Aladinův problém – Jünger Ernst (2024)

Aladdin's Problem is the last in a series of major fictional works by Ernst Jünger, addressing the question of human existence in this world. Aladdin's Problem is a magic lamp bearing material, spiritual, and erotic power unexpectedly flowing to the individual. How will a person handle it, and what will this power allow him? Or will he fail and perish? Aladdin's Problem is a mythical story, a narrative about the rise of the age of titans, the death of gods, and the end of timelessness. Aladdin's Problem is an attempt to grasp the cosmos and restore culture in its final expression: in the service of the dead – as a mournful gaze at irretrievably fading existence. Aladdin's Problem is an expedition into the spiritual landscape of the contemporary world, which titanism has transformed into a desert. Oases appear, so small that the reader can hardly notice them – islets of greenery in the form of old libraries full of dusty books, small churches in the landscape with abandoned cemeteries, unexpected Dionysian festivals vaguely emerging from the fog of memories. The protagonist's attempt to return to pre-titanic times, to return to the embrace of the gods, ends tragically in the spiritual aridity of business plans and accounting closures. Only a mournful gaze remains at irretrievably fading existence. Irretrievably?