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THE BLACK SPIDER PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Jeremias Gotthelf,Susan Bernofsky | 120 pages | 14 Nov 2013 | The New York Review of Books, Inc | 9781590176689 | English | New York, United States Nezznar – Forgotten Realms Wiki English translation copyright by Susan Bernofsky. Created by Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature. Susan Bernofsky. In a remote Swiss village, a grandfather tells a story during a christening, a tale that portends evil at large in society and provides a vision of cosmic horror. Jeremias Gotthelf was the pen name of Albert Bitzius, a Swiss pastor and writer who used his work to communicate his reformist concerns with regard to education and the plight of the poor. Next Article Hunter S. Now while I do readily admit that Die schwarze Spinne is definitely and in particular wit So yes, I did have a pretty massive and extensively comprehensive mandatory reading list for my second comprehensive exam for my PhD in German literature and of course and naturally, Jeremias Gotthelf's frame narrative horror novella Die schwarze Spinne The Black Spider was as a classic of 19th century Swiss German literature featured on said list and therefore also and absolutely required reading. Now while I do readily admit that Die schwarze Spinne is definitely and in particular with regard to Jeremias Gotthelf's writing style and his modes of literary expression absolutely and definitely a shining example of Swiss Biedermeier but that I actually and personally do tend to consider Biedermeier as in fact being simply and primarily a part of poetic realism and thus not all that much if at all a separate literary epoch , I for one have mostly extremely and personally uncomfortably negative reading experience memories of Die schwarze Spinne. For yes indeed, my perusal in March of of Die schwarze Spinne , it did content and theme wise, with the gigantic spider that kills, with the images of the Devil, with its scenes of murder and mayhem, with multiple visions of horror and tragedy cause me far too many sleepless nights and some rather vivid and not at all pleasant nightmares. And thus, even if I can appreciate and indeed much enjoy Jeremias Gotthelf's penmanship as a craft, I really do equally mostly wish on an emotional and not at all keen on horror stories level that I never had to read Die schwarze Spinne in the first place, that this story had actually not been included in my comprehensive exam reading list although I do of course and readily admit that Die schwarze Spinne is most definitely an interesting and a well organised and conceptualised tale, but yes, even just thinking about the plot and the gigantic spider last night and without actually even rereading Die schwarze Spinne , this was already more than sufficient for me to once again experience a similar nightmare as I did in Therefore and my appreciation of Jeremias Gotthelf's writing talents quite notwithstanding, I cannot and will not claim that Die schwarze Spinne is in any manner a story that I find even somewhat, even remotely a personal reading pleasure and I can also really only recommend it to and for those of you who have no issues with horror stories and actually enjoy them. But in fact and indeed, my final ranking of only one star for Die schwarze Spinne is not only because I have found the presented plot too uncanny and too creepy for my likes and for what I can emotionally handle, but also because on an intellectual level, I have equally found Jeremias Gotthelf's intense focus on collective guilt and his rather problematic misogyny with women in Die schwarze Spinne in my humble opinion rather being seen by the author as the root of all evil and as the conduit and the plaything of and for the Devil as something at best problematic and majorly uncomfortably troubling. Jun 20, Scott Rhee rated it it was amazing Shelves: horror , classic-literature. A classic in horror literature first published in , "The Black Spider" still manages to provoke dread in readers. While rather bombastic, this review written in pretty much sums up some of my issues with religion, faith, and belief. It's perhaps odd and ironic that horror fiction can elicit strong spiritual and faith responses in me, but I've always found it to be true. Then again, horror stories have always been some of the most moralistic and religiously pedantic stories. Just loo A classic in horror literature first published in , "The Black Spider" still manages to provoke dread in readers. Just look at the Bible: it's full of horror stories When it is used, it is more often than not accompanied with looks of either indifference or confusion. The concept is ridiculous. It is, for many, antithetical to a view of God as a deity of Love and Forgiveness and Ultimate Peace. Why would you fear God, if God is Pure Love? It goes without saying that many religious-minded people have lost their ability to fear God. Much of that is due to the society in which they live in, a 21st-century society that has eliminated any viable form of accountability for anyone. Deiphobia probably not the best word to use to describe the type of God-fearing that I am referring to, but it will do is supported by the idea of accountability, if not in this life then in the next. An argument could be made that much of that supportive idea has been eroded by a secularization of society, an argument that many conservatives make about liberals. Of course, the liberal argument can be made just as easily that most conservatives have lost sight of their own accountability and are guided more and more by self-interest. In any case, regardless of where one stands on the political spectrum, accountability is lost, and perhaps nowhere is it most visible than on our TV screens. On a daily basis we are given images of high-powered corporate executives who have made bad financial decisions that have ruined the lives of thousands of people, and they are often given nothing more than a slap on the wrist, due to loopholes and laws written into the system that protect them from prosecution. The more money you steal in this country, the less accountable you are. We elect politicians who ignore the majority views and mandates of their constituents to do as they please, making them essentially accountable to no one, least of all those they are meant to represent. The more political power you gain, the less accountable you are Why would I fear God if I can get away with anything? Accountability, the primary structural support of deiphobia, has lost its sting in this world and, thusly, people have less and less to fear from God. Of course, the other main structural support of deiphobia is belief, which, depending on the statistics one reads, is either seriously dwindling or transforming into something most religiously-minded people of yesteryear would not recognize as belief. The more liberal- minded, according to the Right, have chosen to ignore certain Biblical statutes, most recently in regards to homosexuality and same-sex marriage. While both sides would like to claim possession of the Absolute Truth, the real truth is: God only knows. Many Christians myself included have lost the ability to fear God because many have lost the ability to believe in any accountability in this world, let alone the next one. If deiphobia is predicated on the principle that everything that we say or do has consequences, positive and negative, then, based on everything the media is telling us, that principle no longer holds much weight anymore and deiphobia is thusly no longer the over-riding motivator for the average person. A glaring lack of consequences is oft-cited as the main reason parents seem to no longer be able to discipline their children. It is the oft-cited reason educators are given for not being able to maintain classroom discipline. It is the oft-cited reason why teen pregnancies seem to be on the rise despite the fact, based on reliable statistics, that they are in fact NOT rising or why violent crime is on the rise also despite the statistics suggesting that the opposite is true. Many Christians myself included have lost the ability to fear God because they have grown weary of the petty, prudish provincialism of a segment of the religiously-minded who refuses to listen to Reason. For this segment of the religious population, fear of God has been replaced with a fear of Science, a fear of Nature, a fear of a finite universe. God, by definition, is supernatural, acting above and beyond Nature. In a universe governed by laws of nature and science, God ultimately has no place. For this reason, these desperate believers cling tenaciously to God and refute science because, in their mind, to accept scientific fact would be to destroy their belief in God. How could anyone believe in a God like that, if it meant denial of reality? Strangely enough, the only time a real fear of God comes into play for me is when I read a good, old-fashioned scary horror story or watch a well-made horror movie. I have always loved the horror genre, mainly because I am intriguedand terrifiedby the premise that there are things still beyond our comprehension or even imagination about our vast universe. I am fascinated and horrified by the thought that, somewhere out there, great cosmic bogeymen float in the ether, and we are merely dust particles to them.

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