# 33. Comments on the essay “The Value of the Monologue”

From an editor's point of view, adding comments to individual essays in a journal seems almost like schoolmastery applied to another field. But I can't help it if, after reading the essay "The Value of the Monologue", something occurs to me that seems worth mentioning. For it seems to me that there was an artist who would have signed Rilke's words: "But there is something more powerful than deeds and words". "To create space and justice for this life seems to me to be the most excellent task of modern drama." - This artist is Richard Wagner. And he sought to solve the problem posed by Rilke in a very specific way. He believed that what cannot be expressed in words in this life must seek the language of music. The author of the above essay, on the other hand, leaves the question he raises unanswered. But I also believe that he underestimates the expressive power of the word. Basically, the word hints at more than it clearly expresses. And if one adheres to this deeper meaning of the word, which can be reached through intuition, then it can - in my opinion - point to the most hidden depths of the soul's life. One must not reproach the word for not being taken deeply enough by most people. It is not actually a coarse pincer itself, but a fine pincer that is usually wielded by coarse hands. Rilke seems to me to be one of those critics of the word who attribute to the word what actually escapes the ears of the listener.