Remember the other day when I was sitting in cafes on a rainy day, working but mainly drinking champagne reading three pieces of literature: Moby-Dick, The Age of Reason, and Faust?
Well, I finished Faust. It was actually quite painless - there were only about 20 pages left. The reason I said painless is because
- The whole thing is mainly in verse,
- the whole thing is quite long when you count both part 1 and part 2 together, and
- Faust is the greatest piece of writing in the history of German literature.
So when I say that finishing the last 20 pages was painless, I accidentally disclose that I had had a hard time reading the whole thing up to that point.
Therefore, the last 20 pages felt like a breeze, compared to how intense the whole experience had been - and if my memory serves me right, I began reading part 1 already in 2023.
The only other book that has taken me longer than two years to read is We the Living by Ayn Rand, and not because it's intense or difficult or boring or the greatest piece of writing in the history of Soviet-American literature, but because I only read it 30 or 40 pages a year. (On my birthday. While enjoying a glass of scotch. It's glorious.)
(Speaking of We the Living, I only have about 35 pages left, so I have to find a new book to enjoy with scotch by my birthday after the next.)
Anyway, back to the point: I finished Faust! Finally! After two years! A few observations:
- Part 1 is better.
- Part 2 is insane.
- The ending is a cop-out.
- The whole experience was, for lack of a better word, intense.
- As I don't want to showcase my lack of intellect, I shall not comment on any part of the whole thing.
And now I feel like I should read some Nietzsche.
