Attenborough,
Sir David Attenborough, and Goethe have struck up an acquaintance.
In
some encounters Attenborough is young and Goethe is old; in others,
Goethe, as Werther, is young and Attenborough is the man of 'great
learning and mature judgement' that Werther confides in and appeals
to. Attenborough is in this scenario Count C., whom you'll find
mention of in Book Two, should you care to buy a copy.
And
this acquaintance – that imagined between Attenborough and Goethe -
if there was a time in which it could exist which as you know
there's not - would have led, in my opinion, to a great friendship,
for they would bond over Nature. One would be more lyrical, one would
be more scientific; depending on what nature of flora and fauna was
being discussed.
If
I met Sir Attenborough, I would ask him had he ever in his lifetime
met Goethe and was it, as I would like to think, a meeting of minds.
Though I would have to phrase that better, wouldn't I? to make it
abundantly clear I meant through his works, as otherwise Security
might decide to tackle me to the ground, or grab both my arms and
swing me along it.
No,
I can't imagine Sir David Attenborough sanctioning that kind of
behaviour, but then all Nature can be studied, can't it?, and perhaps
my reaction to brute force would prove interesting. Would I lash out?
Would I submit and allow myself to be sheepishly led away? Would I
instead of using my limbs use my voice: scream my horror at such
treatment, shout and try to explain the confusion I'd caused?
No,
I think Attenborough would entertain my unusual question and attempt
an answer. And if it turns out they haven't yet met, maybe my asking
would bring them together.
Then
one can be Count C. to a young man.
But
if you can't, in fact, converse with another whom you esteem, or
think you're likely to, can there be a true meeting of minds? Minds
change and may not meet all the time. Written material doesn't always
allow for that, unless some document somewhere testifies to it, so a
mind, in that case, can only be met at that particular time and
place.
I
think, however on that score, we're safe with Goethe. And
Attenborough, too. Because their fascination with, and love of,
Nature is deep-rooted like a large oak with an unquenchable thirst.
But
why Attenborough? Why shouldn't Goethe meet someone like Gilbert
White (1720-1793), the “parson-naturalist” and ornithologist?
Perhaps he did as a very young man, though it seems unlikely they
could have met in Selborne, Hampshire, and I don't know if White
travelled. I didn't have to, like my mother, read about him at
school. I wonder if Goethe had heard of him...but if he had there's
no record, to my knowledge, recorded of it, but it wouldn't be the
first time I've been wrong, and later proved so.
No,
it's no good, I can't imagine that because I don't know White and I
do know Attenborough by his face and voice and Goethe by his words. I
think for this you have to at least know visually one of the people,
and have perhaps read something of or by the other.
What
would the pair of them talk of, though? Well, I think Attenborough
would end up listening, mostly, particularly if Goethe was Werther,
because that young man can talk, but Sir David, would, I think,
respond to him kindly, understanding that here was a sensitive soul.
Goethe would speak on the little worlds, so laboriously built, that
Man destroys underfoot,or of a magnificent walnut tree that has been
cut down and bring himself to tears; or even be so moved (or
maddened) he resorts to reading aloud, in a voice half-broken,
passages of Ossian. I'm not sure Sir David would have much sympathy
with or feeling for the latter. I think, however, he would remain
stoic, from which Goethe (as Werther) would draw strength.
Maybe
such a meeting, even imagined as it is, is selfish of me, for what
would Attenborough get from it? Very little, it seems, if he had the
fortune (or misfortune) to meet a tormented Werther on the brink of
despair.
Oh,
let's hope, in my head, Attenborough meets Goethe instead!
Book recommendation: The Sorrows of Young Werther, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Picture credit: Goethe or the Metamorphosis of Plants, 1940, Andre Masson
This post was penned during 2019.
