WALL OF TIME.

Time traveler‘s wisdom: A conversation with David Woodard

by Jonas Obleser for walloftime.net

There are various reasons why David Woodard is the perfect interviewee for the wall of time. First, he is a composer, he writes music, which is sound, which consists only of and exists only in: time. His interests are diverse, though, and include the somewhat failed utopias and their ramifications likeNueva Germania in Paraguay or North Korea, as well as the hypnotic lampshade-cum-artwork-cum-altar Dreamachine of William S. Burroughs fame, or− most recently− ambitious projects like The Great Pyramid. This alone would make for a never-ending conversation, but on top of that, his name is tightly linked to a somewhat new genre of musical pieces, the prequiem, commissioned by individuals to be played right before their time to die has come. Woodard became somewhat notorious for composing and performing a prequiem for Timothy McVeigh. Death, of course, is another one of the manifold instantiations of time, that is, the passing of time. Thirdly, Woodard recently has written a yet-to-be-published piece on one of our notorious bad guys, Ernst Jünger− a man who himself was deeply fascinated with time, who collected hourglasses, who saw Halley’s comet twice, and who wrote one of the most ambitious 20th century essays on (planetary) time scales, „An der Zeitmauer [At the wall of time]“, in 1959, which lends its name to the present publication. Jünger himself became a monument of time in that he outlived his century, crossed the magical line of turning 100, and died ten years ago, in 1998.

Dr. Woodard, thanks for your pre- Well, first of all you have to under- rather like a butterfly, whose brain has cious time, we feel very honored to stand that Ernst Jünger is better known to been neatly carved out and replaced by a have you as the opening interviewee in Americans than Germans like to imagine. UHF-transceiver. our new series at the wall of time. Now, In Germany, his seemingly contradictory maybe Ernst Jünger is a good topic to paths have yielded a charged fog. Neu- When you examine photographs of start off. I was surprised and pleased to tered German academics look askance Jünger, you see only the machine. They learn that you will contribute to a new at the apparent militaristic sympathies will not help you. He always combed and anthology on Jünger. Could you give us found in Storm of Steel, for instance, sprayed his hair nicely and scrubbed his a brief idea what to expect from your es- whilst unabashedly marveling at Jünger’s face with more or less natural exfoliants say? What is your take on him, and what later ability to simultaneously be revered and that sort of thing, had thin reedy is it that renders Jünger a worthwhile by and undermine the Nazis’ internation- lips which contributed favorably to his subject for your thoughts and works al recruitment program in France. Jünger birdlike profile, sometimes romanti- (e.g., “Ernst Jünger in Leningrad”)? himself possessed a rare and inscrutable cized and indeed eroticized war, some- quality for a German, and that was his times took LSD in a forest near his home Thank you, Dr. Obleser, you are very sense of aboveness, or actual aboveness, under the guidance of his friend Dr. kind. It is a pleasure for me to be the enabling him to command his person Hofmann. These popular notions are as Wall of Time’s first guest. as if it were a radio-controlled airplane, iridescent ice-dust clouds, twisting and from a distant tower—not like a Predator, turning, perfunctory and aleatory, and WALL OF TIME. Time traveler‘s wisdom—David Woodard ii

I daresay irrelevant, characterizing the nommen vom elektronischen Ensemble collar at one end and to a collar worn by veneer or atmosphere of Jünger’s cente- Plecid; sie besteht aus Sounds, die an Jünger at the other. nary existence. Beyond the stratosphere, sich klangfarblich ständig verändernde heliotropic Jünger occupied an invisible Radiostörgeräusche erinnern, und die At the moment of death, signaled spinning tower. It is with this in mind man hier etwas lauter hört als im ersten by Jünger’s physician discreetly gazing that “Ernst Jünger in Leningrad” was Raum. Die Atmosphäre ist nachdenklich heavenward, a cloud of butterfl ies would written, during a visit last year to the und erinnert eher an ein Kuriositätenka- have burst from portals alongside the psychoanalyst Dr. Victor Mazin, in the binett als an ein Museum. stage—the imposing and many-colored childhood home of Lou Salomé. Cairns Birdwing of Australia, the irides- (Brief excerpt from David Woodard, cent Blue Morpho of South America, the Hermes kam mir bekannt vor. Er lä- „Jünger in Leningrad“, in: Alexander Painted Lady with its empathogenic eyes, chelte, und Viktor wandte sich mir zu: Pschera (Hg.) Bunter Staub. Jünger im the common yet reliable Monarch, every „David, das ist Hermes. Er ist mein bes- Gegenlicht. Matthes&Seitz Berlin, 2008) species of butterfl y known to man would ter Freund“ — „Es freut mich sehr, Sie have been represented, their celebratory wiederzusehen, Hermes. Wir trafen uns I do loathe what-if questions. Anyway, fl ight within the glass hemisphere com- kurz in Moskau im März letzten Jahres“, would you have liked to write a prequi- mencing just as the chamber ensemble wagte ich einzuwerfen. em for Jünger? As far as I understand, he segued into the fi nal movement, their wasn’t very drawn toward music. How gentle fl uttering an elegant choreogra- Hermes bestätigte meine Vermutung. could it have sounded, and what would phy of otherworldly microtonal celli and Sein Anblick wurde von seinen neuen have been the instrumentation? contrabasses serenading Jünger’s newly Schuhen geprägt—schwarze Leinwand- remnant Earthly vehicle in tutti. Slipper mit einem Fach für den großen It was his feminine side that resented Zeh und einem anderen für den Rest. music. I might have written and con- Aft er the prequiem, the glass hemi- Die Schuhe sahen wie Hufe aus, einem ducted a prequiem for Ernst Jünger, had sphere would have been carefully de- Attribut Satans. Im kommenden Monat he known more or less precisely when he tached from the raft , turned upside down sollte in Freuds Traummuseum eine would make the Eternal Leap and given like an hourglass, and, tethered to an an- Konferenz zum Thema Infernalität im suffi cient notice. I believe I would have chor, permitted to fl oat near the middle Zeitalter des illuminierten Computermo- scored such a work for bassoons, contra- of the lake for a period of three weeks. nitors stattfi nden. bassoons, bass clarinets, and a swarm of Inside, Jünger’s remains, basted in maple celli and contrabasses that would have syrup, would have been devoured by „Das sind Schuhe von japanischen entered the equation at the moment of many wild southwestbound birds, pious Bauarbeitern“, sagte Hermes. — „Inter- death. I would have kindly advised Dr. wasps and courageously right-thinking essant…Was passiert, wenn ein riesiger Hofmann to be present, and the setting bees. Betonblock auf Ihre Füße fällt?“ — „Er would have been a round wooden raft würde auf deren Füße fallen, nicht auf fl oating in the lake beside Wilfl ingen, Fittingly, on Death. Maybe you ob- meine“. — „Ja, sicher“. Gesegnete Para- the castle where Jünger lived during his ject to my simplistic equating of sound noia. „In diesem Fall würde es sich nur autumn years, which stretched into au- to time to death. Nevertheless, I think it um fallenden Bambus handeln“. tumn decades. Or, the circular raft could might function as a bracket around most more fi ttingly have been fl oating in the of what you are interested in (as far as I Hermes war es, der uns vom Flugha- serene lake here at Schloss Wiesenburg, can tell, from your creative output). Es- fen hätte abholen sollen, sagte man mir. in former East Germany. pecially the prequiem concept sounds Viktor glaubt wie ich nicht ans Autofah- like a very interesting little trick on time, ren. Ich fragte mich, mit was für einem As his death occurred on February 17, anticipating one’s own death, and having Auto Hermes wohl unterwegs gewesen 1998, Jünger, Hofmann, the chamber en- a usually post-death event B (a requiem) war. semble, Jünger’s physician and I would performed before event A (the death have been protected from the cold by a itself) has actually taken place. Did the „Ein Paranoider ist glass bubble fabricated specifi cally for idea of the prequiem emerge in order to jemand, der Bescheid weiß.“ the occasion, hermetically sealed along approach, to scrutinize, and maybe even — W.S. Burroughs, Gespräch the raft ’s circumference and heated with- to “measure” death by getting your art in by a central pyre consisting of Old (composing music) as closely as possible Ein bebrillter Freud, gemalt in Schwarz Growth redwood logs harvested from to the event of death itself? und Weiß, der über der Tür hängt, dient the Black Forest. als ein ahnungsvolles Willkommen für It has been pointed out, waggishly, den zweiten Raum, in dem die Dinge Auxiliary attendees other than Hof- that something fundamental in my plötzlich wieder zeit- und raumlos wer- mann would have been limited to a se- work resonates with the philosophical den—wie in einem Traum, oder damals, ries of pleasant animals—cats, squirrels, precepts of Dr. Condoleezza Rice. She als man tot war. Im Mittelpunkt des birds, lemurs, possibly others depending and I have, over the course of a decade, Raumes arbeitet, auf einem 1 × 1 × on timing and availability, and fi nally a demonstrated sensitivities toward the 1.5 Meter hohem Sockel, die Dreama- smallish group of fl ying squirrels teth- Locrian, or anticipatory, gesture. In Dr. chine. Dazu hört man eine 10minütige ered by an elastic cord affi xed to their Rice’s case, this has assumed the form of Komposition namens „Sssexy“, aufge- the preemptive strike, a military strategy iii Time traveler‘s wisdom—David Woodard WALL OF TIME.

wherein a B action obviates the possibil- Wall of Time will most certainly be Time is at least as important in writ- ity of an A action, even where there may there. Now two questions, which we ing as it is in music. Students writing a have been no intention for an A action. would like to include in all or most inter- dissertation with the object of obtaining views to come on time and the phenom- a degree oft en neglect this obvious fact, In my case, it has taken the form of ena around it. Please feel free to answer a dreadful source of annoyance to most a funerary music called a prequiem—a quite shortly or to draw, or to remain si- professors. B action occurring before, during, and lent, of course. First, the big issue: What aft er an A action: the melodic arch of is time? When you write something for an- a prequiem meets its subject along the other reader (i.e., other than notes to Nile’s Eastern bank, lift s him up and Time is heavier than a heartbeat. It self), you are counting on the reader then safely deposits him along the West- may have been invented as a scare tactic to follow your words and thoughts and ern bank, serenading the remains for a by a shaman in a tiny prehistoric Para- hopefully understand what it is that you short time thereaft er. Th e subject’s life guayan village many thousands of years see so clearly in your mind that you and death are thus A and A, and the ago, and the price he had to pay for his must author a text. Th e reader will not river fl owing between them is B. Th e fl eeting glory was the nerves of all future understand unless you have taken into prequiem is intended to ease and com- humankind. It makes one wonder what account what will be the likely trajec- fort its subject’s passage across the Great price all future humankind will pay for tory of his thought and emotion whilst Divide and assure his transit to Heaven, the present shamanic benefi ts off ered by passing time reading the text. Th erefore, and is only kindred in spirit to Dr. Rice’s David Bowie, David Sylvian or Momus, aside from being able to see clearly what preemptive strike from the perspective for example. is to be written, the writer must also be of the undertaker or, perhaps, the feeble- a composer, a conductor, a musician, a minded. What role does time play for your hypothetical listenership, a musicologist. primary work (i.e., composing, in your B and A are components of Sonata composed pieces, and writing, in your Words are a form of music: their eff ect form, the ABA compositional structure written pieces)? has absolutely nothing to do with their defi ning Classical music, as intuitively apparent meaning. Hölderlin recognized defi ned by Mozart. In light of Dr. Rice’s Composing and writing are equally this, to a certain extent. I sometimes distinguished avocation as a classically time-based. Time is the element of lan- wonder if it isn’t reasonable to assume trained pianist, it is more interesting guage that another person will always re- that words were invented by the praeter- to consider the possible infl uence that late to best. Events occur in our life over human feminine spirit, which felt oth- Classical music has had on her work as time, in sequence. Th ey occur in books erwise defeated by the male Apollonian a philosopher and strategist. B always and movies over time, in sequence. spirit of music. Th ey are a deceitful ver- precedes A.

“A Cornerstone Cringle”, a brass fan- “Time may have been invented as a scare fare commissioned by Friends of the Great Pyramid to help celebrate the tactic by a prehistoric Paraguayan shaman Great Pyramid project’s symbolic cor- many thousands of years ago, and the nerstone laying ceremony last year at its possible Dessau-area site, bears a con- price of his fl eeting glory was the nerves ceptual kinship to prequiems. Th erefore, of all future humankind. It makes one project ideologues Ingo Niermann and Jens Th iel later asked if I would be willing wonder what price all future humankind to render the piece at related prequiem services and/or internment ceremonies will pay for the shamanic benefi ts offered once the proposed structure, potentially by David Bowie, for example.” the world’s largest columbarium, crosses its feasibility hurdles and becomes estab- lished. I am taking the idea under advise- Sometimes things happen all at once, in sion of music, though equally dependent ment. It is a composition that I like very parallel, though in such cases the paral- on melody and rhythm, hence time, to much—and, incidentally, that I shall be lel aspect is nonetheless experienced in be eff ective. Ultimately any piece of writ- conducting at the Great Pyramid Gala time, as in the congress of a fugue: con- ing expresses human conditions that ex- on March , at Berlin‘s small but lovely solidated time, with increased tension. ist beyond the circles of time: yearning, HAU theatre. In this way the internet is quite fugal, protection, alienation, love. It is best to perhaps dangerously so, threatening the avoid language and default instead to the preconditions for a hero’s narrative to realm of facial expressions, subtle ges- unfold, conditions that have prompted tures, gentle emotive sounds, music. Th e our understanding of what is good in the more you use language, the more you are world. obliged to continue to use language, just like telling a lie, and this steals precious time. WALL OF TIME. Time traveler‘s wisdom—David Woodard iv

A last, important question. Dr. Wood- They pursued the Utopian family-plan- one in their ancestry had strong feelings ard, you went to Paraguay many times ning dream with sincerity and focus— about the goodness of being who they and support the people in Nueva Ger- the more deeply they penetrated the were, to the point of shirking convention mania. In a way, the sheer existence of dream, the more solemnly their honor and forcing the hand of Fate, and that this village gives us an impression of hav- was at stake. It broke Bernhard Förster. this is why their family lines teleported ing fallen out of time and history: A proj- When Christian Kracht and I visited the to Paraguay. They do not recognize that ect that had begun more than hundred room at Hotel del Lago where Dr. Förster they speak in a 19th Century Saxon dia- years ago, an incredible amount of time committed suicide, it was heartening to lect. must have passed since Bernhard Förster find that a kind of inadvertent reverence and his wife boarded a ship 120 years ago. still hung in the air. It is a top floor room, Nueva Germania almost ceased to ex- Nueva Germania seemed forgotten and the veranda of which is larger than any ist in the early 1950s, and two years ago I off the record for a long time, yet it has of the others, and the windows of which visited and partook of imported sardines been there all the time, and it all feels gaze upon a most fantastic view over- and beer with the aged man whose vote oddly out of sync with our own notion looking a seemingly endless expanse of kept it alive. Klaus Neumann held a chair of a modern society. However, it exists, trees to the West. Despite these advan- on the Municipal Council back then the people are living there, and you oc- tages, the room has for many decades and had the deciding vote on whether casionally take a plane and go there, al- remained unoccupied, serving as a or not the community’s name should most like traveling between time zones. janitorial supply room. The combina- be changed to Sanchez. Recognizing Are they living in the same century as tion clerk/cook on duty explained that Nueva Germania’s historical significance, we do (and, please, do not take this as a the 19th Century suicide is well-known, without tears, and also his own father’s disregardful or Eurocentric comment)? at least in Asunción and environs. The renown as Elisabeth Nietzsche’s pilgrim Do you yourself feel as if living in 2008 room is viewed with trepidation. who invented what would become the Berlin? standard growing and curing procedures The process of developing a eugen- for Yerba Mate, Mr. Neumann effectively This is an interesting observation for ics colony to please the Master was the saved Nueva Germania. Had the name you to make, Jonas, and a harrowing blossoming of Elizabeth’s and Bern- been changed to Sanchez, I believe the question to follow. In a way, Nueva Ger- hard’s united souls. The people who live teetering enclave would have suffered mania has become a metaphor repre- there now—i.e., those who genetically unmanageable cognitive dissonance. In- senting the possibility of different forms descend from the colony’s first wave of side their misplaced brains, they would of time passage on Earth. It is a family- pilgrims—understand more clearly why have short-circuited and faded to black. planning sodality founded in the mid- they are there than any of the scholars Passing the century point in 1987 has 1880s by Elisabeth Nietzsche and her anti- or journalists whose research I’ve exam- been psychologically beneficial to Nueva Semitic agitator husband Dr. Bernhard ined. Germania, restoring a sense of identity Förster, in the middle of the Paraguayan and security to its bluebloods. jungle, inspired by Wagner’s 1880 essay “Religion and Art,” which appeared in the Thank you, Dr. Woodard. It was an Bayreuther Blätter. Wagner whimsically insightful and inspiring Journey. pleads for the exodus of a group of brave Germans to found a New Germany in South America, where German culture could flourish unhampered by what he perceived to be antagonistic mercantile influences in the Motherland. There are Our conversation took place in Febuary lovely sub-themes in the essay that one 2008 during a visit at Dr. Woodard‘s might not associate with Wagner, such current refuge, Schloß Wiesenburg as the karmic wisdom of vegetarianism, (Mark). Pictures show Dr. Woodard in and the spiritual stability that Lutheran- Berlin 2008 on a pilgrimage to David ism might offer in the New World. Bowie‘s 1970s appartment (picture: Momus) and in Paraguay 2004 with It is a miracle that Elisabeth and Nueva Germania‘s mayor Ceferino Zena Bernhard������������������������������ managed to establish any kind Duarte who bears—to wall of time‘s of colony in the very dangerous interior eyes—a resemblance to author Stephen of South America, given their lack of King (picture: Christoph Schubert, MD). experience in subtropics—with poten- tially deadly sand flies, very deadly jarara (5-minute) snakes, virtually non-irrig- able soil, and other serious hardships in All rights reserved, (c) Jonas Obleser for walloftime.net, 2008. No reproduction or re-posting without permissi- store. It is my view that the reason Nueva on. For inquieries please contact [email protected]. Germania still resonates with us today, if Wagner does not resonate or seem rel- Interviews or some parts of it may cause offence to some people. All views expressed in these interviews faintly, is that it was a project Elisabeth evant or make sense in Paraguay. What represent the persons interviewed and not nessessary and Bernhard poured their souls into. the colonists understand is that some- the views of walloftime.net and staff.