Should I read the plays of Daniel Caspar von Lowenstein, considered the most extreme version of the theatre of cruelty to be found in German literature, inspired by Seneca, Tacitus, and -- gulp -- Machiavelli, but also apparently containing important lessons on how even the most bloodthirsty forms of despotism can be turned into beneficence? Is this a lesson worth learning, worth wading through countless Roman, African, and Turkish tragic torture scenes to possibly discover? Or, can someone offer a useful enough summary? Schoolchildren were supposedly tickled to perform these plays for each other in the seventeenth century. I havent bothered with much martyr theatre, or even Mel Gibsons Passion -- not that Ive actively steered clear of it. Have you found such things edifying?
Posted on: Tue, 20 May 2014 17:38:40 +0000
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