Goethe's Faust 

My interest in Faust began with Duncan Trussell and Mitch Horowitz discussing the legend on The Duncan Trussell Family Hour podcast. As Horowitz described, Goethe’s Faust was a more sophisticated, subtle iteration of the story than others that simply condemn Faust’s dealing with the devil. This version explores knowledge and perception as Faust and Mephistopheles do an “intellectual dance,” in Horowitz’s words.
I rushed to buy Faust and Horowitz’s book Modern Occultism, and the two became neat companions as I found myself thinking about the devil and the endless deferment of satisfaction and the desire for transcendent experience. Faust explores these and more, including layered symbols and imagery that explores symbols and signs and how they relate to significance, which should resonate with fans of postmodern fiction and philosophy.
Like postmodernism’s critique of the sciences, objectivity, and rationality, Goethe’s Faust expresses dissatisfaction with the Enlightenment, an age of credulity in the power of reason. Claiming to be “no wiser than [he] was before” after dedicating his life to books and medicine, he turns to magic, seeking an experience of something supernatural. After the appearance of the “Spirit of the Macrocosm” and the “Earth Spirit,” Faust eventually encounters Mephistopheles, and his famous deal with the devil sets in motion one of the coolest, most magical experiences I’ve ever had reading a book.
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