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====== Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ======

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) is
present in the various periods of Vilém Flusser’s
thinking and of fundamental importance. Goethe
is especially mentioned in //Bodenlos. Eine philosophische
Autobiographie// [No Firm Ground:
A Philosophical Autobiography], published in
German in 1992, which assembles memories,
conversations, and lectures. When talking about
his flight from his hometown Prague to escape
persecution by the Nazis, Flusser says he carried
with him only one Hebrew prayer book and
Goethe’s //Faust//. \\ 

Based on the medieval legend in which a man
sold his soul to Mephisto, Goethe’s //Faust// is
a dramatic poem divided into two parts that
symbolically explores the search for meaning
and knowledge. In //Bodenlos//, Flusser refers to
the devil’s image when he realized that he felt
like a “tormented animal” (//Bodenlos//, 1992, p. 26;
translated from the German). Flusser watched
Prague fall apart and saw his emigration as a
diabolical choice that led him into an “abyss of
nothingness” (ibid., p. 28; translated from the
German). \\ 

Echoes of Goethe’s work can also be found in
other texts, especially in Flusser’s book //The
History of the Devil//, first written in German in 1956 and 1957 and published for the first time in
1965 in Portuguese as //A História do Diabo//. The
book is “a description of the evolution of the
diabolic arms and instruments” (//The History of
the Devil//, 2014, p. 6). It is structured according to
the relationships among the seven deadly sins
and fundamental reflections on knowledge. Each
sin represents a diabolic action and, ironically,
a step in human progress. In the essay “Em
Busca de Significado” [In Search of Meaning]
written in 1969, Flusser reviews his intellectual
career and concludes: “Goethe is always with
me, perhaps for being everything I cannot be
[…].” (“In Search of Meaning,” in: //Writings//, 2002,
p.202)

//Original article by Lucia Leão//