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E. T. A. Hoffmann, Der Sandmann: Textkritik, Edition, Kommentar (Quellen und Forschungen zur Sprach- und Kulturgeschichte der germanischen Völker. N.F., 87 (211))
432 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1988
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May 15, 2018
When we read Der Sandmann and realize that it was published in 1817, we can perceive a jump and a break of quality and the literary market in relation to the specific times of history and the types of writers.
Please I am not being nostalgic or saying whether the classical authors are better or worse than the present ones, much less if the current reader is very different from the one that lived in the eighteenth century.
What I would like to mention is that this tale, presumably nowadays due to editorial coercion and the market, would have easily become a trilogy. :)
Der Sandmann is a story so deep and with so many questions and at the same time manages to end up in the form of a short story, that the result is to toast to the genius of the author.
It is well known that this tale moved many thinkers, one of the most famous, Freud, studied under the vies of the narrative issues of the unconscious and traumas that occur in childhood.
Indirectly relating to the literature of science fiction, we can notice many relationships with stories about automatons and technology. One of them is clearly the collection of Isaac Asimov's short stories about robots - I Robot - where we find the rule of producing robots that could not have exactly the human physical aspect. And they are forbidden to do harm to mankind.
It is interesting to note that before the discussion about robots, literature already spoke in automatons, in this case, wooden dolls that act as human beings.
In this way, what would be the fundamental difference that the automata would have in relation to humans? They would not have rationality, neither sensitivity, because if they had, it would be extremely difficult and dangerous to discern these beings from humans.
Later in 1968, Philip Dick exquisitely developed the danger and difficulty of this relationship between humans and androids in his book Do Andoids Dream of Electric Sheep?
If we can not differentiate them, maybe we could reach a degree of insanity, to cause the death of someone or even to commit suicide, depending on our relationship, thoughts and emotions towards them.
In addition to the question of automata, this tale also discusses the difference of psychological states between individuals in questions of the unconscious and memory. As events experienced by the same people may have completely different future psychological consequences as they develop as traumas, obsessions, and complexities, mixed of each other's beliefs and imaginations.
For example how we process informations from our mother and for other people when we are still children? And how far the stories of monsters we hear in childhood develop in our psyche. Would there be the possibility to download the idea or character of these monsters to people or situations facing you as an adult? Is this information somehow imprisoned in the subconscious?
And to conclude, Hoffmann proposes a profound reflection on evil. Is it an external agent that influences the mind, or is it internal, developed by ourselves, according to our interpretation of our experiences and memories? Or both, having a different strength in each individual who develops a penchant for one of them?
In this sense, there is a quotation that points to a point of view from one character of how we could deal with it: "But if we have sufficient strength and serenity to recognize adverse external influences as they really are, and at the same time quietly follow the path pointed out by our inclination and vocation, this mysterious power is bound to fail in its readiness and uselessness to arrive at the form that is the reflection of our own image"
Please I am not being nostalgic or saying whether the classical authors are better or worse than the present ones, much less if the current reader is very different from the one that lived in the eighteenth century.
What I would like to mention is that this tale, presumably nowadays due to editorial coercion and the market, would have easily become a trilogy. :)
Der Sandmann is a story so deep and with so many questions and at the same time manages to end up in the form of a short story, that the result is to toast to the genius of the author.
It is well known that this tale moved many thinkers, one of the most famous, Freud, studied under the vies of the narrative issues of the unconscious and traumas that occur in childhood.
Indirectly relating to the literature of science fiction, we can notice many relationships with stories about automatons and technology. One of them is clearly the collection of Isaac Asimov's short stories about robots - I Robot - where we find the rule of producing robots that could not have exactly the human physical aspect. And they are forbidden to do harm to mankind.
It is interesting to note that before the discussion about robots, literature already spoke in automatons, in this case, wooden dolls that act as human beings.
In this way, what would be the fundamental difference that the automata would have in relation to humans? They would not have rationality, neither sensitivity, because if they had, it would be extremely difficult and dangerous to discern these beings from humans.
Later in 1968, Philip Dick exquisitely developed the danger and difficulty of this relationship between humans and androids in his book Do Andoids Dream of Electric Sheep?
If we can not differentiate them, maybe we could reach a degree of insanity, to cause the death of someone or even to commit suicide, depending on our relationship, thoughts and emotions towards them.
In addition to the question of automata, this tale also discusses the difference of psychological states between individuals in questions of the unconscious and memory. As events experienced by the same people may have completely different future psychological consequences as they develop as traumas, obsessions, and complexities, mixed of each other's beliefs and imaginations.
For example how we process informations from our mother and for other people when we are still children? And how far the stories of monsters we hear in childhood develop in our psyche. Would there be the possibility to download the idea or character of these monsters to people or situations facing you as an adult? Is this information somehow imprisoned in the subconscious?
And to conclude, Hoffmann proposes a profound reflection on evil. Is it an external agent that influences the mind, or is it internal, developed by ourselves, according to our interpretation of our experiences and memories? Or both, having a different strength in each individual who develops a penchant for one of them?
In this sense, there is a quotation that points to a point of view from one character of how we could deal with it: "But if we have sufficient strength and serenity to recognize adverse external influences as they really are, and at the same time quietly follow the path pointed out by our inclination and vocation, this mysterious power is bound to fail in its readiness and uselessness to arrive at the form that is the reflection of our own image"
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