Peter Weiss "The Aesthetics of Resistance" a novel Volume 1

追加: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]Good morning, book YouTube. This is Johnny.

[00:00:05]I thought I'd make a video. It's I looked at my YouTube channel this morning and it's been 5 days since I uh made a video and I thought I would just make a video even though I always feel apprehensive because I am a perfectionist and I know my videos are the epitome of imperfection.

[00:00:36]But uh I want to keep making videos. I noticed a lot of people I subscribe to in YouTube, they don't make videos that often anymore.

[00:00:51]And um but I I am a creature of habit as you all know. I've been making videos going on 10 years and I've been keeping an online diary for 25 years and I've been keeping a paper diary which I am writing right now since I was in high school 1968 but as you all know as I repeat it I destroyed all my diaries when I left California in 1978.

[00:01:28]So, I don't I only have diaries from 1978 until today, which is May the 16th, 2026. It is a Saturday is 11:22 in the morning. And my wife is at a PCA women's ministry meeting in Grand Rapids.

[00:01:53]all the women in this uh presbyter in the Presbyterian church in America, they meet and they uh talk about what they're going to do in their churches to minister to women.

[00:02:08]And uh so my wife is involved in women's ministry at her church in the Presbyterian Church in America which is a conservative evangelical Calvinistic church reformed holding to the Westminster standards which was uh in this uh 17th century England and uh time of the Puritans as You all know I reading the Puritans John Owen apostasy from the gospel by John Owen that's the a bridge and this is I'm reading this this morning for my morning devot devotions and um keep writing in my diary I'm on page 397 I should hit page 400 by tomorrow, maybe today. I know today I'll write 398.

[00:03:17]I'll probably hit page 400 tomorrow if I am not raptured uh taken up with the Lord when he comes again.

[00:03:34]So yeah, I've been reading uh as you know, I've been doing a deep dive into John Owen. I've been reading the apostasy from the gospel.

[00:03:45]I've been reading his volume on sin and temptation.

[00:03:50]Reading on his a volume on the Holy Spirit, the helper.

[00:03:56]uh reading uh some introductions to his life and theology, his spirituality.

[00:04:04]So this is uh this is I showed you these are a set that put out by a ban of truth. The treasuries of John Owen for today's reader. Apostasy from the gospel. A gospel a bridge and made easy to read by RJK law.

[00:04:27]So that's what I'm doing this morning.

[00:04:38]So, uh, I, uh, I'm not going to show you all that I've been reading since my last video. I'm always reading. I'm always writing. Uh, I'm always, um, watching book. And, um, I I like watching lawn transformation videos lately. the last this last couple of years.

[00:05:06]Yeah. Today it's been kind of warm.

[00:05:09]Supposed to be almost in the 70s and 80s this weekend.

[00:05:14]And so I've been um outside working on my flower garden pulling weeds and mowing the lawn. And u you know it's one thing that it's a blessing right now to have green grass because there is severe droughts in the southwest and right now it was it's been pretty dry already but we had some rain this morning but I remember sometimes our lawn being I think I've taken photo last year we was really dry and it's supposed to be one of the hottest summers in recorded history this summer. So, uh, enjoy the green grass while you can. So, one thing I've been reading and, um, I highly recommend this. Now, I mentioned in the beginning of the videos that I'm a perfectionist and I am very apprehensive when I make videos because I'm always being corrected by and and I'm not offended.

[00:06:22]I'm not upset when people make comments about my pronunciations and my slurring of words.

[00:06:32]And uh I know that uh my wife is always correcting me in my pronunciation.

[00:06:41]One thing about my wife, she grew up here in Holland, Michigan. She went to the same elementary school. She went to the same high school her whole life. And she had a good basic education.

[00:06:58]and she was to uh so and she learned how to read by pronunciation and I never really learned how to read.

[00:07:13]I do remember when I was in in middle school like I remember it must have been like uh sixth or seventh grade I took a class on reading and it was it was by memorization it wasn't by pronunciation and one thing else you have to understand I have was always a stutterer up until I don't know I remember even in when I was in college even when I I still kind of have a speech kind of I don't always complete sentences if you notice that uh complete thoughts.

[00:07:59]I'm kind of a I ramble. I don't complete sentences.

[00:08:06]Um, and I still uh have a hard time pronouncing words, but I used when I was a I think even when I was in middle school, I took a speech class, speech therapy class. I remember uh and uh I've always been kind of an anxious person. I'm uh I had ulcers since I was 9 years old. I don't have problems now due to medication uh ulcers. Uh but I don't feel comfortable in certain situations and that's why how I live a very reckless life. Uh, as I mentioned in my videos, I call my house our house. We've been here going on 38, 37 years.

[00:09:06]Uh, this is the hermit hut. This is my refuge.

[00:09:10]I'm very thankful when I wake up in the mornings. I'm surrounded by thousands of books and I can sit here in our dining room and I can talk to you about books.

[00:09:23]talking about John Owen. But this book I want to recommend. I I ordered last night from Amazon volumes one and two.

[00:09:34]Uh volume three just came out in 2025.

[00:09:39]And I've been really impressed by this work. is called the aesthetics of resistance volume one by Peter West and it's translated out of the ger uh German I think was written in German.

[00:10:01]The writer lived most of his life he lived in Sweden, but I think it was translated out of German by this fellow below there, Jacum. I can't pronounce his name, but I highly recommend this. Uh, if you go to my online diary, Crooked Fingers, I posted this morning a video of a talk on this just recently.

[00:10:31]And if you want to know more, I recommend that you go online. There are videos of people discussing this work.

[00:10:40]Uh the the writer is no longer living. He died. Uh I can't remember when he actually died.

[00:10:51]He's no longer living. But the first volume was published in 2005 by Duke University Press.

[00:11:01]uh a grant from the Gutra Institute.

[00:11:06]Um this is second printing 2006. Anyway, I've been reading this pretty steadily last since I've got it last couple of days and uh just been really uh impressed by it. It's a historical fiction.

[00:11:26]Uh it's It says here in the back, uh, a major literary event, the publication of this masterly translation makes one of the towering works of 20th century German literature available to English-speaking readers for the first time. The three volume novel, the aesthetics of resistance is the crowning achievement of Peter West vest. The internationally renowned dramatist best known for the his play Monte.

[00:12:03]The first volume presented here was initially published in Germany in 1975.

[00:12:10]The third and final volumes appeared in 1981, just 6 months before Bess's death.

[00:12:17]Set in the late 19 1930s, this historical novel dramatizes the anti-fascist resistance in the rise and fall of plotarian political political parties in Europe.

[00:12:33]Living in Berlin in 1937, the unnamed narrator and his peers, 16 and 17year-old working-class students, seek ways to express their hatred for the Nazi regime. They meet in museums and galleries and their discussion. They explore the affinity affinity between political resistance in art, the connection at the heart of Wes's novel. Bessa suggests that meaning lies in embracing resistance, no matter how intense the oppression and that we must look to art for new models of political action and social understanding. The novel includes extended meditations on paintings, sculpture and literature. That's what I find really interesting is extended uh this vest. He was a dramatist. the writer. He was a filmmaker, a dramatist, he was a painter, he was a writer and you can he was truly a very brilliant person if you read his writings. He finished the final volume just before it was published just soon after his death. He started writing this work from what I remember and when he was in his 50s.

[00:13:57]So he goes there uh extended meditations on paintings, sculpture and literature moving from the Berlin underground to the front lines of the Spanish Civil War on to the other parts of Europe. The story teams with characters almost all of whom are based on historical figures.

[00:14:19]The aesthetics of resistance is one of the truly great works of post-war German literature, an essential resource for understanding 20th century German history.

[00:14:30]So, I highly recommend this. I look forward to getting the I'm supposed to get volumes two and three tomorrow.

[00:14:39]So, that's what I've been reading primarily. And then I've been reading this in the mornings this morning.

[00:14:47]And I thought one thing uh that uh I thought about talking about is now I seem to be going into another direction.

[00:15:05]Uh I was just going to focus on John Owen this morning, but now I talked about the the aesthetics of resistance volume one. So maybe I'll just leave it there. I don't want to go in another direction mentally, intellectually, or spiritually.

[00:15:25]So maybe I'll just make this a short video. Just recommend checking this out.

[00:15:33]Look at my crooked fingers today and watch that video. Uh go online and read about this. uh I came across it uh and um I I read every day literary sites about um what's being published out throughout the world in translation especially works in translation and when I read about this I I immediately had to buy it and then I've been reading it and just really been in uh it's a kind of You know, some books kind of change your perceptions of the world. One of the writers that did that, I mentioned over the last couple years, I've been reading Victor Serge's writings, which uh really I think is one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, even though I've been reading his works in translation, Victor Serge, but this kind of reminds me of Victor Serge. And I once again, I know I'm just kind of raving about this, but I really recommend that you at least read reviews, read about it, go to Amazon before you buy it. But, uh, I've been really impressed. So, with that, I'm not going to go into another direction. I was going to read from John Owen on apostasy from the Gospel and but I'm not going to do that.

[00:17:06]I'm just going to leave it there. So, yeah, today is a Saturday. My wife is gone. I'm writing in my diary. At noon, I'll watch a transformation a lawn transformation video.

[00:17:18]And I'll spend the afternoon reading this outside. It's warm. I can sit out in the backyard and everything's green. Listen to the birds.

[00:17:28]They're building nest right now.

[00:17:31]But when it comes to spiritual things like once again check out John Owen.

[00:17:39]And with that I will read one. No I'm not going to read anything. I'll just close with that.

[00:17:48]So I hope you all had a good reading week. Had you're having a good weekend.

[00:17:52]Have a good new week. We're in the middle of the month and uh yeah, June will soon be here. The 21st of June is first day of summer.

[00:18:04]Um so yeah, I'm doing okay.

[00:18:09]I do have used books I got from the booknook library used bookstore.

[00:18:14]I still uh have gone to thrift stores around here, found a couple books.

[00:18:20]Uh I got books coming in the mail. I'll show you volumes two and three of this supposed to come tomorrow. I got some other books coming in the mail. So, I'll close. Thank you for the subscribing.

[00:18:35]Thank you for the comments. And uh so with that, I'll close. May the Lord bless. Until next time. Bye.