The Virtual Coffeehouse

Carlyle seems to use the narrator, Teufelsdrockh to pose his own questions regarding mostly religion. Besides religion he seems to ask how it is best to feel worthwhile in modern life. He calls the “fearful unbelief, unbelief in yourself” on page 1009. Possibly he feels worthless because he had devoted so much of his life to the church and now his doubts have told him that this was a waste. He is angry as Life in general and doesn’t believe in anything, much less himself. He talks about which is a better use of a man’s time: work in a city, farm or literature. He replies that writing a book is the one accomplishment that will have a lasting effect on the world. Cities are constantly needing to be rebuilt and repaired, and likewise the work that goes into a farm is cyclical and never-ending. There are few people who can accomplish the writing of a worth while book. He refers to the writer as a “Conqueror and Victor over the Devil” but his product will outlast what is produced by a city-builder. There should be a greater appreciation for the written word than for old monuments.

I took away from this reading something similar to what Kristen did. It seems as though Teufelsdrockh simply does not know how to believe in himself, or has had bad experience with finding his own personal strength. Also on page 1009 he says, "How then could I believe in my Strength, when there was as yet no mirror to see it in?" and then a few sentences later states that, "The speculative Mystery of Life grew ever more mysterious to me: neither in the practical Mystery had I made the slightest progress, but been everywhere buffeted, foiled, and contemptuously cast-out." Teufelsdrockh seems completely lost in his own world and does not know himself or how to find himself. It seems like he feels as though the world is against him, and that no matter what he does to rise above it, he will never understand Life and all of its Mysteries.

In the sentence just prior to the one Amanda quoted from pg. 1009, Teufelsdrockh says, "...the net-result of my Workings amounted as yet simply to--- Nothing." This thought and the ideas that followed reminded me of Ecclesiastes 1:3 NIV "What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?" which is an example of all the things the writer of Ecclesiastes finds meaningless or in vain. Like the author of Ecclesiastes, at least part of Teufelsdrock's search is simply for the meaning of life. He hits upon some of the aspects of a meaningful life when he discusses happiness but even he acknowledges that if we aim at happiness "we are all astray."

I agree with what you said about the narrator not thinking is life is worthwile anymore once he starts to have doubts about his religion. When that is what he has spent so much time and effort on, and so much time believing in, what is there to fall back on? A line that struck me was, "to me the Universe was all void of Life, of Purpose, of Volition, even of Hostility: it was one huge, dead, immeasurable steam-engine, rolling on, in it's dead indifference, to grind me from limb to limb." This kind of said to me that he thinks life is just to be lived, and they're really is no purpose in it. A person just goes through the motions day by day, but isn't really getting anything fulfilling and worthwhile out of it.

"Their solid Pavement is a Picture of the Sense; they walk on the bosom of Nothing, blank Time is
behind them and before them."

There was a section under Chapter 3 where he begins to speak about the life he looks out on, the "wasp-nest or bee-hive" that he sees, and it struck me as being a very moving, beautiful, but dismal moment. It captures life through his eyes of a series of people (reminding me of being a sort of Virginia Woolf moment) where the daily life activities sound almost tragically romantic, at least to me. It connects every human being even though they each have their own unique way of life. It talks of the past as being blank and the time before them being blank and that confuses me. I think it may mean that whatever the past was is over, and so future is as well?
"Friend, thou seest here a living link in that Tissue of History, which inweaves all Being: watch well, or it will be past thee, and seen no more."

I think that last part speaks to just being aware of learning from the past, watch life well, or you will learn nothing.

Also, I hope I'm reading the right book. I'm still waiting to get my books from Amazon.com this week, so I have been reading from Project Guttenburg. Sorry if there is any mix up!

Night!