Translated here into English for the first time, this rare story serves as a point of departure for Josiah McElheny, who, with an esteemed group of collaborators, offers a fascinating array of responses to this enigmatic work."
The Light Club: On Paul Scheerbart's
"The Light Club of Batavia"
by Josiah Mcelheny, here...
"the universe is far too rich and complex to be comprehended by reason alone.
Only naive wonder — the basis of the sublime —
could promote the development of higher forms of understanding."
-Paul Scheerbart
Paul Karl Wilhelm Scheerbart (8 January 1863 in Danzig – 15 October 1915 in Berlin) was an author of fantastic literature and drawings.
He was also published under the pseudonym Kuno Küfer and is best known for the book Glasarchitektur (1914). Scheerbart's fantasty essays about glass architecture influenced architects at that time, including the young Bruno Taut.
Scheerbart published a long succession of fantasy novels, articles, and poems between 1889 and his death in 1915, in which he insisted that the universe is far too rich and complex to be comprehended by reason alone. Only naive wonder — the basis of the sublime — could promote the development of higher forms of understanding."
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