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Théo d'Or 's Reviews > The Golem
The Golem
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by
"Golem" is not a novel that will let you enter it without a certain difficulty.
Any prose in which the dose of the unknown is higher than that of the familiar - imprints a resistance to reading. In any case, the whole story, linked on a bizarre, sincopated structure, which cultivates mystery and ambiguity - has, in the substratum, symmetries and correspondences related to esotericism, alchemy, Tarot and Kabbalah.
An unfamiliar reader with them, perceives their presence only through what they hide, through the feeling of anxiety. The legend of Golem is used by Meyrink to bring to light a profound truth of our psyche, namely that dimension wich Carl Jung calls " shadow" - and which refers to what we reject from ourselves, to what we do not want to acknowledge as part of our ordered being, in terms of consciousness.
The novel begins with a scene in wich a man no longer knows who he is. Athanasius Pernath is the confused man around whom entire novel will be built.
Beyond the fantastic dimension, you can't help but gradually distinguish a sensation that accompanies the discovery that each individual has a dark side, an evil and autonomus twin.
Who, then, is this " Me" ? - with this question begins a bizarre adventure of a consciousness who meets its double.
There are many dark areas of the book, which speak of an unnamed evil, raised from the tensions of a Ghetto, an evil that must take a form, in order to exorcise it, and that form is always a strange one, here - the Golem.
Any prose in which the dose of the unknown is higher than that of the familiar - imprints a resistance to reading. In any case, the whole story, linked on a bizarre, sincopated structure, which cultivates mystery and ambiguity - has, in the substratum, symmetries and correspondences related to esotericism, alchemy, Tarot and Kabbalah.
An unfamiliar reader with them, perceives their presence only through what they hide, through the feeling of anxiety. The legend of Golem is used by Meyrink to bring to light a profound truth of our psyche, namely that dimension wich Carl Jung calls " shadow" - and which refers to what we reject from ourselves, to what we do not want to acknowledge as part of our ordered being, in terms of consciousness.
The novel begins with a scene in wich a man no longer knows who he is. Athanasius Pernath is the confused man around whom entire novel will be built.
Beyond the fantastic dimension, you can't help but gradually distinguish a sensation that accompanies the discovery that each individual has a dark side, an evil and autonomus twin.
Who, then, is this " Me" ? - with this question begins a bizarre adventure of a consciousness who meets its double.
There are many dark areas of the book, which speak of an unnamed evil, raised from the tensions of a Ghetto, an evil that must take a form, in order to exorcise it, and that form is always a strange one, here - the Golem.
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Reading Progress
April 24, 2020
–
Started Reading
April 24, 2020
– Shelved
April 24, 2020
–
9.47%
"" Only a man whose roots were in the Ghetto, and whose every fibre was soaked in Ghetto lore, a man who had learnt from his earliest childhood to lie in wait for his prey like a spider, could have gone on perpetrating such atrocities for years without being caught "."
page
25
April 24, 2020
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33.71%
"" When I tried to get them to see that for me the important - the essential - thing about the Bible was the miraculous element and that alone, and not moral or ethical commandments, which can only be hidden ways of approaching the miraculous, then all they could do was to throw platitudes of me. ""
page
89
April 25, 2020
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61.36%
"" I just woke up one morning in my twenty-first year , a different person.
All at once I was completely indifferent that I had cared for until then. Life seemed nothing more than a silly story of cowboys and indians and lost its reality (...) and everyday life became a dream. ""
page
162
All at once I was completely indifferent that I had cared for until then. Life seemed nothing more than a silly story of cowboys and indians and lost its reality (...) and everyday life became a dream. ""
April 26, 2020
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80.0%
"My initial suspicion is confirmed, namely that it is not (just) a good s.f. ;
Carl Jung could describe largely this topic, in his studies. The " shadow"..."
Carl Jung could describe largely this topic, in his studies. The " shadow"..."
April 28, 2020
–
Finished Reading
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Thank you, Elham.Haha ! Yes, of course, as much as Marquez's " One Hundred Years of Solitude " has to do with Solitaire...
Haha! You made me laugh :)) I take your explanation as a "No, not at all!!" answer for my question :D
I'II investigate, though.
![©hrissie ❁ [1st week on campus-somewhat run-down]](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1610034740p1/49071166.jpg)
A very thought-provoking analysis, Théodore! It also reminded me of Freud's theory of the 'uncanny'.
Thanks, Chrissie. Yes, it seems that the beginning of the last century was marked by this study of the dark side of the human psyche, whether we're talking about Freud, Jung, or other forerunners. If we remember, however, there is also Robert Louis Stevenson and his " Dr. Jekill and Mr.Hyde " - who may be considered the pioneer of this study, through his book.
May I ask this "Golem" has any relation with "Gollum" in Lord of The Rings??