any folk tale - which is simple and mundane in comparison.

March 31

The relationship between music and poetic language is that the language of the music evoked by the lovers created the music that transformed the genius into the “angel.” Because of this phenomenon, the power evoked by the music is also accessible to the written language. These two are forms are intertwined. Elements of the story that are fairy tale like is the genius under the spell, the transformation of him into the “angel” character, and the fact that although the story took place in the Orient, the readers do not know where or when. The elements that make it more specifically a Kunstmärchen is transformation of the genius into a “higher plane,” as well as the longing of the lovers, which leads to the transformation.

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.

Wackenroder

After reading “A Wondrous Oriental Tale of a Naked Saint” I feel that the beautiful language that Wackenroder uses helps to illustrate the quality of music the saint is hearing. We can’t hear the music the Saint is listening to, yet we witness the profound impact it has on him. The music is his escape from the constantly grinding wheel of time. I think the language Wackenroder uses illuminates the effect music can have upon a person. It is a break from the doldrums of everyday life. Music is an art form that can allow the human mind to travel to a different space and experience a new form of expression through sound. Yet, in this story, we do not hear anything; we simply read the experience of the saint in relation to the music and the lyrics he hears. It is not the same thing as actually listening to music with your own ears. I think the power of music isn’t quite embodied in language but can only be experienced by listening to it. Language read on a page has a different impact on the human senses than the impact of music. Although this story can be read out loud and we can experience it through sound, it does not encompass the freeing sensation elicited by music. I think you can argue against this, but from my own experience, reading language and listening to a song have two different effects on me. I feel that music often offers a greater emotional pull.
I didn’t see many fairy tale aspects in this story. The one thing I noticed that appeared fairy tale like was the transformation of the Saint at the end of story. There is that element of magic that is in fairy tales, but I feel like the metamorphoses we observe in fairy tales are often of humans into animals or vice versa. In this story the saint turns into a spirit. I think this connects much more to the literary fairy tales of the Kuntsmarchen. The fact that he turns into a spirit suggests something much more supernatural and mystical and is in line with literary fairy tales’ emphasis on the psychology of the mind. He turns into a free spirit after he has heard the music which transports him into a higher state of being. This point in the story is philosophical and less childlike and pedagogical than the elements in the fairy tales we read from Grimm’s.

Assignment: 31 March 2009

Please consider the Wackenroder text, “A Wondrous Oriental Tale of a Naked Saint.”

• What is the relationship between music and poetic language? Is the power evoked by music also accessible to language? Or does language merely point to music?
• Also, consider how Wackenroder’s story is a fairy tale. What elements are fairy-tale-like? And what makes it, more specifically, a Kunstmärchen?