Yesterday, Mar. 25, was Novalis’ death date, a German Romantic philosopher whose thought I stumbled upon while researching my thesis on George MacDonald.
My love for Novalis’ thought is similar to my love of MacDonald’s. Both recognized the limits of language and rationality when it comes to expressing truth and the universal. Both rejected what they deemed to be the artificial distinctions between the natural and the supernatural and the internal and the external. “Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason.” Death for both of them was nothing to be feared—it was just a portal to more life.
Last weekend I finished The Book of Dead Philosophers (Simon Critchley’s lively meditations on the significance of nearly 200 philosophers’ deaths.) and was pleased to find an entry on Novalis:
After a period of deteriorating health and having suffered a stroke, Novalis sent for his friends. On 25 March 1801 he fell asleep as Friedrich Schlegel sat beside him, listening to his brother Karl playing the piano. He never woke up.
Not mentioned in the entry is the uncanny intersection of his death with something Novalis wrote (and one of MacDonald’s favorite quotations from him):
“Our life is no dream; but it ought to become one, and perhaps will.”
It would seem it did.
Thanks for sharing; I would like to have this (faith-full?) attitude about death-that it is “just a portal to more life”. I will try to recall Novalis’ beautiful quote, especially during that scary time right before sleep, where death seems so imminent & dark.
Comment by amanda — March 26, 2009 @ 7:42 pm |
My life may be no dream, but my WIFE sure is! Huh!? Huh!? Am I right, people?
Thanks for sharing the quote, it’s a favorite of mine as well.
Comment by Zack — March 30, 2009 @ 12:47 pm |
You’re right, Zack, you’re right.
And Amber, I like reading your posts. Always a bit of the unexpected, and a lot of the thoughtful.
Comment by Veronica — April 21, 2009 @ 11:44 am |