If the War Goes On . . .. Герман Гессе
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Название: If the War Goes On . . .
Автор: Герман Гессе
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Историческая литература
Серия: Canons
isbn: 9781786894465
isbn:
But there is a most unusual gap in this strange young man’s mental life – he knows nothing of the war! All these years he has lived outside of the world that surrounds us all! Just as officially he did not exist for the world, so our world and our times did not exist for him. He is probably the only adult in Europe who, though of perfectly sound mind, knows nothing whatever of his times, of the World War, of the events and upheavals of the last ten years!
We are tempted to compare this strange philosopher with Kaspar Hauser, that legendary figure whose early years were spent in a secluded twilight, removed from the world of men.
It will probably not take long to elucidate and pass judgement on the relatively simple case of Gassner Senior. He has committed a grave offense and will have to take the consequences. But, as to the guilt or complicity of the son, opinions vary widely. At present he is still under examination in a mental hospital. His only reaction to what little he has thus far learned about current events, the state, and his civic duties, has been childlike wonder tinged with fear. It is quite evident that he does not take the attempts to educate him in these matters very seriously; he seems to regard all references to the present-day world as fictions employed to test his mental condition. So far, questions and association tests based on common catchwords familiar to every child have elicited no response.
We learn, on the point of going to press, that the philosophical faculty of Leipzig University is now looking into the case. Gassner’s writings are to be examined. But, regardless of the positive or negative value of these writings, the faculty is most eager to make the acquaintance of the man himself and may decide to acquire him as the sole exemplar of an otherwise extinct species of man. This ‘pre-war man’ will be subjected to thorough investigation and perhaps preserved for science.
The European
January 1918
At last the Lord God relented and sent the great flood, so putting an end to the era in the history of the earth that had culminated in the bloody World War. Compassionately the waters washed away what had desecrated the aging planet, the blood-drenched snow fields and the mountains bristling with cannon, the rotting corpses along with those who mourned them, those drunk with blood lust along with the impoverished, the starving along with those who had gone mad.
Mildly the blue sky looked down on the smooth ball.
To the very end European technology had shown its mettle. For weeks Europe had defended itself ably and stubbornly against the slowly rising waters. At first with enormous dikes on which millions of war prisoners worked day and night; then with artificial mounds that rose up with fabulous speed and at first looked like gigantic terraces but gradually tapered into towers. Withdrawing to these towers, men kept faith to the last with the touching heroism of their kind. First Europe, then the whole world had been submerged, but on the last emerging towers searchlights still darted their glaring beams into the moist twilight, while cannon lobbed their projectiles from tower to tower in graceful arcs. The heroic shell fire was maintained to the end.
At length the whole world was flooded. Sustained by a life belt, the sole surviving European drifted about in the waters, employing his last strength to record the events of the last days, for he wished the men of the future to know that his fatherland had outlived its enemies by several hours, so securing the palm of victory for all time.
Then an enormous black hulk appeared on the grey horizon and slowly approached the exhausted European. To his delight, he recognised the ark, he saw the aged patriarch standing on the deck – an imposing figure with a flowing grey beard – and then he lost consciousness. A gigantic African fished him out of the water. Soon he opened his eyes and there stood the patriarch smiling, for now the success of his mission was complete: a specimen of every variety of living creature on earth had been saved.
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