As noted in the introduction of André Glucksmann is a furious and furiously modern book. Because trench warfare changed everything, not just hallucinated landscapes described in the Storm of Steel. These remain despite their strength mainly a literary experience where, despite the documentary concern, horror is not really present. The absurdity, violence, monotony, death, but also heroism (not the books of chivalry ...) and a sense of combat. Not in War as inner experience. This is not a document, it is rather the molten lava coming out of a being kneaded, put into the oven, returned, reworked by the war, which almost appears as its own entity and own humanity. And specific to the bestiality of the latter, for his taste blood. Because, basically, no matter for which we fight. Although Jünger affirms that the best time of each nation emerges from great confrontations, the survivors are men of sterner stuff, basically it is mainly because they have contemplated the depths of their soul, their animal capacity to want the death of their neighbor in the intoxication of a fight still remained singular. The "war equipment" is far away. All modern varnish, rationalism, morality and bourgeois comfort of the Belle Epoque are washed away. All that remains are the instincts, death and sex. And life here and now devours, enjoyment of the present moment before returning to the beautiful horrors of the absurd butchery. One suspects, Jünger shaken out of the experience of war. And with him his whole generation. Pins European civilization will never be the same. Deadly it is. And this is perhaps the defining moment of the acceleration of the world, the dislocation of traditional communities, the leak in the individual hedonism. And loneliness face of nothingness. There are many things in this short essay that cross and contradict: nostalgia for the blessings of peace, uncompromising description of the horrors of war, but also celebration of the fighters, their savagery and mindless who forge the created. And more. A great book.
