Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Faust on the cheap

Some time ago I was talking with Marie and casually mentioned identifying a little bit with Faust in college. She didn't get it, and said she certainly didn't recognize it back then, so I explained that it was all part of my general disaffection with scholarship.

Habe nun, ach! Philosophie,
Juristerei und Medizin,
Und leider auch Theologie!
Durchaus studiert, mit heißem Bemühn.
Da steh ich nun, ich armer Tor,
Und bin so klug als wie zuvor!

And somewhere along the line I explained that that was (at least part of) why I married so precipitately. I wanted to leap out of the life story I felt locked into, and I had a deep intuition that marrying Wife would do it.

Of course I was right.

But I just realized, driving home tonight, that this makes Wife, in a sense, not my Gretchen but my Mephistopheles

Oh my heavens.



Sent from my iPhone

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