February 19, 2011

Stuxnet - aka Glass Bees

Other commentators have already speculated on the analogies between Jünger's vision of Zapparoni's technology in the "Glass Bees" with our internet. They have been rather vague allusions; now with the Stuxnet affair I get a chance to be more specific about one particular materialization in our world of Jünger's "glass bees": as computer viruses, trojans, spyware and co.

What do we present first, the literary creation or its real life counterpart? Chronological order seems right - after all, Jünger´s vision came over 50 years ago in 1957 - and genuine artist visions always precede the technical realizations.

Those who have not read The Glass Bees may struggle with this explanation, even after the following bit of background....

February 1, 2011

Ernst Jünger Biographies - and a review thereof ...

If you don't speak German well enough to read the two Jünger biographies that came out more or less simultaneously in 2007, then here at least is a good English review of Helmuth Kiesel's one, Ernst Jünger. Die Biographie. It is by Eliah M. Bures, Department of History, University of California Berkeley.

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(Mr. Bures will talk about Jünger April 23 in Berkeley as part of the (Re)Making Myths conference. His title: "Leute von Übermorgen und von Vorgestern”: Myth and the Construction of Community in Ernst Jünger’s Postwar Imagination")