On analogy, we find the decisive word β calm, mordant, decisive β in Goethe: βEvery existent is an analogon of the entire existent; and so that which exists always appears to us isolated and interwoven at one and the same time. If one follows analogy too closely, everything coincides in the identical: if one avoids it, all is dispersed in the infinite. In both cases contemplation stagnates, in the one case because it is too lively, in the other because it has been killed.β As often happens in Goethe, the surprise comes from a single flash, at the end. In his carefully thought-out sentence, the shock is conveyed by the last word: getΓΆtet, βkilled.β How do you kill contemplation? And for Goethe this is tantamount to saying: How do you kill life itself? By avoiding analogy. Those who avoid analogy can mock the excessive liveliness β febrile, almost delirious β of those who instead abandon themselves totally to it. Everyone knows that analogy is not obligatory. You can simply ignore it. And this act of omission has a boundless power, like a blow delivered by a murderer.
Roberto Calasso, 'The Natural Obscurity of Things', La Folie Baudelaire
