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Four Jews on Parnassus

Cover of the English edition
Author	Carl Djerassi
Language	English
Genre	Docudrama
Publisher	Columbia University Press
Publication date	December 2008
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	240 p.
ISBN	978-0-231-14654-8

Four Jews on Parnassus is a 2008 docudrama by Carl Djerassi. It is for the major part written in the form of a dialogue and depicts a final meeting of four of the most influential 20th century Jews in the afterlife. In printed form, the text is richly illustrated with art by Gabriele Seethaler, an Austrian biochemist and photographer. Djerassi insists that Four Jews on Parnassus is not a play. Nonetheless, it has been performed in many dramatic readings all around the world.

Characters

Walter Benjamin – German literary critic, essayist, translator and philosopher.

Theodor Adorno – German sociologist, philosopher and composer, member of the Frankfurt School.

Gershom Scholem – historian and philosopher.

Arnold Schoenberg – Austrian composer, leader of the Second Viennese School.

Dora Benjamin – Walter Benjamin's wife, whom he married in 1917 and divorced in 1930

Henny Gurland – helper in Walter Benjamin's failed flight to Portugal

Escha Bergman – Gershom Scholem’s first wife

Gretel Adorno – wife of Theodor Adorno

Mathilde Schoenberg – first wife of Arnold Schoenberg

Hannah Arendt – German-Jewish political theorist, friend of Walter Benjamin

Setting

Benjamin, Adorno, Scholem and Schoenberg meet on Mount Parnassus, in classical antiquity believed to be the home of the Muses. Djerassi’s Parnassus is a hall of fame for deceased intellectuals whose works and achievements are still held in high esteem today and could be described as canonized. The inhabitants of the Parnassus can receive visitors, can order books and have internet access, although e-mails are blocked.

Themes

Djerassi lets four of the most renowned Jewish personalities of the 20th century gather on Parnassus. Together, they help Benjamin catch up with the time between his suicide and his arrival on Parnassus and find out where he is actually buried. They all have a last conversation with (one of) their wives, discuss Paul Klee, Jewish identity and finally discover the secret of Walter Benjamin’s lost briefcase – pornographic literature that might have ruined his career or immortalized him. Except for these fictional briefcase contents, Djerassi has thoroughly researched all facts in the book and offers a unique, new view at four persons widely perceived as geniuses. But it is not only a journey into history but a contemplation of many autobiographical questions Djerassi asks himself.

Canonization

Angelus Novus

The topic of canonization has been subject of many of Carl Djerassi’s earlier works, whether in the field of science (Cantor’s Dilemma, Oxygen) or in literature (Marx, Deceased; Three on a Couch). The protagonists of Four Jews on Parnassus all have achieved this level, some, as Schoenberg and Adorno, in their lifetime, others, like Benjamin, only long after their death.

The protagonists discuss canonization with the help of the painting Angelus Novus by Paul Klee, which was owned by both Benjamin and Adorno. Schoenberg argues that it was only Benjamin’s essay Theses on the Philosophy of History that made the painting famous and considered a masterpiece. Djerassi, one of the most important Klee collectors, thus expresses the painful realisation that the publicly perceived quality of a piece of art is always dependent on the judgement of others.

The way in which Djerassi lets his protagonists converse turns Adorno, Benjamin, Scholem and Schoenberg from icons into human beings – human beings with an individual life story.

Jewish identity

Jewishness is the thread that connects the four protagonists and their author. But these important thinkers struggle with a definition as hard as Djerassi himself. Do looks make a person a Jew? Scholem disproves this theory by merging pictures of the four protagonists to create an image of Adolf Hitler. Does ancestry make a Jew? Schoenberg argues that Paul Klee was regarded as a Jew by the Nazi regime without being of Jewish heritage.

All the protagonists have different concepts of Jewishness. Benjamin describes himself as an “unsteady German Jew or Jewish German” who would have preferred to be born with a neutral family name in a neutral country like Switzerland, whereas Scholem perceives himself to be a German Zionist Jew. Schoenberg, an emigrated Austrian like Djerassi himself, admits to having felt his Jewish identity as a burden, but just like Djerassi he has come to term with it.

Marriage

Carl Djerassi, who is known for his portrayal of strong, self-confident women, shows that the women that stood behind their famous men were not at all inferior to them, which has been forgotten today. In a similar way he portrayed the wives of 18th century chemists in his earlier play Oxygen.

In these conversations, three of the protagonists have to admit to having been bad husbands. Benjamin’s marriage to Dora has been ruled by adultery and a divorce battle. Scholem led a marriage without adultery, but without real love as well. Schoenberg could never forgive Mathilde her extramarital affair with Austrian painter Richard Gerstl. The only harmonic marriage was led by the Adornos, where Gretel tolerated Theodor’s affairs and helped him with his works.

References

A German translation of Four Jews on Parnassus has already been released in spring 2008: Djerassi, Carl (2008). Vier Juden auf dem Parnass – Ein Gespräch. Vienna: Haymon Verlag. ISBN 978-3-85218-555-2. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

The English edition will be published by Columbia University Press by the end of 2008.

External Links

• Four Jews on Parnassus on Djerassi.com
• Four Jews on Parnassus on Columbia University Press